Slashdot Mirror
Proposed Mercury Ban Threatens Vaccines
T Murphy writes "Although in the draft stages, a treaty being pushed by the United Nations Environment Programme has a blanket ban on mercury. While the ban would stop the use of mercury in paints or pesticides, it currently has no exemptions to allow for other small uses, such as in thermisol, which is used as a preservative in vaccines. The next meeting to discuss this treaty will be at the end of October."
In my experience (which has become much larger with the advent of children in our family), thimerosal is used in every multi-use vaccine vial (where more than one dose will be drawn from the same vial). It is not present in single-use vials. All childhood and yearly influenza vaccines, again to my experience, come in both forms.
Mercury is a neurotoxin that accumulates in the body. Why, under any circumstances, would I knowingly want to add to the level of neurotoxins in my children's bodies when there is a functionally identical option that does not?
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.