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HARD FACTS: Thimerosal (Mercury) in Vaccines

  • Mercury is the third most toxic element on earth, behind polonium and plutonium, and has no physiological role in the human body.
  • Thimerosal was grandfathered for use without adequate safety testing by the FDA.
  • Thimerosal is not “generally recognized as safe or effective” (GRASE) by the FDA OTC Division since 1998.
  • There is evidence that thimerosal is not an effective preservative at vaccine levels.
  • Thimerosal can cross the placenta and blood brain barriers and converts to inorganic mercury in the brain at higher levels that methyl mercury.
  • Studies have identified infants with blood levels after exposure to thimerosal that breach CDC guidelines for a case of mercury chemical poisoning.
  • Thimerosal is recognized as a developmental and reproductive toxicant and is listed as a chemical on the California Proposition 65 list since 1990.
  • Unused doses of thimerosal preserved flu shots must be disposed of as hazardous waste.
  • Tremendous progress has been made in removing thimerosal, but more than 60,000 pregnant mothers receiving Medicaid got the 2019-2020 flu season shots TCVs.
  • We currently have enough thimerosal free flu vaccines to recommend that all defects.
  • By affecting fundamental cellular structures at the molecular level, thimerosal revealed “strong mechanistic evidence for mutagenicity and developmental toxicity”.

CALIFORNIA EPA Proposition – 65

  • California’s Proposition 65, requires identification of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and to ensure public warnings when people might be exposed to them. Thimerosal has been on the Prop-65 list since 1990.
  • In 2003 a petition was filed on behalf of the Bayer Corporation “for reconsideration of the determination that mercury and mercury compounds (thimerosal) as reproductive toxicants.”
  • The CA EPA responded that “The scientific evidence that thimerosal cause reproductive toxicity is clear and voluminous. Thimerosal dissociates in the body to ethyl mercury. The evidence for its reproductive toxicity includes severe mental retardation or malformations in human offspring who were poisoned when their mothers were exposed to ethyl mercury or thimerosal while pregnant, studies in animals demonstrating developmental toxicity after exposure to either ethyl mercury or thimerosal, and data showing intervention to other forms of mercury that also clearly cause reproductive toxicity.”

 

Evidence From Human Research (1)

  • A study published in Pediatrics in 2000 measured blood mercury levels in preterm and term infants after administration of the Hepatitis B vaccine containing 12.5 μg ethyl mercury.
  • The investigation documented elevated post-immunization concentrations relative to pre-immunization levels in all neonates studied. Levels of blood mercury after exposure in low-birth-weight infants were 7.36 (± 4.99) μg/L.
  • One infant was found to have developed a mercury level of 23.6 μg/L, thus meeting the CDC criteria as a case of chemical poisoning from mercury 10μg /L. The study subjects had measurable blood Hg concentrations prior to immunization, indicating that risk assessment must include background mercury levels from other sources.

 

*Wallin, M. (1999). Effects of potential mutagenicity-inducing agents on microtubule assembly in vitro. Mutation Research: Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis * 387(3): 17-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0027-5107(97)00051-2

 

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