Burbacher says that just because ethyl mercury is gone from an infant's blood soon after it receives a dose of thimerosal -- a half-life of just 3.7 days in the Pichichero study -- doesn't mean it's gone from the body.

"Just because it came out of the blood doesn't mean it is excreted from the body. It could have gone to the brain," Burbacher tells WebMD. "Although total mercury levels in the blood are lower following thimerosal exposure [than following methyl mercury exposure], mercury in the blood from thimerosal has an easier time getting to the brain than methyl mercury."

Mercury is a known neurotoxin, there is no way its good for the brain saying otherwise and denying that vaccines have toxins doesn't help your desperate argument.

Methylmercury activates ASK1/JNK signaling pathways, leading to apoptosis due to both mitochondria- and endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-generated processes in myogenic cell lines

Fusako Usukia, , , Eriko Fujitab and Noboru Sasagawac, 1
aDepartment of Clinical Medicine, National Institute for Minamata Disease, 4058-18 Hama, Minamata, Kumamoto 867-0008, Japan
bDivisions of Development and Differentiation, National Institute of Neuroscience, NCNP, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-8502, Japan
cDepartment of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
Received 20 April 2007; accepted 21 August 2007. Available online 1 September 2007.


Abstract

Cellular stress responses following exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) were investigated using myogenic cell lines that showed different susceptibilities to MeHg. The susceptible cell line showed apoptosis within 24 h after exposure to low levels of MeHg. The activation of caspase 12, 9, and 3 was detected in the apoptotic cells at 14–16 h after MeHg exposure, suggesting that MeHg causes apoptosis via both mitochondria- and endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-generated processes. An early increase in the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) was quantitatively recognized since 2–3 h after exposure to MeHg in both MeHg-susceptible and non-susceptible cell lines; however, the increase was lower in the latter cell line. The phosphorylation of apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) was also recognized in both cell lines, with the increase in intracellular ROS. However, the activation of stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) pathways was observed only in the MeHg-susceptible cell line. In contrast, the non-susceptible cell line exhibited activation of the cell survival ERK pathway. Up-regulation of metallothioneine I and Hic-5 mRNAs encoding proteins induced by oxidative stress was recognized during the early stage of MeHg cytotoxicity in the MeHg-susceptible cell line. Quantitative real-time PCR and western blot analyses confirmed that ER stress is a late event during MeHg cytotoxicity. Coaddition of the antioxidant Trolox dramatically suppressed the increase in the level of ROS, activation of caspases and, finally, apoptosis. However, later treatment with Trolox attenuated its protective effect against MeHg cytotoxicity. The results indicate that failure to protect cells against the early oxidative stress triggers ER stress and apoptosis processes. Combined treatment with protective factors against oxidative and ER stresses is necessary, especially in the later stages of MeHg cytotoxicity.

Comment by Dr. Matsen

Newspaper Article on Vaccines

On Thursday, January 31, 2008, The Vancouver Sun newspaper printed the following article by Karin Zeitvogel about what I consider to be a flawed "scientific" study.

Study debunks mercury myth in children's vaccines

WASHINGTON-Infants expel the mercury contained in a common vaccine preservative too quickly for toxicity to build up, U. S. researchers said Wednesday, noting their findings should allay fears that child vaccines can cause autism.

A study conducted at the University of Rochester in New York and due to be published on Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics showed that infants "expel thimerosal mercury much faster than originally thought, thereby leaving little chance for a progressive building up of the toxic metal."

"This debunks the great myth, believed by both parents and some pediatricians, that the gauntlet of thimerosal-containi ng shots many infants received in the 1990s, when the average number of vaccines kids received increased sharply, had put them at risk for developmental disorders," including autism, a statement issued by the university said.

Some 5,000 U. S. families last year brought a case before a special U. S. court, which is still ongoing, seeking to prove that vaccines administered to children are linked to a rise in the incidence of autism, which now affects as many as one child in every 150 in the United States.

But the California Department of Health last month reported that autism rates continue to mushroom in the United States, even though thimerosal was removed from most child vaccines in 2001 at the urging of health officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), concerned over its mercury content.

The fears surrounding thimerosal arose in the late 1990s when it was found that children who received " a complete series of vaccines that contained thimerosal potentially received up to 187.5 grams of ethyl mercury during the first six months of life," the Rochester study said.

That vastly exceeded "the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommended safe intake level, estimated in 1997 to be no more than 0.1 grams of mercury per kilogram of body weight per day," it said.

But the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines were based on oral methyl mercury, the type associated with eating fish, not the intramuscular ethyl mercury found in thimerosal.

"Scientists are learning that the two mercury species actually behave quite differently . . . the body rids the kind found in thimerosal more that 10 times faster than it removes the kind one might encounter in a Friday night fish fry," the Rochester researchers said in a statement. For the Rochester study, the blood mercury levels of 216 infants at a hospital in Argentina were tested before and after shots were administered at either their newborn, two- or six- month checkup.

The study found the half- life of ethyl mercury in the blood-or the time it takes for the body to dispose of half the mercury, then another half, and so on until it is gone-to be 3.7 days.

Dr. Matsen's Comment

Two major erroneous assumptions exist in the preceding article.

The researchers of the study measured ethyl mercury levels in the blood of infants after vaccinations and found it disappears out of the blood 10 times faster than expected. They then concluded that ethyl mercury in vaccines is therefore much safer than previously thought. However, any doctor that does chelation (removal of metals from the body) knows that much of the mercury actually goes from the blood further into the body by binding to sulfur compounds in the organs. Therefore, the fact that ethyl mercury disappears from the blood 10 times faster than previously thought indicates that it is actually 10 times more toxic, not less toxic. This is another example of a faulty "scientific" study; the researchers are assuming that because the mercury is no longer in the blood, it has been removed from the body.

The second erroneous assumption is the claim that the mushrooming increase in autism can't be connected to the mercury in vaccines because thimerosal was removed from most child vaccines in 2001 and autism continues to increase. The fact is that mercury wasn't entirely removed from all vaccines in 2001; it was reduced. And in its place was added aluminum hydroxide. UBC researcher Chris Shaw did a toxicology study on aluminum hydroxide recently and found that when it was injected into mice, it produced neurological symptoms similar to those seen in MS, ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's diseases.

Boyd Haley, a University of Kentucky Alzheimer's researcher, conducted a study years ago which found that mixing mercury and aluminum together dramatically increased their toxicity. This gives a credible explanation as to how the reduction of mercury in vaccines, while adding in aluminum hydroxide, may have led to not only an increase in autism, but also increases in asthma, eczema, allergies, epilepsy, learning disorders, behavioral problems, etc. Also, keep in mind that vaccines are not the only source of mercury; Mats Hanson in Sweden found that mercury leaks from mothers' teeth into their babies before birth and during breastfeeding.

Ask any teacher who has been teaching for a long time and most will probably tell you that they have witnessed a decrease in children's health over the years. I have personally seen all of the aforementioned conditions reversed by removing metals, especially mercury, from patients.

Scott Renyard, a local film producer with Juggernaut Pictures, and I are presently in negotiation with Sundance of Colorado to do a long-overdue documentary on this topic.

To hear Boyd Haley's four part series on "Mercury Toxicity and Autism," click on the following links:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.
com/watch? v=GQYISvsgq6s

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.
com/watch? v=RbcngSD0K90

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.
com/watch? v=7v0s8XHFSBo

Part 4:
http://www.youtube.
com/watch? v=7jwnYTgToiA& feature=related

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