History of Thimerosal

[emmy526]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/106019492/Thimerosal-Was-Known-to-Be-Toxic-Since-the-1930s

[Cynthia Mosher]

Wow. Thanks for sharing. :)

[prosciencemum]

I followed the link but it said the document had been deleted.

Some of you might be interested in "Science at Home's" discussion of why mercury is toxic, but that's not the same as thimerosol (especially her analogy of toxic chlorine, and harmelss - at least in small doses - table sale, or sodium chloride).

http://science-at-home.org/there-is-no-mercury-in-vaccines/

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by prosciencemum 

I followed the link but it said the document had been deleted.

No problem, it can still be accessed here.

[prosciencemum]

That Google cache version pretty hard to read. I guess it got removed as they broke copywrite positing it there? 

There's an abstract in pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18049924

My concerns over what I read so far - mostly it seems to be saying that a widely cited study in thimerosol (which found it to be safe) from the 1930s was flawed, not actually that any proof of harm was found.

In addition they don't compare the dosage levels to what is in the few adult vaccines which still contain thimerosol. I don't think it's too controversial that thimerosol in large doses is toxic and dangerous to humans, but the doses in vaccines are so miniscule that it's hard to see how they could have much of an effect. 

Digging a bit more now....

Wikipedia biography is not too happy with an author of this study: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Geier, and it quotes an Institute of Medicine report saying that his work was 

Quote:

seriously flawed, "uninterpretable", and marred by incorrect use of scientific terms

So maybe it's not just the cache version which is hard to read! ;) 

Oh and his medical license has been revocked in several states over controversial autism treatments. Doesn't sound like someone who's research or opinion I'd trust to be honest.  

The other author named Geier (David Geier) has apparantly been charged with attempting to work as a physician when improperly trained (he has a BA in Biology).  

[Mirzam]

@prosciencemum

Quote:

My concerns over what I read so far - mostly it seems to be saying that a widely cited study in thimerosol (which found it to be safe) from the 1930s was flawed, not actually that any proof of harm was found.

I assume they are citing the Eli Lily study from 1930 when they tested Thimerosal (Sodium Ethylmercurithiosalycilate) on 22 children with meningitis. They all died. They declared them dead of meningitis and Thimerosal was declared safe. Sounds like a flawed study to me.

[emmy526]

i can't believe, well i CAN believe it was deleted....it was either a greenmedinfo article, or a medscape article regarding thimerosol

[emmy526]

here's another link for history info

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2005/08/beginning-at-beginning.html

[prosciencemum]

Originally Posted by Mirzam 

@prosciencemum

I assume they are citing the Eli Lily study from 1930 when they tested Thimerosal (Sodium Ethylmercurithiosalycilate) on 22 children with meningitis. They all died. They declared them dead of meningitis and Thimerosal was declared safe. Sounds like a flawed study to me.

Doesn't sound great to me either - mostly since if they were sick in the first place I don't understand how you'd distinguish effects of the thimerosol. Also it seems of dubious moral ethics. But my point is that showing that a study which has been used to say thimerosol is safe was flawed, is not the same as proving thimerosol is dangerous. 

 The FDA has a website on thimerosol in vaccines in which they discuss their opinions on it and which seems relevent in this thread. Also includes some of the history of its use in vaccines (especially childhood vaccines) (http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228)

For example they say: 

FDA has been actively addressing the issue of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines. Under the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA) of 1997, the FDA conducted a comprehensive review of the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Conducted in 1999, this review found no evidence of harm from the use of thimerosal as a vaccine preservative, other than local hypersensitivity reactions (Ball et al. 2001).

despite the lack of any evidence of danger in that review the FDA and other government agencies related to health/children still recommended that it be removed/reduced in all vaccines in 1999/2000 "just in case" they had missed something. 

Quote:

"As a precautionary measure, the Public Health Service (including the FDA, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued two Joint Statements, urging vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal in vaccines as soon as possible (CDC 1999) and (CDC 2000)."

That link has a discussion on the effectiveness of that recommendation and there is not thimerosol in almost all routinely recommended childhood vaccinations in 2012 (table at that link).  I was interested to note that the table also says that many formulations never had any thimerosol.

Finally they also comment on their ongoing study of thimerosol in vaccines and in other products: 

Quote:

"The FDA is continuing its efforts to reduce the exposure of infants, children, and pregnant women to mercury from various sources. Discussions with the manufacturers of influenza virus vaccines (which are now routinely recommended for pregnant women and children 6-23 months of age) regarding their capacity to potentially increase the supply of thimerosal-reduced and thimerosal-free presentations are ongoing."