Thimerosal/ Toxicol Environ Health

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A review of thimerosal (merthiolate) and its ethylmercury breakdown

product: specific historical considerations regarding safety and

effectiveness

Geier DA, Sykes LK, Geier MR.

The Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., Silver Spring, land,

USA.

J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev. 2007 Dec;10(8):575-96.

Thimerosal (Merthiolate) is an ethylmercury-containing pharmaceutical

compound that is 49.55% mercury and that was developed in 1927.

Thimerosal has been marketed as an antimicrobial agent in a range of

products, including topical antiseptic solutions and antiseptic

ointments for treating cuts, nasal sprays, eye solutions, vaginal

spermicides, diaper rash treatments, and perhaps most importantly as

a preservative in vaccines and other injectable biological products,

including Rho(D)-immune globulin preparations, despite evidence,

dating to the early 1930s, indicating Thimerosal to be potentially

hazardous to humans and ineffective as an antimicrobial agent.

Despite this, Thimerosal was not scrutinized as part of U.S.

pharmaceutical products until the 1980s, when the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration finally recognized its demonstrated ineffectiveness

and toxicity in topical pharmaceutical products, and began to

eliminate it from these. Ironically, while Thimerosal was being

eliminated from topicals, it was becoming more and more ubiquitous in

the recommended immunization schedule for infants and pregnant women.

Furthermore, Thimerosal continues to be administered, as part of

mandated immunizations and other pharmaceutical products, in the

United States and globally. The ubiquitous and largely unchecked

place of Thimerosal in pharmaceuticals, therefore, represents a

medical crisis.

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PMID: 18049924 [PubMed - in process]