Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

In news that you certainly didn’t see on the evening news, the organization Put Children First commissioned a survey of 9,000 individuals regarding the use of mercury in flu shots and got some very interesting results, e.g.:

• 76% of respondents are unaware that most flu shots contain mercury (the vaccine’s preservative, thimerosal, contains 50% mercury).
• After learning that mercury is an ingredient, 74% are less likely to get a flu shot and 86% say they are less likely to get their child a flu shot.
• 77% believe mercury should not be an ingredient in flu shots given to pregnant women and children.
• 73% believe the government should warn pregnant women not to get a flu shot if it contains mercury.
• More than 70% agree that Congress, doctors and medical groups (e.g., the American Academy of Pediatrics) should take responsibility for ensuring vaccines do not contain mercury.
• 80% of respondents and 84% of parents are willing to pay the $2.50 additional cost for a mercury-free flu shot.

Check out the results overview page here. Put Children First includes many eye-opening items of interest, including:

• 90% of the flu shots distributed this year for both adults and children will contain mercury (in the form of thimerosal, as will many other adult vaccines, such as some tetanus/diptheria booster shots).
• A mercury-containing flu shot contains 50,000 ppb (parts per billion) of mercury. If liquid contains more than 200 ppb, it is classified by the government as a hazardous waste. Drinking water cannot contain more than 2 ppb. Simply amazing.
• Mercury is estimated to be 1000 times as toxic as lead. Could you imagine the uproar if lead were included in vaccines? According to the Material Data Safety Sheet for thimerosal, no safe occupational exposure level has been determined.
• Links to recent articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) questioning the effectiveness of flu vaccines.
• Links to studies documenting thimerosal’s extreme toxicity.

Certainly some information to consider before getting that next vaccination…

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Vaccines, ADD/ADHD, Autism, Mercury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.