New No Mercury Law... something to read!

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No to mercury in vaccines

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

By KATHIE DURBIN, Columbian staff writer

For Ann Newell, Monday brought a sweet reward.

The tireless anti-mercury activist from Vancouver traveled to

Olympia at the invitation of Gov. Gregoire to witness the

signing of a bill that will bar vaccines containing more than trace

amounts of mercury for pregnant women and children younger than 3.

On July 1, 2007, when the bill takes effect, Washington will join at

least six other states that have similar laws on the books.

" It's amazing that a few people really can make a difference, " said

Newell, a regular in Olympia during the past two sessions as the

measure worked its way through the Legislature. " I'm so proud we

have done this. But it's just a start. "

Also attending Monday's bill-signing were Garry and Lund of

Vancouver and their 7-year-old son, . Garry Lund, a design

engineer at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Vancouver, said his son developed

a severe form of autism after receiving vaccines containing

thimerosal, a preservative that contains about 50 percent organic

mercury. underwent treatment to remove mercury from his system

and now exhibits only mild symptoms of autism, Lund said.

Though science hasn't established a conclusive link between

thimerosal and autism, parents such as Lund are convinced it exists.

He told 's story to a Senate committee last year when he

testified against injecting small children with mercury.

" I just want to thank (Gregoire) for protecting our children, " Lund

said Monday. " That's what it comes down to. If we're going to do

vaccinations, I want them to be safe. "

It's been 10 years since Newell went public with her own mercury

horror story. In the mid-1990s, she began experiencing mysterious

and painful symptoms: Her teeth and tongue hurt, the right side of

her face hurt, her taste was impaired and she had too much saliva.

The dentists and medical specialists she visited refused to take her

symptoms seriously. At last she found a dentist who helped her solve

the mystery of her aching mouth: her gold crowns were coming into

contact with the mercury in her fillings and producing a galvanic

reaction that felt like an electrical current.

" I felt like I was being electrocuted, " she recalled. Tests of her

hair, blood and urine confirmed mercury poisoning. She spent $7,700

having 11 of her mercury-laden amalgam fillings removed and replaced

with a nonmercury composite.

" The morning after the fillings were removed, my tongue didn't hurt,

I could sleep on the side of my face and my excess saliva went

away, " she recalled. Newell later underwent chelation therapy to

remove mercury from her body.

Sometime during her ordeal, her sister gave her an article from

Mothering Magazine entitled " A Mouth Full of Mercury. " She began

reading up on amalgam fillings, which contain 50 percent mercury. A

growing number of consumers refuse to let dentists put amalgam

fillings in their teeth because they fear mercury will leach into

their bodies. The American Dental Association says amalgam fillings

are safe.

In 1998, while researching the health hazards of mercury, Newell

learned that many of the vaccines given to small children contained

the preservative thimerosal, which is half mercury. As she studied

the issue further, she found out that the number of thimerosal-

containing vaccines given to children had increased dramatically in

the 1980s and 1990s. In the late 1990s, doctors and educators began

recording a startling increase in the number of young children

diagnosed with autism.

She was outraged. Her husband said, " Quit singing to the choir. " So

she did.

Newell joined forces with the Mercury Awareness Team, led by Ann

Clifton of Olympia and Christy Diemond of Woodinville, which was

lobbying for a bill to get mercury out of childhood vaccines. She

wrote letters to newspapers (37 to The Columbian alone since 1996),

buttonholed lawmakers, even persuaded her Republican precinct caucus

to support a resolution calling for an informed-consent law on

mercury fillings.

" Our national organization wants to keep the issues separate, " she

said. But in her mind, mercury is mercury, and it's not good for

living things.

Newell and Clifton found Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, who

has an autistic grandson, and persuaded her to introduce a vaccine

bill last year. But its road to passage proved rocky. The measure,

opposed by some pharmaceutical companies and physicians'

professional associations, was gutted in the Senate and died in the

House in 2005.

This year, Rasmussen revived the measure with its restored language.

But the House, during a floor vote, amended it with wording that

made it moot. At the last minute, that language and the final

roadblock to its passage was cleared away. The bill passed the

Senate 47-0 on the last day of the session.

Its passage coincided with publication of a new peer-reviewed study

of two government databases that showed the incidence of childhood

autism declined significantly between 2002 and 2005. Vaccine

manufacturers removed thimerosal from most childhood vaccines

beginning in 1999 at the request of the Public Health Service and

the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Today, only some flu vaccines given to preschoolers and some

combination vaccines contain significant amounts of thimerosal.

Debate still swirls around the question of whether mercury in

vaccines contributed to the increase in autism. But Newell says the

crucial thing is to increase public awareness.

" I never argue science, " she said. " I argue right to know. "

Now 55 and retired from her job at Hewlett-Packard, she devotes most

of her her time to her anti-mercury work, with power walks each

morning to get her blood flowing. Not one to miss a chance to get

her message out, she carries around a portable plastic file cabinet

bedecked with posters that declare " 'Mercury Free and Healthy "

and " Beat Alzheimer's, Go Mercury-Free. "

She encourages people to go to dentists who don't use amalgam

fillings. There are 23 mercury-free dentists in Vancouver now, she

says.

" I'm persistent, " she said. " I don't wait for anybody to help me. I

just go out and do it. "

And she's not about to give up.

" I think legislators really do want to protect children from toxic

things, " she said. " They are parents and grandparents, too. Will

they stand up to the big money? I hope so. They can just say no to

mercury in vaccines, and they have to say no to mercury in dental

fillings, too. "

Update

Previously: The 2006 Legislature passed a bill that makes it illegal

to administer vaccines containing more than trace amounts of mercury

to pregnant women and children younger than 3.

What's new: Gov. Gregoire signed the bill into law Monday.

What's next: The law takes effect July 1, 2007.