Thimerosal (mercury) in vaccines

     In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended to the FDA that thimerosal be removed from pediatric vaccine bottles. The Academy was responding more to public sentiment than to actual scientific evidence.

     Thimerosal is a preservative that is used in bottles of vaccine that have more than one dose of vaccine in them. After this recommendation, vaccines were packaged in vials that only had one dose and didn’t need preservative.

   The public concern about thimerosal came from the fact that it is a form of mercury and people knew that mercury is harmful and can build up in the human body. Mercury actually comes in many forms – some are dangerous and some are not.  The methylmercury found in fish is dangerous and can build up in the body, but thimerosal is ethylmercury which has never been shown to be dangerous and is rapidly eliminated from the human body.

     The people who are anti-vaccine always wave the fear of autism in front of parents. Even though thimerosal has been eliminated in all vaccines except flu vaccine since 1999, the rate of autism throughout the country has continued to rise. There have been many studies that show no relationship between thimerosal and autism.

     None of this will make any difference for American parents because the vaccine manufactures will never sell thimerosal-containing vaccines in this country again. They don’t want the expense of dealing with the frivolous lawsuits. But in the summer of 2012, the United Nations will be voting on whether to use thimerosal-containing vaccines in third-world countries. The cost of the single-dose vaccine vials that don’t contain thimerosal is currently about $1apiece.  That $1 is what it now costs to give a third-world child ALL of the vaccines he needs. If these countries are not allowed to have multiple dose bottles of vaccine, they simply will not be able to afford to give their children any vaccines. Then the cost won’t be in dollars - it will be in childhood disease and death.