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Vin Suprynowicz

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'UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS IT ACCEPTABLE <br>TO GIVE MERCURY TO CHILDREN'

Every time I write about the dangers of toxic mercury preservative in the shots we give our kids, I hear from at least one local physician insisting there isn’t any thimerosal in the shots -- hasn’t been for years.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the daily Nashville Tennessean reported on Jan. 8, 2006 (yes, 2006) “Legislation that would prevent Tennessee children from getting flu shots that contain a controversial mercury preservative is pitting parent groups against pediatricians.

“The parent camp contends that thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that is 49.6 percent ethyl mercury, has caused an autism epidemic among children,” Tennessean staff writer Claudia Pinto reported. “The doctors’ side argues the flu shots are safe and the way they’re administered shouldn’t be influenced by what they consider to be junk science.

“Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, who is sponsoring the bill, says regardless of whether thimerosal causes autism, it’s unhealthy and unnecessary for children to be exposed to it when there are flu vaccines that don’t contain the preservative. ‘One thing we know for sure is that mercury is the second-most poisonous substance on the planet,’ said Lynn. ... ‘What we want to say in Tennessee is that under no circumstances is it acceptable to give mercury to children.’ ...

“There are flu vaccines that are thimerosal-free, but doctors’ offices don’t always have them in stock,” the 177,000-circulation daily reported. “And Tammi Freedman, a spokeswoman with Tennesseans for Safer Vaccines, an advocacy group, argues that most people don’t even know that the flu shots contain thimerosal. ...

Dr. Joel Bradley, member of the Tennessee chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which favors continuing to shoot kids up with thimerosal despite the fact the symptoms of autism are virtually identical to the symptoms of mercury poisoning, told the newspaper the problem with Ms. Lynn’s bill is that there’s not enough thimerosal-free flu vaccine produced to meet the demands of the public.

The Food and Drug Administration says it has found no causal link between thimerosal and autism (even though autism was virtually unknown before the preservative was introduced in the 1930s, and has skyrocketed with the number of shots required), “but that has not quelled the outcry of countless parents who say their children began to exhibit symptoms of autism shortly after being immunized,” the Tennessean reports.

In July 1999 the Public Health Service (PHS) agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and vaccine manufacturers agreed thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines “as a precautionary measure,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. “Today, of all routinely recommended licensed pediatric vaccines that are currently being manufactured for the U.S. market, only some influenza (flu) vaccines and tetanus-diphtheria (Td) vaccine (given to children age 7 and older) contain thimerosal as a preservative; the remaining pediatric vaccines do not contain thimerosal as a preservative,” the government says.

Unless, of course, they’ve been sitting around on the shelf for awhile.

Tennessee would become the seventh state to pass such legislation.

A decade ago, when former state Sen. Sue Lowden tried to make the shots optional for Nevada public-school kids -- allowing Nevada parents to make their own informed decisions on the matter -- the Culinary Union successfully campaigned to unseat her, contending such a proposal meant she “favored contagious diseases” among children.

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Folks occasionally ask me what became of one character or another who show up in my non-fiction books.

In “The Ballad of Carl Drega” I wrote about San Leandro, Calif., the little town 20 miles southeast of San Francisco which the California Legislature in 1997 named the “Sausage Capital of California,” and of Stuart Alexander, proprietor and great-grandson of the founder of the 78-year-old Santos Linguisa factory.

By June of 2000 Mr. Alexander had obviously had all he could stand of state and federal food inspectors coming around, demanding that he buy new equipment, change the temperatures at which he handled his meat, and so on.

“To all our great customers,” read the most prominent sign he had posted in his store by June 22, 2000, “The USDA is coming into our plant harrassing our employees and me, making it impossible to make our great product. Gee, if all meat plants could be in business 79 years without one complaint, the meat inspectors would not have jobs. Therefore, we are taking legal action against them.”

In fact, the facility had just reopened that June 22, after having been shut down for “health violations,” when two state and two federal food inspectors decided to pay Mr. Alexander another visit.

I’d lost track of what had become of Mr. Alexander, another misguided soul whose journey “over the edge” should nonetheless generate some contemplation of the relentless excesses of the modern regulatory state, when I stumbled on a Jan. 11 Associated Press dispatch that “Self-proclaimed ‘sausage king’ Stuart Alexander died Tuesday morning in San Quentin State Prison while on death row for killing three meat inspectors.

“Alexander, 44, was held in a suicide watch cell and was found unresponsive by a guard conducting a routine check,” Sgt. Eric Messick told The AP.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but Messick said there were no signs of suicide or foul play, adding “Alexander’s mental health had deteriorated since being sentenced to death in February on three counts of first-degree murder for the 2000 shooting deaths of two federal meat inspectors and one state inspector at his Santos Linguisa factory in San Leandro.”

The convict had gained a lot of weight; there was some speculation he effectively ate himself to death.

“The entire incident was captured on Alexander’s surveillance videotape. ... Defense lawyers had argued that Alexander simply snapped and killed the inspectors only after months of harassment. ...”

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It wasn’t so much that you felt a regular need to re-read books on dumpster diving, survival poaching, how to generate fake ID or live without a Social Security number -- let alone works with titles like “Panties Down! Before Money Down!”, “The Joy of Solo Sex,” and “Backyard Catapults.”

What was reassuring was knowing they were there, that this was still a free enough country that Mike Hoy’s Loompanics Unlimited could publish and sell them.

Alas, after 30 years, Loompanics (www.loompanics.com) is closing down.

“Although sales slowed in recent years, it was the same problem that knocked out many longstanding bricks and mortar independent bookstores faced with mega giants like Amazon and Barnes & Noble,” the Port Townsend, Wash. outfit announced in a Jan. 16 press release. “But all in all, the decision to close was made because founder Mike Hoy is ready to retire.

“For 30 years I got to live my dream, and stick it to the man,” Mike says. “My guiding principle was that freedom should be fun.”

The good news: Mike and Gia are blowing out their entire remaining inventory at 50 percent off. And if you don’t buy a copy of Thom Metzger’s excellent “The Birth of Heroin and the Demonization of the Dope Fiend,” now ... where on earth do you think you’re gonna find one?


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