Page 38 - Spring2018

The Consequences and

Challenges of Developmental

Mercury Exposure:

What Thimerosal Does to the Developing Brain

By Janet Kern, PhD, David Geier, BA, Kristin Homme, MPP, MPH, and
Mark Geier, MD, PhD

n the United States, neurodevelopmental disorders
have been on the rise for several decades. In 1976,

Iabout one child in thirty was learning-disabled, but by

2013, it was roughly one in six. Similarly, one in one
1,2
thousand children had a diagnosed autism spectrum disor-
der (ASD) in 1988 versus about one in forty-five in 2013
3
and one in thirty-six as of 2016. Comparable trends have
4
been observed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD)—from one in eighteen children in 1996 to one
in eight by 2012 —and also for once-rare tic disorders. By
5
2012, up to 46 percent of school children had experienced

tics during their lifetime, making it the most common
movement disorder. 6

These disorders have plagued our society and children—with increasing
numbers of affected children now entering adulthood. Yet these individuals,
their families and even their medical providers are usually unaware of the
fact that their difficulties may have resulted from infant or fetal exposure to
the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal, an exposure that
dramatically increased in the 1990s.

36 Wise Traditions SPRING 2018