Who's allergic to Thimerosal? Please raise your hand

Greetings from a very wintery Iowa,

Almost a year ago I started working in a chemical plant in shipping.  I see a lot labels come thru my area.  Some of the products are low toxicity & some are very toxic.  Products that are very toxic require special packaging when it comes to shipping.  They have to be inside a plastic bag with an absorbent pad inside the bag.  Padding is placed around the products in the box & stickers are placed  are on the box as the toxicity of the products in the box.

Products that contain mercury have a Skull & Bones diamond on them.  The label looks very similar to this label.

As I've explained in blog entries before, Thimerosal is 50% mercury.  It's been touted by the CDC, FDA & the WHO as a safe ingredient in vaccines.  However, is this true?  What does the science say?

Let's take a look at the toxicity of Thimerosal.

The LD 50 means LD50 is an abbreviation for “Lethal Dose 50%.” The LD50 value for a chemical is the amount of chemical that can be expected to cause death in half (50%) of a group of a particular animal species when the chemical enters the body by ingestion or skin absorption. The amount required to cause death is normally related to body weight: therefore, the LD50 is expressed in milligrams of chemicals per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg). A typical LD50 statement includes the substance, the route of entry, and the animal species; as shown below:

Toxicological Data on Ingredients: Thimerosal: ORAL (LD50): Acute: 75 mg/kg [Rat]. 91 mg/kg [Mouse].

II. Hazard Identification: Classification of The Substance Or Mixture According to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 [EU-GHS/CLP]: 

Acute toxicity, Inhalation (Category 2)
 Acute toxicity, Dermal (Category 1) 
Acute toxicity, Oral (Category 2) 
Acute aquatic toxicity (Category 1)
 Chronic aquatic toxicity (Category 1)


On a table, where does this toxicity lie?

Table 1: Toxicity Classes: Hodge and Sterner Scale
		Routes of Administration
		Oral LD50	Inhalation LC50	Dermal LD50
Toxicity Rating	Commonly Used Term	(single dose to rats) mg/kg	(exposure of rats for 4 hours) ppm	(single application to skin of rabbits) mg/kg	Probable Lethal Dose for Man
1	Extremely Toxic	1 or less	10 or less	5 or less	1 grain (a taste, a drop)
2	Highly Toxic	1-50	10-100	5-43	4 ml (1 tsp)
3	Moderately Toxic	50-500	100-1000	44-340	30 ml (1 fl. oz.)
4	Slightly Toxic	500-5000	1000-10,000	350-2810	600 ml (1 pint)
5	Practically Non-toxic	5000-15,000	10,000-100,000	2820-22,590	1 litre (or 1 quart)
6	Relatively Harmless	15,000 or more	100,000	22,600 or more	1 litre (or 1 quart)

Even a bottle of Thimerosal has the Skull & Bones symbol on it along with the word toxic.

It should be noted that no LD50 data exists for humans.

 The lower the LD50 value, the more toxic the substance. In general, chemicals with LD50 values less than 300mg/kg are considered highly toxic, those with LD50 values between 300 and 1,000 mg/kg are considered moderately toxic, and those with LD50 values between 1,000 and 5,000 mg/kg are considered slightly toxic. Because LD50 values depend on body weight, however, many chemicals that may not harm an adult may be toxic to a small child.

As you can see on the table, Thimerosal is very toxic.  According to the MSDS sheet, long term exposure can lead to health issues- 

DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY: Not available. The substance may be toxic to kidneys, liver, spleen, bone marrow, central nervous system (CNS). Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage. Repeated exposure to a highly toxic material may produce general deterioration of health by an accumulation in one or many human organs. 

A few months ago, my work place had a flu shot clinic.   It was totally voluntary.   The form that was sent via email said that if you are allergic to Thimerosal you shouldn't get the shot.  Who isn't allergic to mercury?  When I received the email from HR that this was going to take place I replied back with the toxicity of the flu shot along with the MSDS sheet for Thimerosal.  The guy heading it up replied back that he wanted me in his office at 8 am the next morning.   I sent him the email at about 1 am.   (I work 2nd shift)  I did talk to him when I came in & got blown off on the mercury content of the flu shot.  

I said that products in our plant that contain mercury have a skull & bones on them.  Why are you allowing employees to be injected with mercury?   His response?   That is your opinion.   Seriously?   I've been researching the dangers of vaccines for almost 30 years & that is my opinion?

A few weeks ago we had a safety meeting. We were told if we see something, say something.  So, I had the msds sheet for thimerosaal brought up on my phone & went to talk to the head of the safety after the meeting.   Again, I brought up the mercury content of the flu shot.   Again, I was poo poo'ed off.   One of the HR people told me to come see her in her office to talk about this. 

After our lunch break that night, I was standing with the rest of my co workers waiting to do our stretching before getting back to work.   The second shift lead came to me & told me that I was wanted in the HR office.  My response - Here we go.  His response was it's not bad.

I went into the office fully prepared to be fired or at least a reprimand of some sort.  In her hands was an article from this blog.   You have to be invited to see her blog, I haven't been invited to see it but you can see the first 7 myths that she attacks in this article.

I asked her about the content of mercury in the products of the plant & how they are treated as highly toxic.  She said they aren't the same thing.  As you saw above, Thimerosal is toxic.

She went onto to tell me about some workers work with cadmium in the plant & they are periodically tested to make sure levels are within certain levels.   She then looked me in the eye & said "We would never do anything to endanger our associates."  

I knew at that point anything I had to say was going to fall on deaf ears.  I didn't want to risk my job by setting her straight in person.   It was total frustration to deal with someone who seemed to open minded but so closed at same time.

Until next time,

Lori