Dan Burton Addresses Congess on Mercury

January 21, 2008

Rep. Dan Burton Addresses Congress on Mercury

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Cites New Evidence Showing Mercury Connection to Autism

For Links To Rep. Burton's Letter to Vaccine Court and To Read theDeSoto Study Click Here<http://a-champ.org/vaccinecourt_burton_desoto.html> : http://a-champ.<http://a-champ.org/vaccinecourt_burton_desoto.html>org/vaccinecourt_burton_desoto.html

BLOOD LEVELS OF MERCURY ARE RELATED TO DIAGNOSIS OF AUTISM -- (House ofRepresentatives - December 11, 2007)The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, thegentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, it's late at night here in theCapitol, and most of my colleagues are in their offices or have gonehome. But I want to talk about an issue that's very, very important thatwe've been talking about now for the last 8 years.

I was chairman of the Government Reform Committee for 6 years, andduring that time, my grandson became autistic; and we checked to findout what was the cause, trying to find out, because my daughter and herhusband were just extremely upset about it, as we were as grandparents.And we found that he had received nine shots in one day, seven of whichhad a product called thimerosal, a preservative, in it. And thethimerosal was 50 percent ethyl mercury. And so I decided to havehearings to try to find out if the ethyl mercury in those vaccines hadanything to do with the autistic problem my grandson had. And we found,by having many, many hearings over a 4-year period, we found thatscientists from all over the world and leading doctors and educatorshere that work with autistic children, that the mercury in the vaccinesdid contribute to the autistic epidemic that we had.

We used to have one in 10,000 children that were diagnosed as beingautistic. One in 10,000. Today the Centers for Disease Control will tellyou it's one out of 150. It's an absolute epidemic in this country. Andwe have been fighting and fighting and fighting to make sure that thosefamilies who have been damaged and those children who have been damagedby autism get some kind of compensation. And that's why, and I think in1986 we passed what was called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, andit took some of the money from the pharmaceutical companies when theysold their vaccine products to put into this fund to take care of peoplewho are damaged by vaccines. And one of the reasons we did that wasbecause of the issue of autism, although at that time I didn't know muchabout it.

In any event, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund has about $3 billionin it, and the people who's children have been adversely affected bymercury and have autism have not been able to get anything out of that.They have to go through a process and see a special master, and he hasto judge whether or not the information that he has and the informationthey have lead them to believe that the mercury in the vaccines causedautism. And so far the special masters have not been able to ascertain,according to them, that the mercury in the vaccines does cause autism.

Well, last week, 2 years ago, let's see, 4 years ago there was a report,2004, that said that there was definitely no connection between themercury and the vaccinations and the children getting autism. Well, thispast November, just last month, two doctors, Dr. DeSoto andDr. T. Hitlan, both very renowned doctors across this country,they have Ph.D.s in medicine, they wrote an article in the Journal ofChild Neurology. And you can't discount this. What they're saying isfact. I want to read to you the summary of what they said. They said:``The question of what is leading to the apparent increase in autism isof great importance. Like the link between aspirin and heart attack,even a small effect can have a major health implication. If there is anylink between autism and mercury, it is absolutely crucial that the firstreports of the question are not falsely stated and that no linkoccurs.''

Now, get this: ``We have reanalyzed the data set forth originallyreported in 2004 and have found that the original P value was in errorand that a significant relation does exist between the blood levels ofmercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, the hairsample analysis results offer some support for the idea that personswith autism may be less efficient and more variable at eliminatingmercury from the blood.''

The fact of the matter is the mercury in the vaccines causes autism.It's not the only cause of autism. But now we have scientific evidenceby two leading doctors in the Journal of Child Neurology that sayswithout doubt, the mercury in the vaccines does cause autism, is a majorcontributing factor.

Well, I've written, contacted Congressman Kucinich, who's chairman ofthe subcommittee that deals with this in the Capitol, and I've alsocontacted the special masters that decide these cases and have urgedthem to re-evaluate all of these cases where people who have autisticchildren have found that the mercury in the vaccines may have been amajor cause.

Now we know that it is a cause of autism, and those people who havesuffered, and those kids who have suffered need to be compensated out ofthe Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund.

So I'd like to say to my colleagues, I hope you will join me in makingsure that the information I just read gets out to everybody. These kidsare going to live to be 50, 60, 70 years old, and unless there's somehelp for them, they're going to be a real burden on the taxpayers and onsociety. We have an obligation to make sure they're taken care of.

I hope all of my colleagues will read this statement tonight and help usto change the attitude of our health agencies and the special mastersdealing with this problem.

In November 2007, the well-respected scientific journal, the Journal ofChild Neurology, published an article authored by Drs. M. DeSoto and T. Hiltlan (PhDs), detailing their findings on therelationship between mercury and autism spectrum disorders. The articlewas entitled ``Blood Levels of Mercury are Related to Diagnosis ofAutism: A Reanalysis of an Important Data Set.''

To summarize the article, Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan reanalyzed a data setthe subject of a 2004 study that found no relationship between mercuryand autism. By reexamining the data set, Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlandetermined that the conclusions of the 2004 study were wrong,

and that a relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury anddiagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder.As Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan noted in their article, there has been amarked increase in the diagnosis of autism in this country over the last20 years. In fact we have gone from an autism rate of 1 in 10,000 to 1in 150. So, answering the question of what is (and is not) a possiblecontributing cause of autism is crucial, not only to the millions ofAmerican families currently affected by autism but to futuregenerations.

We simply cannot dismiss or downplay scientific research, which has thepotential to unlock the mysteries surrounding what is causing ourNation's autism crisis. We owe it

to the thousands of families living with autism to follow the sciencewherever it may lead.

That's why in late November, I wrote to the Chairman of the HouseSubcommittee on Domestic Policy, Representative Dennis Kucinich; and theSpecial Masters assigned to the Congressionally-created Office ofVaccine Program within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alerting themto the findings in Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan's latest research.

Specifically, I asked the Special Masters to take Drs. DeSoto andHiltlan's latest findings into consideration as they carry out theirmandate of managing and adjudicating childhood vaccine claims. I askedChairman Kucinich to hold a hearing on the environmental risks ofmercury in childhood vaccines before the 110th Congress ends.

Given the high stakes involved, scientific reports discussing aconnection between blood mercury levels and autism deserve seriousconsideration and review by the medical and scientific community.

During my tenure as Chairman of the House Committee on Government andReform, I spent 6 years researching and hearing testimony from theautism advocacy and scientific communities about the autism epidemicsweeping our country. Over and over again, questions of causation,namely the use of thimerosal--the mercury-based vaccine preservative--inchildhood vaccines were raised.

Here's what I learned:

A number of credible national and international scientists testifiedbefore the Committee that mercury in vaccines is a contributing factorin developing neurological disorders, including, but not limited to,modest declines in intelligent quotient, autism, and Alzheimer'sdisease. And the body of evidence to support that conclusion gets largereveryday.

Experience tells us that, as with any other epidemic, while there may beunderlying genetic susceptibilities, there usually is also some type ofenvironmental trigger as well--be it exposure to a virus, fungus, heavymetal, or pollutant. There has never, to the best of my knowledge, beena purely genetic epidemic.

Genetics alone cannot explain how we went from 1 in 10,000 children withautism spectrum disorders 20 years ago to 1 in 150 today. The increasehappened far too quickly for a genetic shift.

As mercury is a known bio-accumulative neurotoxin, it is biologicallyplausible that it is a contributing factor to our Nation's autismepidemic.

Autism has no cure, and while it is a life-changing condition, it is nota life-threatening disease. This means that the autistic children oftoday will be the autistic adults and autistic seniors, 20, 30, 50, even70 years from now. Our Nation is ill prepared to deal with the complexeducational, financial, housing, and health care challenges posed by ageneration of autistic individuals.

My only grandson is autistic, so this is an issue that is very close tomy heart; and for the last several years I have fought hard to raiseawareness of this disease, and increase research into the causes ofautism, as well as new treatments for those suffering with autism.

As a Nation, I believe, we have a collective responsibility to doeverything we can to not only stop the further spread of this diseasebut to help the millions of children, adults and families afflicted withit.

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