Autism is increasing at an alarming rate and has been doing since the 1980s. Currently, up to one in 68 children is diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder. There are various theories as to what is driving this increase and thimerosal, a 49% mercury compound present in many childhood vaccines, has come under suspicion as being responsible for the cognitive decline in children.
Some medical studies of thimerosal have shown it to cause harm, but there are other components of vaccines that may be as harmful.
Aluminium is also used in vaccines as an adjuvant. If vaccines just contained the antigens then the immune system would not produce enough antibodies to be considered ‘immune’, so highly toxic adjuvants are added to kick the immune system into action. Aluminium is one of the substances used.
Despite aluminium being used for over 90 years, its safety in vaccines has never been tested. Other individual components have also not been tested and neither has the vaccine schedule, until very recently. When vaccines are tested they always test one vaccine, for example, DTaP, but they never test all of them being given simultaneously and often ignore the accumulative effect of the vaccine additives. Researchers in Current Medicinal Chemistry wrote:
‘ To our knowledge, no adequate clinical studies have been conducted to establish the safety of concomitant administration of two experimentally-established neurotoxins, aluminum and mercury, the latter in the form of ethyl mercury (thimerosal) in infants and children. Since these molecules negatively affect many of the same biochemical processes and enzymes implicated in the etiology of autism, the potential for a synergistic toxic action is plausible.’
Now, scientists are finally beginning to address the issue and it can’t come soon enough for children.
Children Exposed to Aluminium Have Highest Rates of ASD
The Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry found that the use of aluminium in vaccines and ensuing ASD symptoms ‘may be causal’. They wrote:
‘When assessing adjuvant toxicity in children, two key points ought to be considered: (i) children should not be viewed as “small adults” as their unique physiology makes them much more vulnerable to toxic insults; and (ii) if exposure to Al from only few vaccines can lead to cognitive impairment and autoimmunity in adults, is it unreasonable to question whether the current pediatric schedules, often containing 18 Al adjuvanted vaccines, are safe for children? Our results show that: (i) children from countries with the highest ASD prevalence appear to have the highest exposure to Al from vaccines; (ii) the increase in exposure to Al adjuvants significantly correlates with the increase in ASD prevalence in the United States observed over the last two decades.’
The Accumulative Effect of Vaccines
The accumulative effect of vaccines given repeatedly throughout baby and childhood may be a much more important factor in the development of autism, rather than just one ingredient or another.
No safe level of aluminium has been determined for vaccines, although the Food and Drug Administration has set the maximum contaminant level for water as 0.05-0.2mgs per liter. For injectable drug products used in total patient nutrition this cut off level is 25mcgs or 00.25mgs. This means that the total injected amount of aluminium exceeds safety guidelines. A pneumonia vaccine given to babies contains 0.125mgs of aluminium and that is only one vaccine. Meningitis C vaccine contains 0.125mgs and combined DTaP/Hib/IPV vaccine contains 1.5mgs. Babies are usually given all of these vaccines and more in one sitting.
Not all aluminium is excreted by the body and some of it accumulates in the brain. Studies in mice showed that aluminium containing vaccines caused a rise in brain tissue aluminium, peaking three days after vaccination. This was not seen in animals given vaccines free of the adjuvant.
Aluminium Has Also Been Proven to Cause Brain Cell Death
The effect of injecting aluminium and squalene (another adjuvant) was looked at in 2007 when researcher Chris Shaw and his team gave mice the same adjuvants given to military personnel. Injected animals showed a significant decrease in motor skills and in cognitive skills.
The authors wrote:
‘ Aluminum-treated groups showed significant motor neuron loss (35%) and increased numbers of astrocytes (350%) in the lumbar spinal cord. The findings suggest a possible role for the aluminum adjuvant in some neurological features associated with GWI and possibly an additional role for the combination of adjuvants…..Whether the risk of protection from a dreaded disease outweighs the risk of toxicity is a question that demands urgent attention.’
The medical journal Nature Medicine also backed up these findings by suggesting that aluminium acts as an immune stimulator because it kills cells. The dying cells then release DNA which act as a signal to the immune system to mount an antibody response.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that more and more children are suffering from behavioral and immunological disorders.
Sources:
Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? Volume 105, Issue 11, November 2011, Pages 1489-1499.
Aluminum Vaccine Adjuvants: Are they Safe? Current Medicinal Chemistry, 2011, 18, 2630-2637.
ToxFAQs™ for Aluminum, CDC. Web. 4 January 2012.
Food and Drug Administration Docket, 2005.
EMC Medicines, Pediacel Vaccine. Web. 4 January 2012.
EMC Mdicines, Prevenar Vaccine. Web. 4 January 2012.
EMC Medicines, Meningitis C Vaccine. Web. 4 January 2012.
Aluminium-adjuvanted vaccines transiently increase aluminium levels in murine brain tissue, Pharmacol Toxicol. 1992 Apr;70(4):278-80.
Perinatal Toxicity Of Aluminum, The Internet Journal of Toxicology. 2006 Volume 3 Number 1.
Aluminum adjuvant linked to Gulf War illness induces motor neuron death in mice, Neuromolecular Med. 2007;9(1):83-100.
DNA released from dying host cells mediates aluminum adjuvant activity, Nature Medicine 17, 996–1002 (2011).
Joanna Karpasea-Jones - I have been a health writer since 1997 when I published my own newsletter, SHOTS. I have written 2 books on childhood health, and write ...
