Preservative remains in three vaccines

Thimerosal is no longer an ingredient in routinely administered infant immunizations in the United States, but the preservative is still present in a few vaccines.

At the Cape Girardeau County Health Department, three vaccine inserts (the information sheets that explain the contents of the vaccines) list thimerosal as an ingredient, although in two of those thimerosal is almost nonexistent, and the amount falls well below the limit established by the Environmental Protection Agency. The third is a flu shot that is not required in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention schedule of immunizations and also comes in a thimerosal-free version.

The three inoculations found at the health department are all common ones and are the same vaccines used in doctor's offices all over the country.

The three that contain thimerosal are:

Tetanus and diphtheria (recommended for children ages 7 and older and adults)

Pediarix, a combination of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, acellular pertussis adsorbed hepatitis B and inactive poliovirus (recommended for children between the ages of 6 weeks and 7 years of age)

Fluzone influenza virus vaccine (recommended for children 6 months or older and adults)

The Fluzone flu shot comes in three varieties, one without thimerosal and two with 25 micrograms of thimerosal, which is 250 times the daily exposure limit set by the EPA.

Charlotte Craig, director of the health department, said she is not intimately familiar with the thimerosal issue. One of the health department's former employees felt her child's autism was due to immunizations, Craig said. She has not heard from other parents who shared that view.

"All I know is what I've read in the papers," she said. "The whole subject is vague. It's not been proven, and most physicians would argue" the autism link to thimerosal.

Craig stresses the importance of preventive inoculations for children.

"You can walk through the old graveyards and see how young children were when they died from whooping cough and other diseases," she said. "The value of the immunizations at this point, in my opinion, far outweighs the risk. It's something where you'd really to have to show me some hard facts that the risks would outweigh the benefits."