Thimerasol - a scary, succinct explanation

I'm sure we've all heard of thimerasol, but I have to admit, other than knowing that it's a mercury-based preservative, I didn't know what it is. I saw this article on my news feed this morning and after reading it, I knew I had to share it. It's really eye-opening and quite frightening. You can find the article on "Age of Autism" here, but I thought I'd make it easy and just post it below too.

I'm really struggling with the vaccine issue right now for Abbey - she's had 3 shots so far, and 1 of those was only because she was at a greater risk for something while Jonathan was on dialysis. Now that he's a transplant recipient, it's not safe (for more than 1 reason) for her to get a live-virus vaccine. Not to mention that she's already been put on the spectrum and we don't know what could happen if she receives more vaccines.

I definitely want to protect my children from childhood diseases, which is why we had William fully vaccinated, but doesn't it negate the whole protection point, when you're willingly injecting them with a chemical that has been banned even as a fungicide? Why on earth would we put that into our kids (and pregnant women) in the first place, not even considering what terrible side effects it could have on them!? Many childhood diseases are unpleasant, but treatable!!! I will give you an example of what has happened to a perfectly 'normal' child after his MMR vaccine and this is NOT treatable. (Click here and just be warned, it's not pretty.)

I know that many people think anti-vaccine parents are nut-jobs. Well, why does even 1 child have to be harmed (or die) by a vaccine for people to wake up and see that we need a better way? And why does it have to be the parents of children who have had vaccine-related, life-altering injuries to raise a fuss about these chemcials going into our kids? I am all for vaccines, if they're SAFE! If you can't put a chemical on a plant, then I'm not sticking it into my kids, bottom line! I was just at a geneticist (a doctor who does genetic testing) last Thursday with William and let me tell you, THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT CAUSES AUTISM!!! They admit it! They're working on it, but so far, have no answers. I am not saying that any vaccine causes autism alone, but because we don't know what predisposes kids to being on the spectrum, why are we subjecting them to something so dangerous, that could be the catalyst which brings out autism in many kids???

I have to tell you, I really don't care anymore if someone thinks I'm crazy or some crunchy granola, tree hugger for talking about this. People just need to be informed about what's really in vaccines and can make decisions for themselves. I'll be happy to share information that I think is important and pertinent and everyone can go their own way from there. (I have bolded the parts of the article that are especially unbelievable. I guess the whole thing should really be bolded, but anyway...)

Mike Wagnitz (a name familiar to AoA readers) has written a post called, "Michael Wagnitz: Decision raises question: What exactly is thimerosal?" at the CapTimes site in Madison, Wisconsin.

Since the March 12 decision by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which concluded that thimerosal in vaccines is not linked to autism or any other childhood neurological injury, I’ve been asked by many people: What exactly is thimerosal?

Thimerosal is a fungicide/bactericide used as a preservative in medical products. It is prepared by combining the fungicide ethylmercuric chloride with thiosalicylic acid. The reason for this is to increase the solubility of ethylmercuric chloride in water so it can be added at higher concentrations to products such as vaccines. Thimerosal is 10,000 times more soluble in water than ethylmercuric chloride.

Due to multiple accidental poisonings from ingestion of treated seed, ethylmercuric chloride was banned for use as a fungicide and all other purposes in the 1970s.

The symptoms of ethylmercuric chloride poisoning occurred months after the ingestion of treated seed. The first symptom noticed was paresthesia (nerve damage to fingers and toes) followed by ataxia (loss of coordination of the muscles), dysarthia (difficulty in articulating words) and loss of vision. While some functionality did return in some victims, the underlying damage was mostly irreversible. Tens of thousands of parents feel they saw the same symptoms in their children following vaccination with vaccines that contained thimerosal. Most of these children were eventually diagnosed as autistic.

Nobody knows what the safe amount of ethylmercuric chloride is for children. Thimerosal is added to multi-dose vaccine vials at a concentration of 50,000 micrograms per liter (mcg/l) mercury. In Wisconsin, any liquid waste solution which contains more than 200 mcg/l mercury is classified as hazardous waste.

There are four vaccines currently used in Wisconsin that contain this amount of mercury. They are vaccines administered from multi-dose flu, H1N1, meningococcal and tetanus/diphtheria booster vials. The flu and H1N1 vaccine are administered to pregnant women and children 6 months of age. The tetanus is approved for children 7 years and older. The meningococcal is approved for children 12 years and older. This year’s flu and H1N1 vaccines will expire soon and have to be treated as hazardous waste.

The next time your physician or nurse tells you that mercury is no longer used in vaccines (or that the quantity is small), feel free to share this information with them.

Michael Wagnitz of Madison is a chemist specializing in heavy metal poisoning.
Mike Wagnitz