Online A uction Now Open! The SafeMinds online auction is now open. This is one of our larger fundraisers and hope you will support by bidding on an item, making a donation, or spreading the word via e-mail, facebook or twitter. We have some great items for everyone and because all items for the auction were donated, you stand a good chance of getting a great deal as most starting bids are 1/3 the value of the item. There is something for everyone - from autism-related products and services, to trips, fragrances, sports and entertainment memorabilia, tickets to events, gift certificates and more. Visit our auction site now.
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Calling all Families! Let Your Voice Be Heard!
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) is currently taking Requests For Information (RFI) on their 2010 Strategic Plan in an effort to update for 2011.
The committee is specifically asking what has been learned in the past year about the issues covered in each of the seven chapters of the IACC Strategic Plan, and on what are the remaining gaps in the subject area covered by each chapter. In addition, the committee is seeking input on the introductory chapter and other general comments about the Strategic Plan.
This is your chance to weigh in on critical gaps including the need for research into the link between vaccines and autism, a greater focus on environmental factors, the biological underpinning of ASD, the development of effective strategies in an and effort to both treat and prevent the development of autism.
For
years parents have reported that their children regressed developmentally and
physically after vaccination, and subsequently were given a diagnosis of
autism. The Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program has compensated 1,322 cases on the basis of vaccine-induced brain
damage, seizure disorder, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, and encephalopathy. Many of these cases were also diagnosed with
autism after suffering the vaccine injury. Since vaccines are universally
recommended and mandated in most states for all infants starting at birth, they
should be subjected to the highest level of safety standards and research. Concerns voiced by parents, physicians, and
the scientific community regarding vaccine injury must be addressed with
thoughtful, complete, and unbiased investigations by NIH. Unfortunately, that
has not happened to date.
We'd
like to encourage everyone to share their thoughts with this important
committee. Submitting a RFI is easy.
Simply click here. You will be prompted to submit responses on the seven questions/chapters of the IACC Strategic Plan. If time is an issue (and it usually is), we are trying to focus on questions 2 and 3. These questions address the biology, causation and prevention of autism.
Please feel free to use the official SafeMinds response as a guide to answer these questions. All submissions must be in by Friday, July 30th. Comments collected through this RFI will be posted to the IACC web site after the closing date.
SafeMinds
is submitting an official response to the RFI that you can review and use as a
model for comments. Read it here. It is
critical that we take advantage of all opportunities to have our voices heard.
The future of our children depends on it.
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New Scientific Evidence Links Autism to Vaccines and Mercury
Two new papers published
this week in the peer-reviewed neuroscience journal Acta Neurobiologiae
Experimentalis point to vaccines and heavy metals including
mercury as causes of the alarming rise in autism. The Centers for
Disease Control now estimate autism to affect one in 110 children, up
40% from just a few years ago.
Click here to read SafeMinds full statement.
View full journal issue
Full articles referenced in the SafeMinds statement are available here. The entire issue was devoted to Autism. SafeMinds will be making comments on other research included in this publication over the next few weeks.
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 Vaccine Safety and the Ten Year Anniversary of a Broken Promise
By SafeMinds Executive Director Lyn Redwood
It was ten years ago
today, on July 18, 2000, that Sallie Bernard, Albert Enayati, Liz Birt
and I sat huddled together in the back room between Congressman Dan
Burton's office and the Government Reform Committee hearing room
making last minute edits to our testimony. Read more and see video clips here.
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FDA to Reconsider Protecting Children and the Unborn from Mercury Amalgam
Big news! Last month, we told
you about the Global Legally Binding Treaty on Mercury expected by 2013
from over 130 world governments. In addition, other
non-governmental groups partnered with the United Nations (UN) like SafeMinds,
participated and had a huge impact. One such group is Consumers for Dental Choice. Led by Charlie
Brown, this grassroots group raised money
and traveled to Stockholm last month where they challenged the Food and Drug
Administration's 2009 mercury amalgam rule. The FDA's rule ignores the impact
dental mercury may have on children and the unborn, and continues to allow this
unnecessary mercury exposure. As a result of the discussion that took place
before world governments, the FDA announced it will convene hearings this
December before its Dental Products Panel to determine whether to stop amalgam
use for children and pregnant women. SafeMinds has an extraordinary opportunity to fight for an end to
mercury in vaccines on this same world stage. SafeMinds
sent a formal statement to the UN asking that all
forms of mercury from all human activities and consumer products be considered
when assessing environmental and human exposure, including vaccines. A total of
five sessions to negotiate controls on mercury are
scheduled over the next three years, and we hope to
attend the next as the strong voice for alternatives to mercury in
vaccines to stop the injection of mercury especially for children and pregnant
women. Please consider donating to
help SafeMinds travel to negotiate the text of the Global Legally Binding
Treaty on Mercury to include stopping mercury in vaccines. As little as
$5.00 can help. Donate here. Subscribe to this newsletter Please email Dr. Jeffrey
Shuren, Director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, at the FDA and
ask that he convene a balanced panel for the December review of the FDA dental
mercury rule at Jeff.Shuren@fda.hhs.gov.
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Start the Revolution: Order Age of Autism by Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill Today!
 From
Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill:
Our book "The Age of Autism: Mercury,
Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic" goes on sale Sept. 14, and starting
today we're asking you to buy copies and urge friends and family to do the same.
Click HERE to order. We started on the journey to write this book
determined to seek the truth, and now we need you to help spread the word about
what we found. Early sales increase press runs, expand bookstore orders and
launch best sellers that command national attention. For the sake of our
children, our country and our future, attention MUST be paid.
Says Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:
"Olmsted and Blaxill's devastating account
shows how medical and manufacturing interests have mounted an assault on human
health for decades and covered their tracks along the way. The Age of Autism is
only the latest episode in centuries of crimes against nature but is in many
ways the most troubling. Autistic children are the canaries in the coal mine;
shame on all of us if we don't heed their distress call."
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In the News
Artisanal gold mining in Columbia is contaminating the local environment with high levels of mercury. The UN is urging a switch to centrifuges to allow gold extraction
without the risk of mercury poisoning.
The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed shoring up weak levees in southern Illinois along the Mississippi River with coal ash. Coal ash typically contains arsenic, mercury
and selenium, so environmental groups are raising concerns about potential
contamination of the river's water.
Did you know that artificial turf can contain lead? Major suppliers recently settled a lawsuit
with the State of California.
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