By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – The Missouri House gave first-round passage Wednesday to a bill requiring that mercury be removed from immunization shots.
Since the mid-1980s attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism have been on the increase nation-wide.
And Springfield Republican Roy Holand, a physician, says tests indicate the situation may be caused by an increased intake of mercury.
Many immunization shots, including those for diphtheria, whooping cough and hepatitis-B, contain a mercury-based preservative.
The goal of Holand's bill is to stem the jump in hyperactivity and the like among children who are immunized.
The bill would ban children younger than eight years old from receiving immunizations that contain mercury or the mercury-based preservative, starting in 2006.