Mercury safe to be injected into babies, says study.

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http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/20090127_Study_finds_no_risk_from_vaccine_preservative.html

 

Study finds no risk from vaccine preservative

By Carla K. Johnson

Associated Press

CHICAGO - A

new study from Italy adds to a mountain of evidence that a

mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines does not hurt

children, offering more reassurance to parents. In the early 1990s, thousands of healthy

Italian babies in a study of whooping-cough vaccines got two different

amounts of the preservative thimerosal from all of their routine shots.

Ten years later, 1,403 of those children

took a battery of brain-function tests. Researchers found small

differences in only two of 24 measurements, and those "might be

attributable to chance," they wrote in the February issue of

Pediatrics, which was released yesterday. Only one case of autism was found, and that was in the group that got the lower level of thimerosal. Autism is a complex disorder featuring

repetitive behaviors and poor social-interaction and communication

skills. Scientists generally believe genetics plays a role in causing

the disorder; a theory that thimerosal is to blame has been repeatedly

discounted in scientific studies. "Put together with the evidence of all

the other studies, this tells us there is no reason to worry about the

effect of thimerosal in vaccines," said the new study's lead author,

Alberto Tozzi of Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome. The debate over thimerosal and autism

has been far stronger in the United States than in Italy, he said. But

the researchers recognized a chance to examine the issue by going back

to the children who had taken part in the 1990s whooping-cough

research. Randomization sets the new study apart.

The random assignment of children rules out the chance that factors

other than thimerosal, such as education or poverty, caused the

results. Thimerosal, used in some vaccines to

prevent the growth of bacteria and fungus, has not been in U.S.

Childhood vaccines since 2001, except for certain flu shots. Italy and

other European nations began removing it in 1999. U.S. Health officials

recommended the removal of thimerosal as a precaution and to reduce

overall exposure of children to mercury. Safety regulations still require

multi-dose vials to contain some type of preservative to prevent

spreading infection from contaminated vials. The study, funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drew praise from outside experts. "It's yet another well-done, peer-reviewed

research study that has demonstrated there is no risk of any

neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with thimerosal in vaccines,"

said epidemiologist Jennifer Pinto-Martin of the University of

Pennsylvania.

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