Ethyl mercury (thimerosal) was used in Australian Government funded flu vaccines for children until 2000, and vaccines for adults until 2004. (Fluvax is manufactured by CSL a global bio-pharmaeutical company). 

Why is it that we have not been informed about the inclusion of 49.6 percent ethyl mercury in the preservative used in vaccines in the past?  What effects does this have on us in the future, especially those of us who have dental amalgams in our mouths?  The two most important sources of mercury exposure for Americans are dental amalgams and vaccinations.  Because ethyl mercury (thimerosal) has been removed from flu vaccines does that mean that we need not be concerned?  Do ‘the benefits outweigh the risks’?

I am not a medical practitioner, my PhD is in environmental studies.

I am asking these questions because I am curious, and sometimes sceptical, about certain medical treatments, also I’m in the ‘really should have’ age group for flu vaccination but I need more information than the small print on the packaging before going ahead.

Data sheets advising us of side effects are not included in packaging for Fluvax.  They are available on application from health professionals to CSL Limited. Benefits of Fluvax and the safety of flu vaccines could be presumed because of the Australian government’s funding of the product, however, there is more involved than the data sheet’s listed side effects.  There is an ongoing debate about the association of mercury, autism and Alzheimers with vaccines. 

According to Donald W. Miller, in an article ‘Mercury on the Mind’, in which he associates mercury with the growth of autism and Altzheimers, currently one in 68 families in America has an autistic child.  Over the last thirty years more than one million children have come down with this disease. 

More than 4 million Americans now have Altzheimers disease.  According to Miller it afflicts half of people over the age of 85 and 20 percent aged 75 to 84. 

(I do not have statistics for Australia — perhaps other researchers could research the gap?).
Thoroughly documented American research, the most important being a 2003 report to Congress, contains evidence of the harmful effects of the ethyl mercury compound (thimerosal) used as a preservative in vaccines (references given below).

Big trouble

Dr. Marc Geier, a physician, board certified geneticist and vaccine researcher, who has been doing research for over 30 years said, “This society is going to be in big trouble – we cannot have a whole generation of people damaged the way this is happening” Geier also told a Congressional committee investigating vaccine safety (VAERS: Adverse Effects Reporting System to Congress) that vaccine manufacturers have begun to mislabel vaccines so that thimerosal cannot be tracked.

A US Congressional Record Executive Summary (May 21, 2003 E1012) includes the following findings:

*Mercury is hazardous to humans

*For decades, ethyl mercury was used extensively in medical products ranging from vaccines to topical ointments as preservative and an ante-bacteriological agent.

*Manufacturers of thimerosal (an ethyl mercury compound used in vaccines) have never conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal. The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct adequate testing of the safety of thimerosal and ethyl mercury compounds.

*Studies and papers documenting the hyperallergenicity and toxicity of thimerosal (ethyl mercury) have existed for decades.

*A growing number of scientists and researchers believe that a relationship exists between the increase in neurodevelopmental disorders of autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, and speech and language delay…’

As a result of my research into thimerosal I find it difficult not to be skeptical, especially when I read that President Bush received $US 1 million dollars from pharmaceutical companies prior to the election and that many members of Congress received thousands of dollars.

Referenced below are leads to reports of cover-ups and difficulty of access to US records after the phase out of thimerosal began in 2000.  This meant that researchers were not able to observe an anticipated and hoped for decline in the number of people affected after the withdrawal of thimerosal.

Anyone wishing to investigate the association of autism and Altzheimers with mercury will find detailed and well referenced information in ‘Mercury on the Mind: Want to avoid both autism and Alzheimers?  Then forget the flu vaccine and avoid dental amalgams’; by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD, Washington Free Press, #72 November/December 2004
http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/72/mercuryOnTheMind.htm

A 20 page review of thimerosal and autism can be found in the Congressional Record prepared for its Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness and presented to the Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Dan Burton (who has an autistic grandson).
Congressional Record, May 21, 2003, E1011-E1030 or,
http://www.aaapsonline.org/vaccines/mercinmed.pdf.           

Dr Mary Jenkins has a Phd in environmental studies