Mercury (Thimerosal) in Vaccination Shots

Something that really bothers me about the media is the idea that it is considerably difficult to challenge what is stated by news agencies as fact. For example, I don't know if ISIS exists or is a story created by the media - when I read alternate-from-the-mainstream media sources such as Al Jazeera, they never use the term ISIS. Historically, I don't even know for sure if the media have ever had any true balance and thoroughly covered topics I'm interested in. The only way I would understand anything at all about modern geopolitics would be to go to the actual places and talk to people there, but that seems really dangerous and expensive. Something I do feel I have some control over and confidence from a fact based perspective is science. I can look up scientific articles, and find out if results of studies are actually matching up with  what science and health sources are saying.

That said, what the media have been all abuzz about lately are vaccinations - apparently 1 lone unvaccinated woman is to blame for the return of smallpox in North America after visiting Disneyland. I have read and heard a few different slants on the story, but something that comes up again and again is the mantra that vaccines are safe, and the anti-vaccination movement is to blame for children not getting vaccinated, after some people protesting that the vaccines may be inducing autism spectrum disorder. And although we are told scientists keep repeatedly saying vaccines have been found to be safe, no articles by the media give any details, just the subtext of "take our word for it, scientists know what is best for you and have already figured everything out for you, don't worry your pretty head about it." It is always these sorts of "trust us" generalized, unsubstatiated statements that act like a red flag for me. So I wanted to dig a little deeper and see what I can find out in real research.

I remember when the anti-vaccination movement was gaining traction in Canada, I was in University and the elderly lady who ran the health food store I frequented gave me a pamphlet about it. From what I remember most of it was fluff that could be dismissed, but something I always remembered reading on it was that they use mercury as a preservative in vaccines. As a biology major I was learning about the devastating effects of mercury on ocean life, particularly on how it bioaccumulates in fish, so fish higher up on the food chain like tuna hold the most mercury because of all the other fish they are eating all contain smaller amounts of mercury, and are held in the tuna's body until it gets to your dinner plate.

Something I didn't understand at the time until I started doing this research here, is that there are different types of mercury. The type that accumulates in organisms such as fish and humans and is very lethal is called methyl mercury, while the type that is used as a vaccine preservative is ethyl mercury.  Chemistry is certainly not my strong suit, but Wikipedia assures me the major difference is that ethyl mercury has not been found to bioaccumulate. That's good right? Well, I'm not sure, so I decided to start looking for articles on ethyl mercury and see what I could find out. Interestingly, there are not many studies to be found on ethyl mercury, but that being said here are some studies I was able to find relevant study information on.

The first of such studies I found takes place in Iraq, where Iraqi farmers have been given wheat seed preserved with ethyl mercury (again as a preservative). In 1961 starving Iraqi farmers ate seeds laced with ethyl mercury p-toluene sulphonanilide. The seeds were donated to Iraq for planting, but it was too late in the planting season, and farmers were used to making bread out of their leftover seed, and were not fully aware of the consequences of eating the mercury laced seeds, because it is odourless and tasteless. Although it may not bioaccumulate, there were profound health effects on people who ate the seeds, and many required emergency treatment. Most notable problems patients had were disfunction of the kidneys, gastro-intestinal tract, skin, heart, muscles. The most constant problem was nervous system problems including disturbance of speech, cerebellar ataxia (loss of muscle movement and co-ordination) and spasticity (Jalili and Abbasi, 1961). It's important to keep in mind though that they were ingesting much more mercury than the amounts found in vaccines.

Next I found a study on pheasants published in 1972, and they found that concentrations of 12.5 parts of mercury per million was sufficient to kill adult ring-necked pheasants within 2-3 months of feeding (Spann et al., 1972). At smaller doses, 4.2 parts of mercury per million reduced egg production 50-80% and increased embryo mortality. Again, pheasants are much smaller than people, but I think we can say that ethyl mercury is not completely harmless.

An important review of serveral studies by Dorea found studies that showed potential synergies with
exposure to multiple toxic compounds. These toxic compounds could be introduced through combination of breast-feeding, food, or other sources in the local environment, combined with ethyl mercury from vaccinations may influence neurodevelopmental outcomes (Dorea, 2012).  He noted that ethyl mercury has a short half-life and so is unlikely to be measured in blood, and also pointed out the disturbing lack of literature in studies on the specific exposure to small amounts of ethylmercury derived from TCVs(vaccines). When studies with young children are properly adjusted for exposure to mercury in vaccines, subtle neurodevelopmental effects can be demonstrated. Something important to think about is not just the effect of ethyl mercury alone, but combined in the body while being exposed to other toxic chemicals such as lead and cadmium, which in our pro-pollution society can be quite common, especially in poor urban areas and industrial production centres. While one toxin may be seemingly harmless, combined with another can be much more lethal.

Another study looked in particular for links to autism. This is because many signs and symptoms of mercury exposure correspond to autism (McGinnis, 2001). The study also indicated gut disease with inflammation is common in autistic children, and is in nearly 90% of regressed autistic children. Exposure to inorganic mercurial compounds have been shown to cause injuries in animals to intestinal mucosa and the colon, as well as deposits of antibody in the intestine. It would definitely be interesting to look for relationships between gut disorders and autism, gut disorders and vaccination, as well as the prevalence of gut disorders in modern times compared to previous decades.

It is in this study I also learned about Thimerosal, the name for the specific mercury based compound used in vaccines. So I decided to do another round of searching for articles on this term, and see if I could find some more relevant articles.

Thimerosal - What are Known Effects?

In 2012 there was some backlash from the scientific community in response to the movement against vaccinations. The paper mentions that a treaty by the United Nations Environment Programme could have banned thimerosal as part of the effort to restrict human and environmental exposure to mercury (King et. al., 2012). However, the World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group, backed by some of the scientific community recommended thimerosal be exempt to avoid disruption to the global vaccine supply. There was some argument that it would be unjust to allow it to be used, since wealthier nations have phased it out. The counter argument is that "the real threat of injustice comes from considering the removal of this currently necessary and irreplaceable compound from the global vaccine supply, and the avoidable increases in morbidity and mortality that would inevitably result from disruptions to vaccination programs targeting already marginalized populations in LMICs(Lower-Middle Income Countries). " Basically a moral argument that it is for their own good as well as the greater good, and no mention about how to deal with the potential problems that will come from the mercury exposure down the line.

The statement by the scientific community the last paper refers to the commentary article in the very same publication by Orenstein et. al., on Global Vaccination Recommendations and Thimerosal (2012). They say "Overwhelmingly, the evidence collected over the past 15 years has failed to yield any evidence of significant harm, including serious neurodevelopmental disorders, from use of thimerosal in vaccines. ..The Institute of Medicine, and others have concluded that the evidence favors rejection of a link between thimerosal and autism. Careful studies of the risk of other serious neurodevelopmental disorders have failed to support a causal link with thimerosal. " They go on to explain that the main problem with removing the vaccine is costs, increasing manufacturing costs for vaccines from 200%-500%, reduce manufacturing capacity and increase transportation and storage space costs.

The next study I looked at examined 196 infants and their mothers who attended ambulatory prenatal clinics in the 1st and 2nd trimester in Krakow (Mrozek-Budzyn et. al., 2012). Vaccination history and child development were measured in 1 year intervals over 3 years. They reported only observing adverse effects in the 12th and 24th months of life, with no effect found in the 36th month. They do admit that in populations with higher co-exposure to other neurotoxic elements even a subtle negative effect can indicate greater risk of developmental delays, an important point I mentioned in a previous study, and something I'll return to later. The plausibility of the harmful effect of vaccination on child development was a sufficient argument to remove thimerosal from all infant vaccines in the USA and EU years ago (Canada also ended up banning thimerosal). The results of the study showed that TCVs should be replaced by Thimerosal-free formulas in countries that can afford it economically.

Some interesting studies were done in Japan and have found some substantial results on rats. They found prenatal exposure to thimerosal caused a significant increase in serotonin and dopamine content in the rat`s brains as adults (Ida-Eto et. al., 2013). This indicates lasting neurochemical impairments to the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems of the brain.

The results of another study on rats found premature rats receiving 65.6, 98.4 and 131.2 ug/kg (micrograms per kilogram) of thimerosal displayed abnormal functioning of spatial learning and memory (Chen et. al., 2013). They concluded that their study was consistent with previous studies demonstrating that exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines in susceptible populations, such as premature infants, may be associated with neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.

Back in the United States, another study evaluated children aged 7-10 and their mothers, and found no significant associations between thimerosal exposure from vaccines early in life and typical measures like intelligence, verbal memory, executive functioning, speech and language, fine motor and behavior regulation (Barile et. al, 2011). However, they did find a significant association between exposure to thimerosal and the presence of motor tics in boys. They admitted the measurement of the tics was limited, but still significant.  A major problem of the study that wasn't mentioned however, was that the study was attempted for 3648 families, of which 1985 refused or were unable to be contacted. At the end 1047 were retained for the final sample. We don`t know why so many refused, but it is always possible that children with the most health or mental problems were refused by the parents, because they had enough to deal with as it was without participating in a scientific study. As a general rule of thumb in statistics, if less than 50% of the original sample do not participate in the study, then the results are considered unreliable, because factors related to the study may be influencing who is and is not interested in participating in the study.

Finally, one paper reported recent studies suggest that children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)  have abnormal sulfation chemistry, limited thiol availability, and decreased glutathione reserve capacity (Kern et. al., 2013). Limited thiol availability suggests vulnerability to Thimerosal . The associated behavioural and developmental outcomes found in autism are plausible as mercury toxicity, since the brain is a target organ for Thimerosal's toxic effects as well as a target organ for the bioaccumulation of Mercury. They concluded that Thimerosal should be removed from all vaccines.

We can see from this not at all random selection of studies there is still a lot of unclarity about the exact health implications of vaccinations including thimerosal. These studies represent a large bulk of the research done on effects of thimerosal and ethyl mercury, and so for starters it must be said that more research needs to be done in this area. We also need to ask the question, why are there not more studies? It has been known for a very long time the detrimental effects of mercury on human health, so it seems strange that mercury would be used without the thorough research to determine its efficacy and health outcomes.

Related to this are the cries from the "scientific community", whoever this may be comprised of, stating that it is safe, while themselves not stating any research backing this up. There seems to be a purposefulness behind the lack of hard data, again leading to the claims that it is for the greater good, without addressing the problem, that is, how do we reconcile doing these vaccinations knowing the health risks that will come down the line. Whose problem is it? Are there considerations that need to be taken outside the simple need to vaccinate everyone?

That said, the fact is that vaccines do contain less than 1 microgram of thimerosal. All of the studies with doses administered to test animals were much larger amounts, and those animals have considerably less mass than humans. A study using comparable amounts, or at least tests with 1 microgram administered. Studies also need to be done to better understand what synergies are happening between ethyl mercury and other toxic compounds.

Finally, it needs to be pointed out that now, in first world countries at least, there is reason to believe that vaccinations should indeed be safe from health concerns, because thimerosal was removed from vaccines in the United States, Canada, the European Union and possibly other countries. Thimerasol is not required as a preservative if vaccines are stored in single dose vials. However, every opportunity that scientists, doctors, and health experts have to express this is lost - they never talk about this point. Why? Because they would be admitting that previous vaccine doses containing mercury did pose health concerns, and despite this they are still being used in 3rd world countries - because new vaccines that do not contain mercury are much more expensive. Single dose vials require more packaging, shipping and storage. Economic reasons seems to be the only reason now why we use mercury containing vaccines at all, and because our modern world holds economic concerns is our primary concern, the cheaper vaccines will continue being used for the foreseeable future.

References

Barile, J.P., Kuperminc, G.P., Weintraub, E.S., Mink, J.W. and Thompson, W.W. 2012. Thimerosal exposure in early life and neuropsychological outcomes 7-10 years later. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 37(1): 106-118.

Chen, Y., Wang, J., Zhang, J., Li, S., He, L. Shao, D., Du, H. 2013. Effect of thimerosal on the neurodevelopment of premature rats. World Journal of Pediatrics, 9(4): 356-360.

Dorea, Jose G. 2012. Neurotoxic metal coexposures and neurodevelopment. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(6): A226.

Ida-Eto, M., Oyabu, A., Ohkawara, T., Tashiro, Y., Narita, N. and Narita, M. 2013. Prenatal exposure to organomercury, thimerosal, persistently impairs the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems in the rat brain: Implications for association with developmental disorders. Brain & Development 35 (2013) 261-264.

Jalili, M.A. and Abbasi, A.H. 1961. Poisoning by ethyl mercury toluene suphonanilide. British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 18(4): 303-308.

Kern, J.K., Haley, B.E., Geier, D.A., Sykes, L.K., King, P.G. and Geier, M.R. 2013. Thimerosal exposure and the role of sulfation chemistry and thiol availability in autism. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2013(10): 3771-3800.

King, K., Paterson, M. and S.K. Green. 2012. Global justice and the proposed ban on thimerosal-containing vaccines. Pediatrics, 2013;131: 154-156.

McGinnis, Woody R. 2001. Mercury and autistic gut disease. Environmental Health Perspectives, 109(7): A303-A304.

Mrozek-Budzyn, D., Majewska, R., Kieltyka, A. and Augustyniak, M. 2011. Neonatal exposure to thimerosal from vaccines and child development in the first 3 years of life. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 34(2012): 592-597.

Orenstein, W. A., Paulson, J. A., Brady, M. T., Cooper, L. Z. and Seib, K. 2012. Global vaccination recommendations and thimerosal. Pediatrics, 2013;131: 149-151.

Spann, J.W., Heath, R.G., Kreitzer, J.F. and Locke, L.N. 1972. Ethyl mercury p-toluene sulfonanilide: lethal and repreoductive effects on pheasants. Science, 175(4019): 328-331.