Vaccination Hot Topics
Thimerosal


Thimerosal is a preservative that was added to vaccines to prevent microbial contamination. Thimerosal contains approximately 49% ethylmercury. Currently, all routinely recommended licensed pediatric vaccines that are currently being manufactured for the U.S. market contain no thimerosal or only trace amounts.

Links to information about thimerosal:

Thimerosal content in past and present US Licensed vaccines.

US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) "Thimerosal in Vaccines" and FAQ's

Center for Disease Control's (CDC) "Mercury and Vaccines"

Institute of Medicine (IOM), Immunization Safety Review Thimerosal - Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (2001)

National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NIAID Research on Thimerosal

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) "Thimerosal and Vaccines"

Joint statement of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) "Thimerosal in Vaccines"

Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) "Thimerosal Information"


Canadian Communicable Disease Report "Exposure to thimerosal in vaccines used in Canadian infant immunization programs, with respect to risk of neurodevelopmental disorders"
Article (December 2002) "Thimerosal and Autism Link Improbable"
New York Times Article (March 2003) "Vaccines and Autism, Beyond the Fear Factors"
Pediatrics journal commentary (April 2003) "Thimerosal/Autism Link Improbable"
"Debunking the Thimerosal Myth"
"Immune to the Facts"
Every Child by Two article (June 2003) "Burton Press Release Expertly Misleads Both The Press And The Public "
American Journal of Preventive Medicine article (August 2003) "Autism and thimerosal-containing vaccines: Lack of consistent evidence for an association"
Pediatrics journal article (September 2003) "Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism: negative ecological evidence from Danish population-based data"
JAMA article (October 2003) "Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism"
Pediatrics journal article (November 2003) "Safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines: a two-phased study of computerized health maintenance organization databases"