I am so impressed with those of you who have been on this path
for so long. I have only been on this quest for a year or so and
have thought of giving up trying to spread the word on a few
occasions. It is painful at times to be seen as a freak. Sometimes
I just want to bury my head in the sand and keep my knowledge to
myself. Then, of course, I think of the children. All of our
children and all of the children whose parents have not yet learned
the facts about this mess. I sent a personal e-mail to a very
respected and connected man within another medical group that I am
involved. I asked him to join in the discussions, gave him a brief
synopsis of the facts, etc. I tried not to be "too controversial"
in asking him to join (didn't bash any agency, people, etc).
Basically, I got no where. Here was one thing (from PubMed) that he
sent to me as a response to my e-mail. As you will see I've got a
lot of work to do :-( .


Thiomersal in vaccines: balancing the risk of adverse affects with
the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Bigham M, Copes R.

Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

A number of affluent countries are moving to eliminate thiomersal
(thimerosal), an ethylmercury preservative, from vaccines as a
precautionary measure because of concerns about the potential
adverse effects of mercury in infants. The WHO advocates continued
use of thiomersal-containing vaccines in developing countries
because of their effectiveness, safety, low cost, wide availability
and logistical suitability in this setting. The guidelines for long-
term mercury exposure should not be used for evaluating risk from
intermittent single day exposures, such as immunisation using
thiomersal-containing vaccines. Similar or higher mercury exposures
likely occur from breast feeding and the health benefit of
eliminating thiomersal from a vaccine, if any, is likely to be very
small. On the other hand, the benefits accrued from the use of
thiomersal-containing vaccines are considerably greater but vary
substantially between affluent and developing regions of the world.
Because of the contribution to overall mercury exposure from breast
milk and diet in later life, the removal of thiomersal from vaccines
would produce no more than a 50% reduction of mercury exposure in
infancy and <1% reduction over a lifetime. Different public policy
decisions are appropriate in different settings to achieve the
lowest net risk, viewed from the perspectives of the individual
vaccinee or on a population basis. In developing regions of the
world, at least over the next decade, far more benefit will accrue
from protecting children against widely prevalent vaccine-
preventable diseases by focusing efforts aimed at improving infant
immunisation uptake by using current, inexpensive, domestically-
manufactured, thiomersal-containing vaccines, than by investing in
thiomersal-free alternatives.

Publication Types:
Review
Review, Tutorial


Wonderful...
-Sue