Readers' Comments

Detoxifying Autistic Children
I am responding to the article by Meghan Yost entitled “Detoxifying Autistic Children” in which she states that 1 in 150 children is “born” autistic. I do not believe that this statement is accurate. Her statement implies that there is a “genetic epidemic,” which was refuted by Dr. Kartzinel on “Larry King Live” just two days ago. Other guests, including Toni Braxton, Doug Flutie and Holly Robinson Peete, stated that they noted significant regression and or a change in their child’s behavior after he or she received certain vaccinations such as the MMR vaccine. Their observations suggest that there are possible environmental factors, including a “one size fits all” aggressive vaccination schedule, which can trigger autism in children who might be genetically predisposed. I believe the more accurate statement is that 1 in 150 children is “diagnosed” with autism. —Koren

Flu shots
How careless for them [CDC] to recommend flu shots for our children without stressing the need to be mercury free. They continue to harm our young children with reckless use of mercury in flu shots and call it good health. It was recommended to be removed from all vaccines in 1999 by the American Academy of Pediatrics, etc. It was never banned and is still be used as the preservative in multidose vials and in the manufacturing process, leaving a residual. Mercury was never safety tested for safety before being used in vaccines 75 years ago. There are no safety testing being done ongoing with the use of this. Our pregnant women are given this during pregnancy and it concentrates at 200x the concentration in the fetus. Why is the autism numbers still on the rise? We continue to poison our children in the name of "public/personal health". Stop the cycle. —Meg

Thimerosal study flawed
There are major problems with [the recent] study being distributed claiming it proves thimerosal in vaccines hasn't harmed children. The study did not measure or control for levels of mercury, lead, antimony, aluminum, and other toxics in the children. It proves nothing conclusive about the cause of autism and doesn't contradict that toxic metal exposures area common cause of autism or that thimerosal was a major cause in the past. Some other problems with the study: Many vaccines still contain thimerosal and thimerosal in some vaccines has been replaced with another known neurotoxin. Lots of vaccines (15) still have thimerosal and several still have high levels. Some vaccine lots in vaccines that now have no thimerosal were being used as late as 2004. In recent years, with more vaccines prescribed, children have received higher levels of aluminum. Aluminum, as it is well documented, has adverse neurological effects and also doubles the toxicity of thimerosal. http:// www.flcv.com/vaxalum.html
—Bernard

The Pill and autism
My daughter recently did a research paper in which she pulled up graphs displaying the pattern of use of chemical contraceptives over the past 40 years. While reading an article on the increased incidence of Autism in the United States over the past 40 year, I couldn't help seeing a correlation. Do you know of any studies linking the pill with autism? I have found little on the subject, but realize such a finding would be explosive. —Marie

Autism bill in Arizona
I felt compelled to write this speech to encourage families in Arizona to push hard these next few weeks [February 29, 2008]. I think we are going to win! Vote Yes for Senate Bill 1263. When our family first found out our son had autism it was devastating . As parent's we must be relentless and push our children to keep working, when they are exhausted, push therapies, push insurance companies and push doctors and finally push the government to hear and help us. We must push forward and not look back, for we are our children's only advocates. Arizona is ranked 50th in the country for public education. Arizona is asking the state government to transfer the financial burden from the state and families to the private insurance companies. Policies could increase an estimated $1.50 per month per policy holder. This is opposed to a person spending a lifetime on the welfare Medicaid system and furthermore disability, because they will be unable to work as an adult. Adequate therapy intervention in the early years will save the public millions of dollars to be foreseen in years to come. Autism is treatable and children can recover, they can enjoy typical peer experiences, the can hold jobs and contribute to society - with and only with therapy intervention.