Can we have some rationality on mercury and autism, please?

[eridani]

Can we cut this "My kid had chelation therapy and is now better, so it must have been the thimerosal" horseshit and quit assaulting reason?

Chelation therapy removes lead and arsenic also.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelation_therapy

But they know it had to have been the mercury in thimerosal. Why?

There is plenty of organic mercury in the environment from many other sources, especially fish.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5008a2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040723.html

But it had to be the mercury in thimerosal. It just couldn't have come from other kinds of environmental pollution. You know this, how?

Mercurochrome and thimerosal are both organic ring compounds with a single mercury atom. Mercurochrome wasn't restricted until 1998, but is still defended by folk medicine enthusiasts who don't like "establishment" medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercurochrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimerosal

Mercurochrome is anti-establishment and good, and thimerosal is pro-establishment and bad--why?

I suspect that autistic symptoms have more than one underlying cause. Type I and Type II diabetes are very different diseases even though they have the same symptoms. There may very well be one or more versions of the disease which involves more than average genetic susceptibility to heavy metal poisoning, and which may be prevented or treated by taking extra care to avoid any more exposure to heavy metals than necessary. But arguing that all cases of autism could be prevented that way and that thimerosal is the chief villain is just plain batty, so cut it out. It isn't easy to pinpoint special vulnerabilities to any disease that affects a small percentage of the population, and you aren't helping. Thank you.

[WindRavenX]

1. ...

:thumbsup:

I've long since given up trying to discuss this rationally, but thank you for saying it nonetheless.

[REP]

2. Nothing to do With Older Parents...

... or people who, a generation or two ago, might not have found mates due to medical condition and their resulting offspring; or reproductive technology (and the associated rise in premature births); or environmental causes; or better/different diagnostic criteria; or any combination of the above or something that hasn't been understood as of yet ... it must be thimerosal.

Jesus wept.

[LeighAnn]

3. Mercury Always Bad

Mercury bad.

It's misuse over the past 200 years is the cause of all this insanity.

[Tesha]

4. I think we've conclusively proven that the answer to your question is "no".

Over the course of (seemingly) thousands and thousands
of threads on this topic in the past, I think we've
conclusively proven that the answer to your question
is, unfortunately, "no".

Tesha

[sendero]

5. I think there are a lot more..

... people who think this is related to VACCINES than to specifically mercury.

That said, I laugh out loud at anyone who claims that "science" proves it can't be this or it can't be that.

When it comes to medicine, "science" has been wrong wrong and more wrong so many times it is impossible to count. What counts as "science" in medicine is either 1) we did something x number of times and this subjective result occurred y number of times (which proves damn near nothing) or 2) something that is perfectly logical is accepted as fact and later turns out to be dead wrong.

As far as I'm concerned, until a real cause is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, nothing is off the table.

[eridani]

6. Science is the reason why we no longer have 25-50% infant mortality

Science is always "wrong" in the sense that there is a virtually 100% guarantee that next year's scientific reality model will be more accurate and comprehensive than this year's model. That's how you know it's science. Nothing is ever proven beyond a reasonable doubt--there is just a reality model whose postulates haven't been proven wrong yet. That's why Einstein, when congratulated on the success of experiments that validated relativity theory said "There is no number of experiments that can conclusively prove me right, but a single experiment could prove me wrong."

It may well be true that there is a small minority of kids whose genetic makeup renders their immune systems unable to deal with vaccines well, but the solution is to find a way to identify them. If the other 98% of kids get vaccinated, that will prevent the spread of diseases, and 2% getting a free ride (so to speak) isn't going to have much effect on the overall resistance of the population.

There is no such thing as a vaccine which never ever has any bad effects, but I'll take injuring or killing a few over injuring or killing hundreds of thousands any old say. If we had a real commitment to universal health care, there would be automatic and full compensation for any vaccine-related adverse effect. Unfortunately we don't, and that just promotes the attitude "I want what's best for my kid, and all those other kids can just go straight to hell for all I care."

Being anti-science just promotes fundie assholery.