Eat Some Mercury, It's Good for You

A couple of news stories - The first one about a TV show premiering tomorrow, where the main plot line is about a man suing a drug manufacturer because he thinks a vaccine they created caused his child to develop autism:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-01-28-eli-stone-side_N.htm?csp=34

The second is another article about a study done with information from the real world recently to show that mercury in vaccines is OK, countering research from a few years ago about said link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080130/hl_nm/autism_mercury_dc_1

The main issue is with thimersol, a preservative used in vaccines which has a small amount of mercury in it, and has been used for decades in childhood immunizations. I understand the concern that the American Academy of Pediatrics has, namely, that what they think is hysteria on the part of parents has caused the immunization rates to fall, and thus expose all children to the threat of serious childhood diseases.

A lot of this comes from a recent, deep distrust most people have developed of the medical establishment and their expertise, and the AAP is thinking that a TV show is going to feed that distrust by spreading more hysteria. First, I don't think enough people are going to watch the show, called "Eli Stone", but now that they've raised a stink about it, everyone will, countering their intentions.

I'm not going to comment on the problems with medicine in the United States (for that I defer to Michael Moore's movie "Sicko"), but I'm going to raise the 'no, duh' question. Why do we have mercury anywhere near children?

I remember from my 10th grade chemistry class that mercury, even in small doses, is one of the most poisonous substances on the planet. Wouldn't it be prudent not to put any of it near a child's fragile physiology? Perhaps vaccines are necessary, but is mercury necessary to make it?

It begs a larger question of how we got to the point of accepting things in our food, air, water, households and medicine that really shouldn't be there. I remember as a kid reading a story about the FDA standards for the acceptable amounts of insect matter in boxes of raisins - one fly per box. There's also the acceptable amounts of lead and mercury in our water. That's OK. Wait a second, one of the historical reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire was that the great engineers of that society used lead piping to bring water to the cities, thereby causing widespread retardation, learning disabilities and reproductive sterilization. Back then, they didn't know that lead was poisonous, with the most advanced science in the Western World. Whose to say we have such foresight?

The debate over does it or doesn't it cause autism to me is moot. It is akin to the whole global warming debate. The fact that warming is or isn't occurring is debatable, though most science leans towards an affirmative, and thus can be discounted and we can continue to rationalize all those things that cause with a blind conscience. However, what is overlooked is this: pollution is not a good thing. Chemicals which are poisonous byproducts or manufacturing or combustion engines or what have you cannot be continually poured into us without some consequences.

So, can we get rid of the mercury now?