April 2008
Research led by epidemiologist, Heather Young, PhD, with the Geier father and son team has shown a correlation between Thimerosal exposure and faulty neurodevelopment. Using the US CDC Vaccine Safety Datalink. The study compared vaccine mercury exposure in 278,624 infants born from 1990 through 1996 with incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders in each birth year.
Results published May 14, 2008 in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences showed a 2- to 6- fold increase in autism, autism spectrum disorder, tics, emotional disturbance, attention deficit disorder-hyperactivity disorder, and developmental/learning disorder after an additional 100 micrograms of mercury exposure from vaccines. For autism alone, the overall increase was about 2.5-fold.
In 2003, the Government Reform Committee of the US House of Representatives stated: “(a)ccess by independent researchers to the Vaccine Safety Datalink database is needed for independent replication and validation of CDC studies regarding exposure of infants to mercury-containing vaccines and autism.” But even with the help of Congressional leaders, parent autism advocacy groups, and legal experts, it took these researchers six years to gain access to the CDC data hidden in the Vaccine Safety Datalink.