Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6370
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
FDA Says It Won't Restrict Mercury-Based Preservative
Associated Press 2006 Oct 24
Full text:
FDA Says It Won’t Restrict
Mercury-Based Preservative
Associated Press
October 24, 2006 8:01 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials won’t put new restrictions on the use
of a mercury-based preservative in vaccines and other medicines, denying a
petition that sought the limits because of health concerns.
A group called the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs petitioned the Food and
Drug Administration in 2004 seeking the restrictions on thimerosal, citing
concerns that the preservative is linked to autism. In a reply dated Sept.
26 but made public only Tuesday, the FDA rejected the petition.
“Only a small number of licensed and approved products still contain
thimerosal, and the available evidence supports FDA’s conclusion that all
currently licensed vaccines and other pharmaceutical drug products
containing thimerosal are safe,” Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, the FDA’s assistant
commissioner for policy, wrote in denying the petition.
“We’re not accepting that answer,” said Dr. Mark Geier, one of the
petitioners. The group now plans to seek a court order that would force the
FDA to withdraw thimerosal from all vaccines and medicines unless the agency
can show the preservative is safe, Dr. Geier said.
Thimerosal, about 50% mercury by weight, has been used since the 1930s to
kill microbes in vaccines. There have been suspicions that thimerosal causes
autism. However, studies that tracked thousands of children consistently
have found no association between the brain disorder and the mercury-based
preservative. Critics contend the studies are flawed.
Since 2001, all vaccines given to children 6 and younger have been either
thimerosal-free or contained only trace amounts of the preservative.
Thimerosal has been phased out of some, but not all, adult vaccines as well.
Most doses of the flu vaccine still contain thimerosal, though manufacturers
produce versions free of the preservative for use in children. The FDA said
it was in discussions with those manufacturers to increase the supply of
thimerosal-free flu vaccine.
There also are minute amounts of mercury, as thimerosal or phenylmercuric
acetate, in roughly 45 eye ointments, nasal sprays and nasal solutions, the
FDA said. Various antivenoms for black widow and snake bites also contain
thimerosal.
Copyright C 2006 Associated Press
