I recieved an email from a friend about Thimerisol. Once upon a time, I had the entire email posted here, but I've deleted it. I left my reply, though:



Now, I asked my sister about the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. She is a very highly educated and in-touch member of the (western) medical community. She explained that the criteria was revised for diagnosing autism at around the same time parents started noticing a spike in the autism rates. Thus, more children are diagnosed with autism at around 6 months... the same time they recieve their MMR shot. She said there have been hundreds of studies specifically looking for a link, and they couldn't find one. She went on to tell me way more than I ever needed to know about the side effects of vaccinations, the risks involved, the known links to diseases, and how you don't have to vaccinate your child, because just about everyone else is vaccinated. She recommended getting a vaccine if you're leaving the country, and explained how difficult it is to have your child attend public school without their shots.

On to info about mercury. Mercury is almost never found free in nature. Like oxygen, it is a lonely element, and likes to bond with other things. Thus the problem with humans coming in contact with mercury.
The effects of chronic mercury poisoning are as follows:

If you are exposed to any form of mercury repeatedly or for an extended period, chronic mercury poisoning can result. Health effects include nervous system effects, kidney damage, and birth defects. There are several symptoms:

1. Gingivitis: The gums become soft and spongy, the teeth get loose, sores may develop, and there may be increased salivation.
2. Mood and mental changes: People with chronic mercury poisoning often also have wide mood swings, becoming irritable, frightened, depressed, or excited very quickly for no apparent reason. Such people may become extremely upset at any criticism, lose all self-confidence, and become apathetic. Hallucinations, memory loss, and inability to concentrate can occur.
3. Nerve damage: It may start with a fine tremor (shaking) of the hand, loss of sensitivity in hands and feet, difficulty in walking, or slurred speech. Tremors may also occur in the tongue and eyelids. Eventually this can progress to trouble balancing and walking. It has even caused paralysis and death in rare cases.

I swiped this for the CDC Website

"Based on this progress, the most likely maximum amount of ethylmercury that an infant may be exposed to from currently manufactured vaccines has been reduced from approximately 187.5 mcg to < 3 mcg. The measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, inactivated polio, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines that are now in use have never contained thimerosal."

Ah, but how long have the thimerosal free vaccines been "now in use"? Reading further, it appears the vaccine change happened in March of 2001. If you're interested I highly recommend reading the entire FAQ I linked to above.

One interesting thing I noted was that acceptable contamination levels were given for methylmercury (found in food), not for ethlymercury (used as a preservative in vaccines). The CDC was really up front about it, too.