Template:Mercury

Mercury

Vaccines often contain mercury commonly in the form of Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that breaks down to ethylmercury and thiosalicylate in the body.

Some people spread false information that ethylmercury is not harmful like methylmercury and leaves the body in 7 to 10 days. Like much of the pro-vaccination rhetoric this is also false. The test did make reference to ethylmercury leaving the "blood" with a half life of 6.9 days but also tested for inorganic mercury distributed in other tissue and remaining in the brain.

While a study testing injected monkeys has stated that in the "thimerosal group, the half-life of total mercury in blood was 6.9 days, compared to 19.1 days for the methylmercury group" they went on to state that "the proportion of inorganic mercury in the brain was much higher in the thimerosal group (21–86% of total mercury) compared to the methylmercury group (6–10%). Brain concentrations of inorganic mercury were approximately twice as high in the thimerosal group compared to the methylmercury group. Inorganic mercury remains in the brain much longer than organic mercury, with an estimated half-life of more than a year." They also admitted that "It’s not currently known whether inorganic mercury presents any risk to the developing brain."

The study further "caution that risk assessments for thimerosal based on studies using blood mercury measurements may not be valid" and emphasized "the risks associated with low-level exposures to inorganic mercury in the developing brain are unknown, and they describe other research linking persistent inorganic mercury exposure with increased activation of microglia in the brain, an effect recently reported in children with autism."

Regular vaccines such as flu shots may increase the amount of ethylmercury in the blood and brain. A study, A Cross-Sectional Study of Blood Ethylmercury Levels and Cognitive Decline Among Older Adults and the Elderly in the United States, " supports the hypothesis that increased ethyl-Hg exposure is associated with significant cognitive decline in older adult and elderly Americans."

See also a Research Article

Thimerosal-Derived Ethylmercury Is a Mitochondrial Toxin in Human Astrocytes: Possible Role of Fenton Chemistry in the Oxidation and Breakage of mtDNA

"The results of this study suggest that ethylmercury is a mitochondrial toxin in human astrocytes. We believe that this finding is important, particularly since the number of diseases in which mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated are rapidly increasing."