http://www.heraldsun.com/state/6-223455.html

Indian Trail, N.C. AP - A couple who says their son became autistic because of mercury poisoning from multiple vaccines against childhood diseases is taking their complaint to court.

Lee and Jill Urwick filed suit in Union County Superior Court alleging that manufacturers of Thimerosal -- the mercury derivative used as a preservative in vaccines -- and vaccine manufacturers and distributors knew of mercury's potential dangers and failed to take appropriate precautions to protect children.

It is the first such lawsuit in North Carolina, but one of several filed across the country in recent years by parents who believe Thimerosal in vaccines is one of the causes of the country's rising incidence of autism.

Although the Urwicks are the only plaintiffs in the North Carolina suit, lawyer Clair Campbell of Charlotte said she expects to add numerous plaintiffs as the lawsuit progresses.

"Everybody's wondering why the incidence of children with autism is increasing," Campbell said. "We're hoping with this litigation we can get some answers."

The lawsuit names eight companies as defendants, including GlaxoSmithKline and Aventis Pasteur, which both have offices in North Carolina.

Nancy Pekarek, spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said the company has produced Thimerosal-free vaccines since 2000, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"There's no scientific evidence that there is any harm caused by Thimerosal-containing vaccines," she said. "Vaccines have done an incredible job of preventing disease."

Federal, state and local public health officials stress that no connection has been proven between mercury and autism.

An Institute of Medicine report in October said there is an unproved but "biologically plausible" risk that the substance could cause neurological problems. It concluded that children and pregnant women should avoid Thimerosal and recommended further studies.

Since the 1930s, many childhood vaccines have contained Thimerosal. The preservative was used in vaccines against hepatitis B, whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus and bacterial meningitis.

In 2000, a statement by a coalition of medical and public health organizations recommended that companies stop using mercury in most vaccines.

"Within a very short time, they had gotten Thimerosal out of the vaccines, all but influenza (which is rarely given to infants)," said Dr. Samuel Katz, a Duke University Medical Center pediatrician who helped write the joint statement.

Most drug companies made it well known to doctors that they would take back old supplies and provide new mercury-free vaccines free of charge, Katz said.

"Any supplies of the old vaccines are outdated or used or exchanged."

Part of the uncertainty about mercury's effects is because most information about mercury poisoning in humans involves methyl mercury. Thimerosal is a derivative of ethyl mercury, a different chemical entity. Studies are under way involving ethyl mercury, Katz said.

Lawyer Campbell said studies of Thimerosal should have been done before it was used in vaccines for infants. She has medical experts who will testify that Thimerosal use increased from 1990 to 1997 at the same rate that autism increased in the country.

The lawsuit asks for monetary damages and also seeks removal of any mercury-containing vaccines from health-care offices in the state. "We want them taken off the shelves immediately," Campbell said.