Mercury, vaccines, and autism: One controversy, three histories

American Journal of Public Health

Volumn 98, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 244-253

  Baker, Jeffrey P ^a  

^a DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CRESOL; DIPHTHERIA PERTUSSIS TETANUS HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE TYPE B VACCINE; DIPHTHERIA TETANUS VACCINE; DIPHTHERIA TOXOID; ETHYLMERCURY DERIVATIVE; MERCURY; METHYLMERCURY; PERTUSSIS VACCINE; PHENOL; THIOMERSAL; VACCINE; METHYLMERCURY DERIVATIVE; PRESERVATIVE;

ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER; AUTISM; DRUG HYPERSENSITIVITY; DRUG SAFETY; FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HUMAN; IMMUNE DEFICIENCY; IMMUNIZATION; MERCURIALISM; NEUROTOXICITY; PSYCHOANALYSIS; REVIEW; TOXEMIA; ARTICLE; BRAIN; CHILD; DRUG EFFECT; DRUG INDUSTRY; GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND AGING; HISTORY; INFANT; PRESCHOOL CHILD; PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE; PUBLIC OPINION; STANDARD; TRUST; UNITED STATES;

AUTISTIC DISORDER; BRAIN; CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (U.S.); CHILD; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; DRUG INDUSTRY; HEALTH POLICY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 21ST CENTURY; HUMANS; INFANT; MERCURY POISONING; METHYLMERCURY COMPOUNDS; PRESERVATIVES, PHARMACEUTICAL; PUBLIC OPINION; THIMEROSAL; TRUST; UNITED STATES; UNITED STATES FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION; VACCINES;

EID: 39649105677     PISSN: 00900036     EISSN: 15410048     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.113159     Document Type: Review

References (96)

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55. Prominent exponents of this approach have included Eric Schopler in the United States and Michael Rutter and Lorna and John Wing in Britain. See Early Childhood Autism: Clinical, Educational, and Social Aspects, ed. John K. Wing (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1966);
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58. Peter Szatami, "The Causes of Autism Spectrum Disorders," British Medical Journal 326 (2003): 173-174.
59. Michael Rutter added impaired language to Kanner's 2 criteria of impaired social relationships and preoccupation with sameness, developing the autistic triad underlying most definitions ever since; Rutter, "Diagnosis and Definition of Childhood Autism," Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia 8 (1978): 139-161.
60. On the concept of an autistic spectrum, see Lorna Wing, The Autistic Spectrum (London: Constable, 1996). In the United States, both developments are reflected in successive revisions of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1987)
61. and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
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63. Behavioral therapy ranges from the primarily rehabilitative approach exemplified by Schopler to the more optimistic claims of applied behavioral analysis and similar methodologies; see O. I. Lovass, "Behavioral Treatment and Normal Educational and Intellectual Functioning in Young Autistic Children," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 55 (1987): 3-9;
64. M.G. Aman, "Treatment Planning for Parents with Autism Spectrum Disorders," Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 66 (suppl 10) (2005): 38-45.
65. Judith S. Palfrey and John S. Rodman, "Legislation for the Education of Children With Disabilities," in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, 3rd edition, ed. Melvin D. Levine, Willam B. Carey, and Allen C. Crocker (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1999), 869-872.
66. Lorna Wing, "Autistic Spectrum Disorders: No Evidence for or Against an Increase in Prevalence," British Medical Journal 312 (1996): 327-328;
67. Eric Fombonne, "Is There an Epidemic of Autism?" Pediatrics 107 (2001): 411-413.
68. Silverman, "A Disorder of Affect," 360-451.
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74. Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 89-90.
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76. Arthur Allen, "The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory," New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2002.
77. Leslie K. Ball, Robert Ball, and R. Douglas Pratt, "An Assessment of Thimerosal Use in Childhood Vaccines," Pediatrics 107 (2001): 1147-1154.
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79. For details on the negotiations leading to the joint statement, see Gary L. Freed, Margie C. Andrae, Anne E. Cowan, and Samuel L. Katz, "The Process of Public Policy Formation: The Case of Thimerosal in Vaccines," Pediatrics 109 (2002): 1153-1159;
80. "Uproar Over a Little-Known Preservative, Thimerosal, Jostles US Hepatitis B Vaccination Policy," Hepatitis Control Reports 4 (Summer 1999): 1-10.
81. J. B. Seal and R.S. Daum, "What Happened to Primum non Nocere?" Pediatrics 201 (2001): 1177-1179.
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88. On the modern revival of vaccine resistance, see James Colgrove, State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 186-252;
89. Jeffrey P. Baker, "The Pertussis Vaccine Controversy in Great Britain, 1974-1986," Vaccine 21 (2003): 4003-4010;
90. Robert D. Johnston, "Contemporary Anti-Vaccination Movements in Historical Perspective," in The Politics of Healing: Histories of Alternative Medicine in Twentieth-Century North America, ed. Robert D. Johnston (New York: Routledge, 2004), 259-286.
91. S. Bernard, A. Enyati, L. Redwood, H. Roger, and T. Binstock, "Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning," Medical Hypotheses 56 (2001): 462-471;
92. Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 46-78.
93. Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 1-7.
94. One reason that many parents have not accepted the IOM Report's conclusion is their belief that the CDC deliberately manipulated data in early analyses of the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a charge that the primary researchers have patently denied. See Kirby, Evidence of Harm, 270-299;
95. T. Verstraeten, R. L. Davis, F. deStefano, et al., "Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization Databases," Pediatrics 112 (2003): 1039-1048.
96. Among many examples, see David A. Geier and Mark R. Geier, "An Assessment of the Impact of Thimerosal on Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders," Pediatric Rehabilitation 6 (2003): 97-102.