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Asheville Citizen Times Women's billboard campaign takes aim at vaccine dangers By Leslie Boyd, Staff Writer Dec. 3, 2003 10:06 p.m. ASHEVILLE - Amy Carson hopes drivers along Biltmore Avenue will enjoy her Christmas present. It will be hard to miss. Carson and her friend Angela Medlin of Raleigh asked their families for money this Christmas so they could each put up a billboard with a message. Carson's, on Biltmore Avenue north of Mission Hospitals, will be unveiled Monday. Many vaccines contain Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that the women believe poisoned their sons. Both have become activists against its use in vaccines, although it's no longer used in new vaccines. Carson and Medlin met in January while protesting a rider in the Homeland Security Bill that would have taken away their right to sue the manufacturer of Thimerosal. They won that battle, but neither will rest until they have proved their case to the court and to the public. "We're tired of people lying about this," Carson said. "We just want people to know there's still mercury in a lot of children's vaccines and in flu vaccines." "I don't want any money out of this," Medlin said. "All I want is help for my son and maybe acknowledgement that they did this." The billboards will say, "Mercury: It's deadly. Flu shots, vaccines. It's in there. Why?" At the bottom is the Web address for the women's campaign, www.momsagainstmercury.com. The women will pay about $800 for the two billboards. "Some people think I'm a little too passionate about this," Medlin said. "But nobody else is going to tell this story. Certainly not Congress or the doctors, and certainly not the pharmaceutical companies. It has to be the parents." Carson has put the information on the back window of her Saturn SUV: "My child was poisoned by the mercury in his vaccines...." When she first learned about Thimerosal and started campaigning against its use, Carson felt as though she was screaming into the wilderness and no one was listening. But the movement has grown, she said, and she believes her message is getting out to people. Still, the more she can get her word out there, the happier she is, Carson said. So, she and Medlin are planning a third billboard in Winston-Salem. "It's just an educational campaign, that's all," she said. Contact Boyd at 232-2922 or LBoyd@CITIZEN-TIMES.com. |
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