Parents' suit links mercury in vaccines to kids' autism
by Michael Lasalandra

Saturday, September 1, 2001

Two Bay State couples have filed a class action lawsuit charging that their three children - and perhaps thousands of others - have developed autism from mercury-containing childhood vaccines.

``Something's going on here,'' said Mike Chmura of Waltham, who believes the mercury in the vaccines may be the reason his 5-year-old son, Evan, has autism.

``There's all these autism cases. It wasn't around in these numbers 50 years ago. The schools are filling up with these kids,'' he said. ``Then you find out they put mercury in the vaccines. It seems kind of crazy to put something in a kid's bloodstream that can damage his brain.''

Chmura and his wife, Susan, and another couple, Jared and Marjorie Hansen of Framingham, the parents of Jacob Hansen, 4, and William Hansen, 2, are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in Middlesex Superior Court this week.

Attorney Robert Bonsignore of Medford, who represents the families, said there may be up to half a million Massachusetts children who may have been unnecessarily exposed to dangerously high doses of mercury that were added to many childhood vaccines, including DPT, between 1990 and 2001.

The mercury was contained in a preservative known as thimerosol.

The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that an infant's total exposure to mercury be reduced through thimerosol-free vaccines.

``Both acute and chronic mercury poisoning are well-documented in the medical and scientific literature, and mercury has long been known to cause neurological injuries in children,'' says families' complaint.

Both couples charge the vaccines have caused the boys to develop autism, a developmental disorder characterized by a person's difficulty connecting with others.

Federal recommendations urge 20 injections in a child's first 18 months.

Evan Chmura was diagnosed with autism at age 2 .

His mother, Susan, said the boy ``started showing some signs early on. Behaviors that were odd. We trace it back to when he was getting those shots. I remember holding him. He would just sit there. He was disconnected.''

According to Evan's dad, Mike, ``He's delayed. He's a year and a half behind in his speech. He can't interact with people very well. He gets obsessed with things. He has behavioral problems. He doesn't have good balance.''

``We're just trying to do whatever we can to figure out what's going on with this kid and what we can do to help him,'' he said.

Defendants in the case are Aventis Pasteur Inc., Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Co., Abbott Laboratories, American Home Products and Baxter International, all makers of childhood vaccines, as well as five companies that make thimerosal, and several physicians in Massachusetts and Utah.

Bonsignore said the use of the mercury-containing vaccines may be the reason for growing autism rates here and around the country.

``The autism rate in Massachusetts is 1-in-150 children,'' he said.

Concerns have been raised that a number of childhood vaccines - including DPT, hepatitis B, HIB and MMR - may be linked to autism.

Fears that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to autism were sparked by a 1998 report in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

In that report, researchers described 12 children who developed autism and similar behavioral problems soon after vaccination with MMR.

Since that report, several larger studies, including tens of thousands of children, have found no link between MMR vaccination and autism.

Dr. Susan Lett, medical director of the immunization program for the state Department of Public Health, said MMR never contained mercury, but said concerns were raised because most children come down with autism between 15 months and 18 months, around the same time they get the MMR vaccine.

She said other vaccines, including DPT, hepatitis B and HIB, used to contain mercury as a preservative, but no longer do.

``There's no evidence of a link between any of these vaccines and any form of autism,'' she said. ``There have been a number of studies here and in Europe that have been very reassuring.''

Still, she said the National Institutes of Health is continuing to study the matter.

Certain vaccines still do contain the mercury, including the flu vaccine and TB booster shots, she said.