Letter to the Editor: Mercury and Vaccines

[Editor's note: The following letter was written in response to Tuesday's piece '' The writer of the following letter requested that an identity not be revealed: 'My employer does not like me talking about this. You can use the information I sent as a “Letter to the Editor” but please identify me only as a chemist from Wisconsin who specializes in mercury testing.']

Hi Ryan,  

Not sure if vaccines cause autism or not, but these numbers sure concern me:

• 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) mercury = Kills human neuroblastoma cells (Parran et al., Toxicol Sci 2005; 86: 132-140).
• 2 ppb mercury = U.S. EPA limit for drinking water (http://www.epa. gov/safewater/ contaminants/ index.html# mcls).
• 20 ppb mercury = Neurite membrane structure destroyed (Leong et al., Neuroreport 2001; 12: 733-37). Think Alzheimer's!
• 200 ppb mercury = level in liquid the EPA classifies as hazardous waste based on toxicity characteristics.
• http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/tsd/mercury/regs.htm
• 700 ppb mercury = level of mercury in large predator fish.
• 25,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose, Hepatitis B vaccine vials, administered at birth from 1991-2001 in the U.S. but no other country.  Is this why our rate of autism is 10 times higher than Iceland and Finland?
• 50,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose DTaP and Haemophilus B vaccine vials, administered 8 times in the 1990’s to children at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months of age and currently “preservative” level mercury in multi-dose flu, H1N1, meningococcal and tetanus vaccines. This can be confirmed by simply analyzing the multi-dose vials.