Thimerosal & premature puberty in the vaccine safety datalink

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*/Thimerosal exposure & increasing trends of premature puberty in the

vaccine safety datalink/*

A. Geier, A. Young, Mark R. Geier

Indian J Med Res 131, April 2010, pp 500-507

http://icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2010/april/0404.pdf

Background & objectives: The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease

Registry (ATSDR) reports that mercury (Hg) is a known endocrine

disruptor and it adversely affects the steroid synthesis pathway in

animals and humans, and may interact to enhance the risk for a child

developing premature puberty. An association between premature puberty

and exposure to Hg from thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) was

evaluated in computerized medical records within the Vaccine Safety

Datalink (VSD).

Methods: A total of 278,624 subjects were identified in birth cohorts

from 1990-1996. The birth cohort prevalence rates of medically diagnosed

International Classification of Disease, 9th revision (ICD-9) premature

puberty and control outcomes were calculated. Exposures to Hg from TCVs

were calculated by birth cohort for specific exposure windows from

birth-7 months and birth-13 months of age. Poisson regression analysis

was used to model the association between the prevalence of outcomes and

Hg doses from TCVs.

Results: Significantly increased (P<0.0001) rate ratios were observed

for premature puberty for a 100 ?g difference in Hg exposure from TCVs

in the birth-7 months (rate ratio=5.58) and birth-13 months (rate

ratio=6.45) of age exposure windows. By contrast, none of the control

outcomes had significantly increased rate ratios with Hg exposure from TCVs.

Interpretation & conclusions: Routine childhood vaccination should be

continued to help reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with

infectious diseases, but efforts should be undertaken to remove Hg from

vaccines. Additional studies should be done to evaluate the relationship

between Hg exposure and premature puberty.