In Canada, there are no official government statistics to indicate how many children suffer from developmental disabilities such as Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD), Pervasive Developmental Delay (PDD). It is known, however that these disabilities affect a large proportion of children as reported by the Canadian Institute of Child Health in their publication The Health of Canada’s Children (third edition), 2000. (1) An over-arching theme of the research presented in this book is an emphasis and concern for children’s vulnerability and their susceptibility to injury from exposure to environmental toxins.
The authors of The Health of Canada’s Children believe that “the environment must be viewed as the ultimate health determinant—the fact that the endocrine and immune systems and the developing brain are susceptible to these ubiquitous pollutants must be viewed with major concern.”
“Developmental disabilities are a group of physical, cognitive, sensory, and speech impairments that arise during development through to age 18 years. The extent of developmental disabilities is not accurately known in Canada, but it is likely to parallel the statistics in the US where, for example, 12% of school children received special education services for one or more developmental disabilities, and about 2% of them had a serious developmental disability such as mental retardation or cerebral palsy, indicating a significant public health problem, with growing evidence of possible links between them and the environment.” (p.254)
“Behavioural teratogens, such as alcohol, lead, PCBs and methylmercury, are known to compromise brain development and function in children exposed in utero or in early life. Lower IQs, problems in attention and a number of other neuropsychological effects are findings in such studies.” (p.286)
“Exposures at critical periods of development—notably during embryogenesis, fetal life and infancy—can result in irreversible damage to growing nervous systems and affect emerging behaviour patterns, cause immune dysfunction, and have serious reproductive effects. If a toxic exposure occurs during critical growth stages, the system affected can sustain permanent damage. What the body does not metabolize or excrete, is stored in fat, tissue and bone. In some cases, prolonged exposure may be necessary to induce adverse effects in others, a single exposure at a vulnerable developmental stage may be sufficient.” (p.284)
Dr. Russell Blaylock discusses this problem at length in his paper entitled, The Danger of Excessive Vaccination During Brain Development: The Case for a Link to Autism Spectrum Disorders. “The maturation and development of the brain continues to a large degree throughout adolescence. As we have seen, excessive vaccination can result in brain inflammation and brain swelling that can be prolonged, even lasting years, if not decades (as we have seen in the Vargas et al study). This can result in seizures, high pitched crying, severe lethargy, weakness and behavioral problems, such as agitation, depression, anger and other autistic behaviors.” (2)
“Developmental and behavioural neurotoxic effects are of particular concern as more is learned about the potential for subtle degrees of impairment at even low level exposures. Brain growth in the fetus and the young child comprises neuronal replication and migration, orderly axonal and synapse reduction. These various phases create “windows of susceptibility” to hazardous agents that might otherwise be innocuous to the mature brain.” (p.254)
“This window of susceptibility to neurotoxic effects is broad because age-related development of the brain and nervous system extends from fetal stage into adolescence. Damage to the “wiring” process is thought to underlie such permanent adverse effects as cognitive disability, developmental language disorders, learning disabilities, motor disorders, effects on intelligence and behavioural disorders, attention deficits and sensory abnormalities.”(p.254)
We cannot have a complete and meaningful discussion of the impact of environmental neurotoxins on children’s health without raising important questions about the effects of vaccines on the developing brain and nervous systems of infants and young children. We cannot overlook the fact that vaccines deliver a bolus of biologicals and chemicals directly into the young child’s fragile micro-environment precisely within the critical time frame when the brain and nervous system is unfolding. Any discussion of substances that can damage or disrupt the “wiring” process in human brain development, must also include medical research that demonstrates the known potential for vaccines to disrupt myelin formation, the essential fatty substance that insulates nerve tissue. Both pertussis vaccine and MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine have been implicated in autoimmune reactions that damage the myelin coating resulting in neurological injury.
Dr. Vijendra Singh, Ph.D, a research scientist has studied over 400 cases of autism, found that these children had experienced an autoimmune episode, in which their own body has been made to attack the lining of the nervous system. Dr. Singh characterizes the epidemic as a “hyperimmune response to the measles virus.” He stated that 55% of the families said that autism appeared soon after an MMR shot, and that 33% of families said it appeared soon after a DPT shot. Such neurologic damage is a well-established side effect of the mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde used in these vaccines. Dr. Vijendra Singh discussed autism and autoimmunity at U.S. Congressional Hearings on Autism:
Without rigorous scientific study to determine the impact of vaccine components on children’s health and development, (including such known neurotoxins as mercury and aluminum which have been routinely injected for many years into most newborn infants in Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain), we cannot pretend that we have thoroughly scrutinized or studied the sources of toxic exposure our children are subjected to—routinely and intentionally!! Although Canada quietly replaced the mercury containing DPT vaccine given to infants with a purportedly mercury free DTaP + Polio + Hib (five vaccines in one), under the trademark of Pentacel, to be sure the toll on the health of the generation of children bombarded with mercury laden vaccines is reflected in today’s learning disabled youth population.
A discussion of children’s health and the environment that only focuses on toxic exposures through air, water and food, is incomplete and dishonest if it fails to include a serious discussion of the potential for injury from the biological & chemical components that comprise vaccines. Whereas the body can to a certain extent, filter out some of the impact of food and airborne toxicities, the delivery of toxic substances via injection, giving direct access to the blood stream, internal organs, the brain, has a far greater potential for harm than toxic exposures assimilated through digestion.
Vaccines have the potential to skew the immune system towards chronic diseases like allergies, anaphylaxis, asthma. The dominant medical dogma that routinely injects infants and young children with an ever increasing viral and bacterial vaccine load, callously disregards the “windows of susceptibility” when the child’s brain, nervous system, endocrine system and immune system are forming.
In recent years, a tremendous amount of research initiated by parents of children suffering from Autistic Spectrum Disorders has revealed that the symptoms of classic mercury poisoning dovetail and match the array of symptoms suffered by many children who have regressed into ASD. It is being called an epidemic – many areas of the U.S. estimate that 1 in every 150 children suffers from ASD.