OT, but IMPORTANT: Open Letter to fax today; please scroll down for 2 letters

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

Please excuse the OT post (for some lists, this is OT), but a lot of

major autism groups, as well as parents of children nationwide are

working together today to help save children (worldwide) from autism,

which as we all know, can be devastating to families. We need your

help!!! Please call and fax your elected representatives,

today! For those in countries other than the U.S., please forward

this information to local news media organizations and elected

officials. This is a global issue. More information follows .

.. . .

Thanks very much for your time! :-)

The following messages are forwarded from Unlocking Autism

(www.unlockingautism.org)

and the National Vaccine Information Center

(www.nvic.org).

Today, Unlocking Autism and the National Vaccine

Information Center are rolling out an ad campaign entitled

" Giving Mercury to

Children on Purpose is

Stupid " For the second time in 30 days, President Bush refused to issue an

Executive Order on May 27, 2005, that would protect pregnant women and

children from vaccines containing levels of mercury that exceed federal

safety limits for anyone under 500

pounds. You can see the six print ads on the Unlocking Autism website

at

www.unlockingautism.org

along with three public service announcements that you can launch in your own hometown. Visit the UA site to find out how you can have the ads placed in your area. Some ads have already been placed and will begin cropping up this week around the country.

This Tuesday morning, volunteers for UA and NVIC will deliver a packet of information to every Member of Congress about this campaign letting them know that constituents back home will be running these ads and handing out these flyers in their districts. On Tuesday June 7th after 12 Noon Eastern Time, we need your help to contact all Members of Congress, President Bush and Bush. (11am central, 10am mountain, 9am pacific).

How can you help back home?:

Call/Fax Them On Tuesday June 7TH AFTER NOON (Eastern Standard Time)!!!!!!!

a) Call your Congressman and both of your Senators to make sure that they received their packets. Very important!!! Do not call until after noon eastern time on June 7th! Put the number of the Capitol Hill Operator in your cell phone or by your home phone: 202-224-3121. Operators can connect you to any Member of Congress. (To find your Congressman visit www.house.gov and to find your Senators visit www.senate.gov.) Pick out your favorite ad. Write a letter to President Bush and send your letter along a copy of the ad that you intend to see run in your hometown. Send it to Card, Chief of Staff via fax at 202-456-1907.

To Call Card's office to let him know what you think of the President's policy dial 202-456-6798. c) Call Bush's office at 202-456-7064 to let her know what you think about President Bush's policy, too. Her fax number is 202-456-2461. If we can't get the President to listen, perhaps the First Lady will. Keep these numbers handy all day. Call as often as you like. Call until we say quit. Do not be discouraged if the numbers are busy. That just means that people across America are responding. Keep dialing as if you were trying to win $1 million from a radio station. They need to hear from you. They need to know your concerns.

And apparently, they need to hear them again! We told them to get temps to answer the phones. Every call makes an impact. If you think giving mercury to children on purpose is stupid... Let 'er rip.

Have a great day on Tuesday and happy dialing! Unlocking Autism and the National Vaccine Information Center

For release Monday, June 6, 2005

PRESIDENT BUSH SHOULD REMOVE MERCURY FROM VACCINES SAY PARENT ADVOCACY GROUPS

Two national parent organizations are calling on President Bush to issue an Executive Order to compel drug companies to remove mercury preservatives from vaccines in order to protect developing fetuses, infants and children from potential immune and brain system damage. Unlocking Autism (UA), a national, non-profit autism awareness organization, and the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), the largest and oldest vaccine safety organization in the U.S., are asking the President to enforce a 1999 directive to drug companies by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove mercury from all vaccines. Mercury is a known neurotoxin and drug companies removed mercury preservatives from over-the-counter products in the early 1990’s but the FDA has not enforced its 1999 directive regarding vaccines. While mercury has been reduced in many childhood vaccines, some flu vaccines given to pregnant women and infants still contain so much mercury that a person would have to weigh 500 pounds to safely get a flu vaccination according to EPA standards. During the fall Presidential campaign, Unlocking Autism asked both Presidential candidates if they supported removal of mercury from all childhood vaccines. President Bush said “yes” in writing but since the election has refused to take action despite repeated requests from parents. “The drug companies have had six years to stop injecting mercury into our children’s bodies and that is long enough. Giving mercury to kids on purpose is stupid. If the FDA won’t make them get it out then nobody but the President can make them do it. We need the President to step up to the plate and protect our children and the unborn from harm.” said Reynolds, Unlocking Autism (UA) President. Barbara Loe Fisher, President of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), said “The precautionary principle should prevail here: when in doubt, get it out. Whenever there is a safer product available, the more risky product should be removed from the market. This is like déjà vu for those of us who watched the FDA fail to properly regulate the drug industry after the less reactive DTaP vaccine was licensed for babies in 1996. The FDA refused to recall the more toxic DPT vaccine and so it was injected into American babies for six more years, just like mercury has been injected into babies for six more years after the FDA told the drug companies to get it out of vaccines.” Unlocking Autism, the National Vaccine Information Center and other parent groups, who are concerned that the dramatic rise in autism and other neurodevelopmental delays in children in the past few decades is in part due to the use of multiple mercury-containing vaccines, are making ads and public service announcements available to parents in every state which ask President Bush to issue an Executive Order to get mercury out of vaccines. State and federal legislators are also being made aware of the request. For more information, go to www.unlockingautism.org and www.nvic.org.

UA/NVIC open letter to President Bush

Dear President Bush:

You are the President and we trust you will protect us from harm. That is why we are asking you to listen and see the suffering of our children and order the drug companies to remove all mercury from vaccines.

During your campaign, you told Unlocking Autism that, if elected, you would support the removal of thimerosal (mercury preservative) from childhood vaccines. We were so happy to know that you understood that exposing infants and children to a toxin that can damage the brain is not a good idea.

In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials directed drug companies making vaccines to remove mercury from childhood vaccines because they knew injecting babies with a known neurotoxin was an unacceptable risk. Many babies vaccinated in the 1990’s were exposed to 125 times the amount of mercury on one day that the EPA considers acceptable.

While mercury has been reduced to trace amounts (less than 1 mcg.) in many vaccines, because the FDA has refused to recall vaccines with high amounts of mercury there are still many children and those yet unborn in the womb of pregnant women being unnecessarily exposed to brain damaging mercury in vaccines. What is really sad is that some flu vaccines on the market today contain so much mercury that a person would have to weigh 500 pounds to safely get a flu vaccination.

If there is a safer vaccine, the FDA should protect the American people and take the more toxic one off the market. We remember when the FDA refused to take the highly reactive DPT vaccine off the market after a purified DTaP was licensed in 1996. Sadly, many children were unnecessarily brain damaged by DPT vaccine for years after that safer product had been licensed.

We have waited six long years for the FDA to make the vaccine manufacturers get mercury out of vaccines.

And during that time, more and more of our children have become chronically ill and disabled. In fact, in the past two decades as the numbers of doses of vaccines the CDC has told American children to get has doubled, there has been a doubling of learning disabilities, ADHD and asthma; a tripling of diabetes and a 200 to 7,000 percent increase in autism in every state.

The CDC now admits that 1 in 6 American children is developmentally delayed. We can’t wait any longer to get mercury out of all vaccines.

The FDA has refused to get the job done. But you are the President. Parents all across America are praying that you, our President, will protect our children and the unborn from harm and issue an Executive Order to make the vaccine manufacturers take mercury out of vaccines. Sincerely,

& n bsp; Hendrix Reynolds, President Unlocking Autism

Barbara Loe Fisher, President National Vaccine Information Center

UA/NVIC open letter to all members of congress:

To All Members of the House and Senate,

It is very difficult to imagine that fourteen years after the United States Government decided mercury was too toxic to be applied topically to the human body, that we would need an Act of Congress to prevent it from being deliberately injected into the bodies of pregnant women and children.

In 1991, over the counter products containing the mercury preservative, Thimerosal, were taken off the market. In 1999, the FDA directed drug companies to remove mercury preservatives from childhood vaccines but failed to recall the mercury containing shots and most stayed on the market until 2002. It is now 2005 and mercury is still being used to manufacture vaccines.

In fact, most flu shots contain levels of mercury that are above EPA safety limits for anyone weighing less than 500 pounds.

Do you weigh less than 500 pounds? How many of your constituents weigh less than 500 pounds? How much does a fetus weigh? How much does a six-month-old child weigh? How much mercury was in the flu shot you got last fall? Did you opt for the mercury-free version and deny a child back home that option?

For the second time since his reelection in 2004, President Bush has denied our request to issue a ban that would protect pregnant women and children from mercury that can damage the immune system and brain. If the FDA cannot protect us from harm, the President needs to step up to the plate and get it done.

Parents are tired of waiting for government health agencies - the FDA and CDC - to protect the unborn and children from being hurt by a known neurotoxin.

The buck stops at the President's desk.

Our grass roots are now rooted. The ads you see included here will run in your districts soon. Public Service Announcements on this issue will be on air on your local radio stations. Billboards will be popping up along the highways back home. Flyers will be distributed in mall parking lots, through neighborhood canvassing and appear in church bulletins.

Your constituents are determined to pay for these ads and get the job done that the United States Government refuses to do - warn pregnant women and parents of children about the danger of mercury in vaccines.

Your constituents are watching what the President and Congress does about getting mercury out of vaccines. We intend to keep them well informed of the progress, or lack thereof, of the entire United States Government on this issue.

Because mercury kills cells, mercury is toxic. Safer options exist for America's children.

Drug companies could boost production and meet consumer demands for vaccines without mercury if a market allowing mercury-containing vaccines was eliminated. Mercury free vaccines cost a few dollars more per shot to produce.

We believe the future of America's children is worth that investment.

Sincerely, Hendrix Reynolds, President Unlocking Autism

Barbara Loe Fisher, President National Vaccine Information Center

Think Autism. Think Cure.

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