RSS
Home
Green vaccines
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
What is thiomersal? Do high quantities of it cause autism? Why is it in our vaccines anyway? Over the past few years these are questions parents have been asking with little to no answers. The opinions on thiomersal are vastly different. Some believe that it is one cause of autism, others believe that there is not enough of the ethyl mercury in the vaccines to harm anyone.
Few studies of the toxicity of thiomersal in humans have been performed. Animal experiments suggest that thiomersal rapidly dissociates to release ethylmercury after injection; that the disposition patterns of mercury are similar to those after exposure to equivalent doses of ethylmercury chloride; and that the central nervous system and the kidneys are targets, with lack of motor coordination being a common sign. Similar signs and symptoms have been observed in accidental human poisonings. The mechanisms of toxic action are unknown. Ethylmercury clears from blood with a half-time of about 18 days, and from the brain in about 14 days. Inorganic mercury metabolized from ethylmercury has a much longer clearance, at least 120 days; it appears to be much less toxic than the inorganic mercury produced from mercury vapor, for reasons not yet understood.
Thiomersal is nearly half ethylmercury by weight. Because ethylmercury is an organic form of mercury, there is some suspicion that it acts like methylmercury in the brain, although research published in the August 2005 issue of EHP suggests that the two forms differ greatly in how they are distributed through and eliminated from the brain. Developing countries continue to use pediatric vaccines that contain thimerosal. In the United States, thimerosal is still present in influenza vaccines, which the CDC recommends be given to pregnant women and children aged 6-23 months.
Some parents and health care providers believe that there is a link between thiomersal and autism. Although there is no hard evidence that thiomersal is a factor in the onset of autism, parents often first become aware of autistic symptoms after receiving a routine vaccine. More than 5,000 families in the United States have filed claims in a federal vaccine court stating that autism is caused by vaccines. The federal government awarded damages to a family of a little girl with a mitochondrial enzyme deficiency who developed autistic-like symptoms after receiving a series of vaccines, some of which contained thiomersal. Many parents saw this ruling as a confirmation that thiomersal can cause regressive autism. There are many people who strongly support Governor Schwarzenegger’s decision to make mercury-free vaccines readily available to children and pregnant women. Actress Jenny McCarthy is also a voice for those parents who want thiomersal out of vaccines. She led a rally in Washington for the removal of thiomersal and other potentially harmful metals. This march represented the largest march on Washington ever for this particular cause.
The Toxic Substances Control Act was put into place over thirty years ago, it needs to be updated.
In July 2005, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg introduced the Child, Worker, and Consumer Safe Chemicals Act, which initially calls for chemical manufacturers to provide health and safety information on the chemicals used in certain consumer products, among them baby bottles, water bottles, and food packaging. If passed into law, the bill, coauthored by Senator James Jeffords, would require all commercially distributed chemicals to meet the new safety measures by 2020. Far more research is needed. Educating the public is only a small part of the solution.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
.jpg)
