GoBigEd

Posted 10:06 AM by Susan Darst Williams

MISSOURI GETS IT ON MERCURY; NEBRASKA GOES “DOOT, DOOT, DOOT”

This week, Go Big Ed will look at some positive developments affecting public education in other states. The goal is to give our policymakers a clue about where we ought to be spurring our educational hosses.

You’ll remember that Nebraska lawmakers this session killed Sen. David Landis’ bill that would have outlawed vaccinations that contain mercury. The reason the ban makes sense: there are demonstrated links to learning disabilities, including autism, and the mercury-containing preservative thimerosol in many childhood immunization shots.

These learning disabilities are costing taxpayers a fortune, not to mention destroying or reducing the enjoyment of countless people’s lives. Shots without mercury would cost maybe a dollar more per dose – in the long run, far cheaper than to look the other way on this. But apparently our state senators didn’t believe that the link is real.

But lookie here: the State of Missouri is now doing just that. The nonprofit organization, www.NoMercury.org, reports that a similar bill passed the Show-Me State legislature earlier this month. It protects pregnant women, and children from birth to age 3. There’s also a symposium planned in Missouri this summer on neurodevelopmental disorders, to help determine whether the ban on mercury-containing substances in shots should be outlawed for older children, too.

Missouri now joins California and Iowa in bans on neurotoxins in immunizations, with numerous other states considering such bans . . . except, of course, Nebraska, where they didn’t “get it.”

You know the “dumdum” song on those Cingular TV ads? Doot-doo, doot doot doot!!! Yeah, well . . . that would be us.