SafeMinds

The Coalition for SafeMinds (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) is a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating the risks of exposure to mercury from medical products. SafeMinds was founded in 2000 and is led by the parents of autistic children.
The organization contends that mercury in vaccines, in the form of thiomersal, is related to the development of autism. Medical research has refuted any causative link between thiomersal and autism. This research has not been accepted by SafeMinds, which has continued to pursue the issue in the political and judicial arenas. The organization also attracted attention because of its plan to run a video about flu shots for pregnant women in movie theaters back in 2010; however, skeptical bloggers succeeded in keeping it out of AMC Theaters.
Principals
Lyn Redwood, the president and co-founder of SafeMinds, is a nurse practitioner specializing in pediatrics and women's health care. Her son Will was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Redwood is co-author of "Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning", and has testified before the United States House of Representatives Government Reform Committee, where she presented Mercury in Medicine: Are We Taking Unnecessary Risks?
Sallie Bernard, is a co-founder of SafeMinds, and a co-author of research papers on the links between vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders. Her son Bill was diagnosed with autism in 1993. She was a member of the panel that issued a 2007 federally-funded study that found no link between thimerosal exposure and neurological problems, but she did not agree with the findings.
Liz Birt was a corporate, tax and health care attorney and lobbyist and a co-founder SafeMinds. Her son, Matthew, was diagnosed with autism in 1996. She died in 2005 as a result of a car crash near Aspen, Colorado.
Eric Uram, an environmental activist formally with the Sierra Club, is the Executive Director of SafeMinds.
SmartVax
SafeMinds is responsible for the existence of the website Smartvax, which argues that "...current vaccine-injury risk is quantitatively much greater than the disease risk." The website has been criticized by David Gorski, who denounced their call for a double-blind placebo-controlled trial on the basis that it would be "incredibly unethical."

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