We now know that autism and mercury are not linked. This is because of the massive number of studies that have been performed showing no relationship. However, the myth persists, given further truthiness by the claims of the faithful that it’s all just a big conspiracy to make us take mercury and get autism. These people continue with their blogging and their dissemination of false information (though admittedly, with good intentions paving their road to hell) and their wacky theoretical remedies.

A post today on NeuroLogica talks about one of the theoretical remedies is chelation therapy. It sounds neat, all science-y and cool, right? Well, there’s a lot of science behind it. The therapy involves using a chelating agent such as OSR#1 (that’s one of the trade names for BDTH2) which was intended for use pulling heavy metals from industrial by-products such as polluted soil. The wiki page linked in the previous sentence describes it as “non-toxic by comparison to other mercury treatment technologies”, which hardly seems like a glowing endorsement that something is actually non-toxic. However, the CTI Science web site (the fiends who market the drug) are quick to state that OSR#1 is “toxicity free” and explains that it is an anti-oxidant that supplements the body’s natural production of glutathione. I’m not saying that it triggers the creation of more glutathione, just that it does a similar job, thus putting less stress on the body.

A few things of note that I thought I’d share on the web site. It doesn’t mention that the FDA thinks they’re marketing a drug without any actual evidence of efficacy or safety testing (they assure us this is just a supplement), yet they’re quick to mention that they “are compliant with current Good Manufacturing Practices  (cGMP) as promulgated by the FDA”. If you use their name enough, you look valid! Also, they mention “extensive testing to determine its safety” without providing any actual links to the findings. In their FAQ, they use some creative wordplay to imply that OSR#1 is not an industrial chelator, calling it an internet rumor.

If there was a link between mercury (or any other heavy metal) and autism, this might be an interesting direction for treatment. There isn’t one. So instead we have a chemical which is not subject to any kind of rigorous testing and making claims about being an extremely effective anti-oxidant. They’ve removed the mercury references from their web site, even though the chemical was originally designed for exclusively that purpose, and now are talking about free radicals. I hope they aren’t planning on moving into cancer treatment. And all the while they offer no proof that any of this works or that they have any tests validating product safety.

These people are scoundrels. They are preying on the foolish and the frustrated, and it is my sincere hope that they get nailed for it and nailed hard.

Jim