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Home ›› About Speciation ›› Speciation News

Researchers Urge the Removal of Mercury From Flu Shots

(17.03.2011)

Despite recommendations made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1999 that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, be removed from vaccines, the very toxic chemical is still added to the majority of flu vaccines administered to women, children, and the elderly, according to the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD), a Maryland-based non-profit organization. And according to three recent studies, the symptoms of mercury poisoning are nearly identical to those of autism symptoms, which strongly suggests that mercury in vaccines is responsible for causing autism.

Background:
Mercury is a well known neurotoxin that causes cancer (carcinogen), damages DNA (mutagen), alters proper embryonic development (teratogen), and disrupts the immune system. That is why the United Nations, the European Commission, and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluate the health and environmental risks associated with mercury and have implemented strategies to reduce the industrial use of mercury in order to reduce human exposure to mercury. In the form of organic compounds mercury is able to easily cross the blood-brain barrier reaching the brain even easier.

Thimerosal (Thiomersal)

Such compounds are exactly the type of harmful chemicals that you would never want to put in your body, and yet it is still added in the form of Thimerosal to millions of flu vaccines administered to the public.

New research continues to fuel concerns about Thimerosal, a mercury-based compound used as a preservative in inactivated flu vaccines. Thimerosal is hydrolyzing in aqueous solutions leading to ethylmercury.

The new studies:
Publicizing the recent international studies that caution against the use of mercury in medicine has been left to doctors and citizens belonging to independent groups such as the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD), a Maryland-based, non-profit organization. This is because much of the American public is unaware that Thimerosal continues to be present in most U.S. flu shots, in spite of a 1999 call by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service to remove it from vaccines "as soon as possible." The situation in Europe and other contries in the world in general is not much different.

Dr. Paul G. King, PhD, Science Advisor to CoMeD, cites the urgent need to stop this use of mercury in flu shots: "We have scientific studies clearly demonstrating that mercury causes neurological damage, and we have a cost-effective alternate that has already been used to replace Thimerosal as the preservative in vaccines."

One recent example of these studies published in the December 2010 issue of the journal Folia Neuropathologica [1] explains that the mercury used in vaccines appears to directly cause neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. That study's scientific data led the authors to conclude, "On the whole, the results of this study argue for urgent removal of thimerosal from all vaccines for children and pregnant women, as well as from other medicinal products and cosmetics."

The second new study [2], published this year in the journal of Middle East Current Psychiatry, also supports claims that mercury could be the culprit behind autism. Noting that mercury-based compounds are used as preservatives in several vaccines, the investigators stressed, "Mercury poisoning and autism have nearly identical symptoms."

In a third study [3], published in the Journal of Immunotoxicology in early February 2011, the causal connection between Thimerosal and autism is explained: "Thimerosal has been implicated as a cause of autism. Not only is every major symptom of autism documented in cases of mercury poisoning but also biological abnormalities in autism are very similar to side effects of mercury poisoning itself."

The 1999 statement made by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Public Health Service (PHS) about the urgency of removing Thimerosal from vaccines is still posted on the website of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) over a decade later. Yet, Thimerosal is now added to most of the flu shots given to pregnant women, children, and the elderly.

It remains unclear why the toxic preservative is still used in vaccines - especially when there are safer alternatives available. It is also unclear why politicians and rule makers in a coalition with vaccine producers continue to deny the obvious and scientifically-verifiable research results about the very strong toxicity of thimerosal and its link with autism. It should be clear that the issue is not even one of opposition to vaccinations as much as it is one of opposition to neurotoxic poisons like Thimerosal that continue to deliberately be added to them.

Source: Adapted from Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD)

The new studies

[1] Mieszko Olczak, Michalina Duszczyk, Pawel Mierzejewski, Teresa Wierzba-Bobrowicz, Maria Dorota Majewska, Lasting neuropathological changes in rat brain after intermittent neonatal administration of thimerosal, Folia Neuropathol, 48/4 (2010) 258-269. access via PubMed.

[2] E. Elsheshtawy, S. Tobar, K. Sherra, S. Atallah, R. Elkasaby, Study of some biomarkers in hair of children with autism, Middle East Current Psychiatry, 18/1 (2011) 6–10. doi: 10.1097/01.XME.0000392842.64112.64

[3] Helen V. Ratajczak, Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes—A review, Journal of Immunotoxicology, 8/1 (2011) 68-79. doi:10.3109/1547691X.2010.545086