From Websters:
Mercury-a heavy silver-white POISONOUS metallic element that is
liquid at ordinary temperatures and is used especially in scientific
instruments.
THIMEROSAL is derived from mercury and is used as a disinfectant and
preservative in our companion animal Vaccines. Uptake of Mercury
into the body All of us are exposed to extremely small amounts of mercury
whether we like it or not.
The most common ways that we come into contact with mercury is through
consumption of certain fish.
The level of toxicity that is experienced from mercury exposure
is dependent on several things:
The type of mercury involved
How much enters the body
How it enters the body
How old the individual is when they are exposed.
Organic mercury compounds can be absorbed orally or when they come
into contact with the skin.
When inside the body, methyl mercury spreads to all the tissues of the
body but seems to concentrate in the blood and in the brain.
The fact that Mercury in the vaccines is given by injection rather than
by oral ingestion only makes the exposure levels worse.
Mercury Danger to the brain
The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a layer of tissue cells that are
joined by tight junctions with very
high electrical resistance. This helps to protect the brain by
impeding the flow of large molecules
across the membranes of the cells.
Small molecules that have an
affinity for fatty tissues ( Lipids) can cross the BBB, and the more
attracted to
fat the molecule is, the better its penetration into and out of the
brain.
Thimerosal is more attracted to fatty tissue.
(3) It has been determined that uptake of mercury in the brain is
5-7 times
greater than in the blood.
Thimerosal, being an organic mercurial similar to
methyl- and ethylmercury, is likely to accumulate in lipid rich tissues
such as the central
nervous system. In the CNS, thimerosal could reach levels
significantly higher. (1) Organic mercury expresses its toxicity principally in the
central
nervous system. It may also affect important organs such as the
kidneys, and systems such as the immune system.
"We have demonstrated the toxicity of thimerosal by using it to kill
neurons (brain cells) in culture------Testimony Prof Boyd Haley,
University of Kentucky, Chair and Head of
Chemistry.......
Additional studies in our laboratory show that neurons are especially
sensitive to thimerosal-induced toxicity when compared to other cell
types. (2)
Mercury and developing children and fetuses
Mercury is much more toxic for the developing brains of fetuses,
infants, and children under the age of six months. There has been
recent data that indicates that in utero exposure to mercury levels
once thought to be safe may also have slight adverse effects on the
developing brain. (4)
Since very young children are more sensitive to mercury than adults,
children can become poisoned by mercury and develop nervous and
digestive system problems and kidney damage. Pregnant woman who ingest
mercury at high levels can pass harmful effects to the developing fetus
including brain damage, mental retardation, lack of coordination,
blindness, seizures, and an inability to speak. (5)
Pharmacokinetics and toxicity Ethyl and Methyl Review of EPA's report
to congress on scientific issues related to studies of the health
effects of Methyl and Ethyl mercury.
Findings: Mercury is a developmental Neurotoxin
Developing fetus is 10X more sensitive than adult
low level exposure difficult to evaluate. (6)
Developmental toxicants are agents that cause adverse effects on the
developing child. Effects can include birth defects, low birth weight,
biological dysfunctions, or psychological or behavioral deficits that
become manifest as the child grows. Maternal exposure to toxic
chemicals during pregnancy can disrupt the development or even cause
the death of the fetus. Exposure of pregnant women to mercury lowers
birth weight and can cause severe brain damage in children. (7).
The brain and body of fetuses, infants and small children are
developing rapidly and are more susceptible to toxicity than is the
adult brain.
The gestation for a human is 40 weeks, the gestation for a pup, 8
weeks. A rapidly developing brain such as that of the pup would be very
prone to insult from mercury.
Mercury and adults
Toxicity of mercury has been linked to many different diseases in
humans, including autism, learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s, multiple
sclerosis, fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis,
depression, and bipolar disorder.
Toxic doses of mercury can cause developmental effects in the fetus, as
well as affecting the kidney and the nervous system in children and
adults. Mercury exists in a number
of different chemical forms, each one consisting of different levels of
toxicity. The forms of mercury can also be converted from one to
another in the environment and in the body, so symptoms caused by
mercury poisoning depends on the precise chemical forms involved. (8)
Mercury in the presence of other toxicants
Mercury has an enhanced effect when other poisons are present. A small
dose of mercury that kills 1 in 100 rats and a dose of aluminum that
will kill 1 in 100 rats, when combined have a striking effect: all the
rats die. Doses of mercury that have a 1 percent mortality will have a
100
percent mortality rate if some aluminum is there. Vaccines contain
aluminum.
Mercury on the Mind by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
Vaccines with thimerosal present were much more toxic [to brain
cultured cells] than
thimerosal-free vaccines. Pure thimerosal was toxic at the low
nanomolar level -- an extremely
low concentration, about 10,000 times less than the thimerosal
concentration found in most
vaccines."
"The presence of aluminum dramatically increased the rate of neuronal
death [brain cells]
caused by thimerosal. Therefore, the aluminum-and-thimerosal
combination found in vaccines
produces a toxic mixture that cannot be compared to situations where
thimerosal alone is the toxic exposure"
"For some reason, tetracycline increased the ocular toxic reaction to
thimerosal. We've done some experiments to determine if certain
antibiotics could also increase thimerosal-induced
neuronal death in the neuron culture system. Our preliminary results
indicate that this is the
case, especially with tetracycline and ampicillin."
"Neurons that were pre-incubated with estrogen demonstrated
substantial protection against thimerosal-induces neuronal death. In
contrast, the addition of testosterone caused a very large increase in
thimerosal-induced death. A low nano-molar level of thimerosal that
gave less than 5 percent neuron death in three hours could result in
100 percent cell death by the addition of one micromolar level of
testosterone."(9)
Mercury and the immune system
Definitions- Immunotoxicity is defined as adverse effects on the
functioning of the immune system that result from exposure to chemical
substances. Altered immune function may lead to the increased incidence
or severity of infectious diseases or cancer, since the immune system’s
ability to respond adequately to invading agents is suppressed.
Identifying immunotoxicants is difficult because chemicals can cause a
wide variety of complicated effects on immune function. (10, 11)
Strains differ in respect to influence of toxin (12)
A recent study carried out by Mady Hornig, MD, and colleagues (Hornig,
Chian et al. 2004), that was funded, in part, by the M.I.N.D.
Institute, has raised the possibility that certain strains of mice with
immune dysfunction may be particularly susceptible to the neurotoxic
effects of thimerosal. Some of the mice in Dr. Hornig's study were
healthy and pediatric levels of thimerosal did not affect either their
behavior or brain development. However, in an inbred strain of mice
that is prone to autoimmune problems, treatment with the same pediatric
levels of thimerosal led to both behavioral problems and abnormal
development of certain brain regions. These findings will, of course,
need to be independently replicated. But, they suggest that more
research must be focused on detecting which individuals are genetically
vulnerable to environmental challenges such as mercury, PCBs and
others. (13)
In their work, the scientists found that insulin-like growth
factor-1 (IGF-1) and the neurotransmitter
dopamine both stimulated folate-dependent methylation pathways in
neuronal cells. At the same
time they noted that compounds like thimerosal, ethanol and metals
(like lead and mercury)
effectively inhibited these same biochemical pathways at concentrations
that are typically found
following vaccination or other sources of exposure. (14)
In Conclusion
Given the toxic nature of Thimerosal , its affinity for brain tissue
and the damage it causes to the developing brain and to the immune
system it should not be administered in any form to our companion
animals.
