Reply #4: And there is no proof that it is safe either.

[pnwmom]

Why allow a heavy metal to be injected into you or your child for no good reason?

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-women/200...

"It's equivalent to the amount in a small can of tuna fish," says Tom Clarkson, a mercury researcher at the University of Rochester. "Still, we know that high levels of mercury can affect cell division in the developing brain of a fetus, and no one can say with absolute certainty that there's no risk."

The other concern is that the kind of mercury found in vaccines is different from the methyl mercury found in fish. While thimerosal gets flushed from the body much faster than methyl mercury, what remains is more likely to accumulate in the brain, as inorganic mercury, and remain there for a year or more, according to a 2005 University of Washington study of infant monkeys. "We still don't have enough data to say how long this inorganic mercury stays in the brain, but if you can reduce or eliminate your baby's exposure, why wouldn't you do that?" says Tom Burbacher, a professor of environmental occupational health sciences who led the study.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists sent out a news release yesterday urging all pregnant women to get flu shots, with the proviso that shots containing thimerosal are fine because "there is no evidence showing that thimerosal is a danger to the health of the pregnant woman or her fetus." When I read that quote to Burbacher, he said, "that is a very misleading statement because women will assume there's been exhaustive research done on this showing that it's safe for fetuses, and there's no such data."