Scientific Paper on Mercury in vaccines

January 31, 2009

Timely, then a review of mercury toxicity is published this week in the International Journal of Environment and Health. In the paper, Iman Al-Saleh of the Environmental Health Section, at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, discusses the three chemical forms in which mercury is usually found: elemental (liquid mercury, amalgams, or vapour), organic (bound to a carbon-containing material), inorganic (mercury salts).

“Diet, especially fish and other seafood, is the main source of exposure of the general public to organic mercury. Dental amalgam is the most important source for elemental mercury vapour in the general population. Inorganic mercury compounds are known as mercuric salts, which are sometimes used in skin-lightening creams and as antiseptic creams and ointments,” says Al-Saleh. Thiomersal, thiomerosal

Thiomersal, sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate, is the sodium salt of an organic mercury compound and represents another exposure route. Thiomersal is known as thimerosal and Merthiolate in the US and was commonly used as an antibacterial agent in vaccine packaging. Presumably, thiomersal has saved thousands of lives by preventing potentially lethal Staphylococcus infections in those being vaccinated.

Nevertheless, it is use is now being phased out in the developed world through safety legislation, but it is still in use in Saudi Arabia, Al-Saleh points out, and elsewhere.

Al-Saleh’s extensive review of research into mercury toxicity does suggest that there is a need to evaluate antenatal and postnatal exposure to different forms of organic and inorganic mercury, especially given concerns regarding delayed neurological development in different age groups. This ongoing research will provide science-based evidence, rather than hearsay and scaremongering, regarding mercury exposure and provide healthcare providers and policymakers with the facts. Spurious anecdotes about paranoid parents panicked by environmental cleanup firms out to make a fast buck should not figure in this evidence.

Iman A. Al-Saleh (2009). Health implications of mercury exposure in children International Journal of Environment and Health, 3 (1), 22-57