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Pastimes : Alternative Medicine/Health -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (155)	6/25/2001 10:03:15 PM
From: LLCF	Respond to of 357

Chalk one up for the FDA: findarticles.com Mercury in Many Childhood Vaccines: FDA Tells the Manufacturers to Remove It. Author/s: Maryann Napoli Issue: Oct, 1999 Ever since the 1930s, childhood vaccines have contained a tiny amount of mercury in the preservative added to prevent bacterial contamination. This was not thought to be a health hazard because children in the past got only one or two vaccinations just before entering school. Today a baby receives as many 17 vaccinations for up to ten different diseases in the first 18 months of life. They begin within hours of birth with the hepatitis B vaccine and continue every two months thereafter. Several vaccinations are often given at one time. The cumulative effect of a known toxin in the small body of an infant has caused the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to ask the vaccine manufacturers last summer to remove the mercury-containing additive, known as thimerosal, from their products. The reason: the amount of mercury a baby receives in the first six months of life exceeds the accepted safety standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Last month's Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published a report about thimerosal in vaccines which listed brand names and the mercury levels of each. There is no thimerosal in live virus vaccines, such as measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and rotavirus vaccines. However, all whole-cell diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) preparations contain thimerosal. There is no mercury in one acellular pertussis vaccine, which is sold under the brand name of Infanrix. As for the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, some brands contain thimerosal and some do not. (See "Resources.") Since the FDA is allowing manufacturers to use up their inventory, HealthFacts turned for advice to Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, a watchdog organization concentrating on the safety of childhood vaccinations. "It's going to take time for the manufacturers to get the thimerosal out of vaccines. I recommend that parents look at the vial for the name of the brand," said Ms. Fisher, who serves as the voting consumer representative on the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. Mercury is known to be neurotoxic at high doses, and low levels are suspected of causing damage to the rapidly developing brain of the fetus. The Pediatrics report states that there is no evidence of harm from the standard vaccines thus far and warns that avoiding immunizations places a child at increased risk for serious disease. But it also admits ignorance, "...definitive data regarding doses at which developmental effects occur in infants are not available." "It's amazing that we have an additive in a vaccine that is a known toxin. We are putting it into children, and we don't know what the safe threshold is. It's not sound science," said Fisher. The Pediatrics report downplays the adverse effects of vaccinations by likening their mercury level to that of a 6-ounce can of tuna. "I dont know any kids under six months who eat tuna," retorts Fisher. continued ... Continued from page 1 In 1986, the National Vaccine Information Center got a crucial informed consent provision written into law. "Doctors are supposed to provide parents with written information prior to vaccination, and they are supposed to write the manufacturer's name and lot# in a permanent record that parents have access to," said Fisher, who notes that the public health clinics are more likely to comply with the law than pediatricians in private practice. DAK