'91 Memo Warned of Mercury in Shots

'91 Memo Warned of Mercury in Shots

February 08, 2005|Myron Levin | Times Staff Writer
The memo stated that regulators in several countries had raised concerns about thimerosal, including in Sweden, where the chemical was being removed from vaccines.
Completed in 1999, the review revealed the high level of mercury exposure from pediatric vaccines and raised a furor. In e-mails later released at a congressional hearing, an FDA official said health authorities could be criticized for "being 'asleep at the switch' for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products."
It would not have taken "rocket science" to add up the amount of exposure as the prescribed number of shots was increasing, one of the e-mails said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/08/business/fi-vaccine8/2