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Summary
Background
Findings
Recommendations

Background

In 1988, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended important new additions to the nation's infant immunization program, including three Hepatitis B immunizations (one injected at birth), and three Haemophilis B shots—all delivered by six months of age. Drug companies responded with vaccinations supplied in multiple dose containers preserved with the mercury-based antibacterial thimerosal. Neither the CDC, nor the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which monitors the safety of vaccinations, expressed concerns at that time about the relatively high doses of mercury that newborn babies and infants would be exposed to through these shots.

A dramatic nationwide increase in autism followed directly on the heels of the abrupt rise in thimerosal exposure (Blaxill 2001). Rates rose from 6 in 10,000 children in the 1980s to 60 in 10,000 today (Blaxill 2004a, American Academy of Pediatrics 2004). In 2003, the Autism Society of America estimated the cost of treating and caring for 1.5 million autistic children at $90 billion per year (Autism Society of America 2003).

To better understand whether or not the dramatic increase in autism was related to the abrupt nationwide increase in exposure to mercury in vaccinations, the CDC conducted its own epidemiologic study, and then convened a panel of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences to review the issue independently. On May 17, 2004, the IOM published its final report on the possible link between thimerosal and autism. The IOM rejected "a causal relationship" between the two, and then took the unusual step of recommending the termination of additional research into the subject, stating clearly that, "Further research to find the cause of autism should be directed toward other lines of inquiry" (IOM press release 2004a). Or as put by the chair of the IOM committee, "Available funding for autism research should be channeled to the most promising areas, of which the link with vaccines does not appear to be one" (Barclay 2004). The chief of the national immunization program at the Centers for Disease Control went even further, declaring that only "junk scientists and charlatans" support research into the potential link between thimerosal exposure and autism (Levin 2004).

The IOM's recommendation that research into the potential link between mercury and autism be abandoned is highly unusual coming from an institution built on the notion of free scientific inquiry. Not surprisingly, the statement was cause for concern in some scientific quarters. In spite of these and other concerns, however, the committee's findings remain, on balance, an accurate reflection of the published epidemiologic studies at the time of its release.

What is more important, but largely overlooked, was the committee's own admission that it did not adequately address the leading theory among independent scientists — that autism could be triggered by environmental exposures, including mercury in vaccines, in a subset of vulnerable children. As the IOM panel stated in its final report:

"...the committee cannot rule out, based on the epidemiological evidence, the possibility that vaccines contribute to autism in some small subset or very unusual circumstances" (IOM 2004b).

Or as put by the Chair of the IOM committee, Dr. Marie McCormick, of the Harvard School of Public Health:

"Some children could be particularly vulnerable or susceptible to mercury exposure because of genetic or other differences" (McCormick 2001).

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