Aluminum in vaccines: An overlooked neurotoxin
CDC and NIH say they have NO documents to show the aluminum doses in vaccines are actually safe
Even though research shows that aluminum is toxic to the brain at low levels, infant vaccines continue to contain unsafe doses of this controversial metal. Before a child reaches her first birthday, the CDC recommends a whopping 26 vaccine doses, 18 of which use aluminum to elicit a big response from the immune system. Those who object to this ingredient have a legitimate concern.
“Parenteral” is a fancy word for something administered into the body, but not through the mouth or the gastrointestinal tract (e.g., IV solutions). The FDA allows for very small levels of aluminum in parenteral nutrition products because the metal impairs brain development. The agency points to research showing that “patients with impaired kidney function, including premature neonates, who receive parenteral levels of aluminum at greater than 4 to 5 µg/kg/day accumulate aluminum at levels associated with central nervous system and bone toxicity”.
Yet the aluminum levels in infant vaccinations for the first six months are much greater than what the FDA allows in parenteral nutrition products, even though vaccinations are also parenteral products. If we use the agency’s own reasoning that one should only be exposed to 5 μg/kg of parenteral aluminum per day to prevent brain damage, this means that only about 16 µg of aluminum should be allowed in the hepatitis B vaccine that is routinely given at birth in the United States, based on newborns’ body weight. Yet the shot has an astonishing 250 µg of aluminum. At two months, infants receive a much higher dose of 1,225 µg; at four months, they receive 975 µg; and at six months, they again receive 1,225 µg.
In another ruling, the FDA has set a limit of 850 µg of aluminum adjuvant in an individual vaccine dose, but it does not explain why this number is so high compared to its other ruling (“adjuvant” is a fancy word for a vaccine ingredient that makes a bigger immune response). One study states that the FDA ruling is based primarily on what level of aluminum makes the vaccine effective against the associated disease, not on what level is safe. Others wryly point out that 850 μg is the exact amount of aluminum reported in the Pediarix vaccine, demonstrating the FDA’s allying with a pharmaceutical company rather than regulating it.
The FDA decides whether to approve vaccinations from pharmaceutical companies, and the CDC decides whether to add the shots to the recommended childhood vaccination schedule. Surely, the FDA and the CDC must know something about the safety of aluminum adjuvants that we do not.
One law firm reached out to the FDA, the CDC, and NIH (which is also involved with vaccines) to get answers. Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the firm asked what evidence these federal branches had to show that the aluminum adjuvants were safe. The CDC and NIH admitted that they do not have any documents or reports that they’ve relied on to establish that aluminum adjuvants in childhood vaccines are safe.
Specifically, the law firm Siri & Glimstad LLP asked for: “Copies of any human or animal studies involving the subcutaneous or intramuscular injection of aluminum adjuvant relied upon by the CDC(/FDA/NIH) to establish the safety of injecting infants and children with aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate or amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate.”
Per documents obtained from Siri & Glimstad LLP, the CDC said: “A search of our records failed to reveal any documents pertaining to your request. Specifically, CDC’s Immunization Safety Office (ISO) states that ‘[t]his request is outside of ISO purview and should be referred to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.[FDA]’.” Such a central question is outside of the Immunization Safety Office’s purview? The CDC makes the recommended vaccine schedule for more than 73 million American children. It should have evidence that the dosages are safe, especially when the research shows how neurotoxic aluminum can be.
The NIH said: “(They’ve) searched their files and no records responsive to (the) request were located”. The NIH’s response is posted on the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) website.
And the FDA simply never completed the FOIA request. We can guess why.
Most of the aluminum adjuvants do not appear to be immediately excreted. One study on rabbits showed that after almost a month, only 6% of one aluminum adjuvant and 22% of another were expelled by urine. Researchers studying babies who were injected with vaccines saw no significant change in levels of aluminum in their urine after 24 hours. Aluminum adjuvants are bound to the antigens, the foreign substances that come from the diseases; one study argued that most of these aluminum-antigen complexes may just be too big to be filtered by the kidneys.
Aluminum-adjuvant expert Dr. Chris Exley summarizes on The Vaccine Conversationpodcast, episode 89, what happens after a vaccine injection; hundreds of thousands of immune cells race to the injection site, many of which eat the aluminum attached to the antigen and carry the aluminum to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes and brain. This study provides more detail. Thus, aluminum adjuvants can cross the blood-brain barrier.
A study on mice injected with aluminum adjuvant showed about 50 times the aluminum levels in the brain tissue as compared to the control group six months later. A study on rabbits found that some of the aluminum adjuvant went into their brain tissue as well.
Once in the brain, aluminum adjuvants appear to cause inflammation. Growing evidence suggests that neuroinflammation is a risk factor for autism. Further, the brain tissue of those with autism has shown high levels of aluminum. The number of vaccines on the CDC recommended schedule has greatly increased in recent years. Interestingly, one study showed that countries with the highest prevalence of autism also had children with the highest exposure to aluminum in vaccines; the increase in recommended aluminum-containing vaccines in recent years also correlated with rising autism prevalence.
The metal’s neurotoxicity is well-documented. People without adequate kidney function to excrete it from the blood can develop speech issues, motor problems, dementia, and seizures. Aluminum has also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and ALS.
Additionally, animal and human studies on aluminum adjuvants by themselves have shown that the compounds cause autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. Intriguingly, a study found that children vaccinated within the first 12 months had an odds ratio of 4.49 for asthma (an inflammatory disorder) as compared to children who were not vaccinated within the first 12 months. The same study also showed that they had an odds ratio of 2.18 for neurodevelopmental delays.
The vaccines for children that contain aluminum include those against haemophilus influenza type B (although there are aluminum-free brands), pneumococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and human papillomavirus. Reported aluminum levels can vary by brands, so parents should look for the lowest reported amount when selecting a particular vaccine. However, parents cannot know with certainty how much of the metal is actually in the shots. A recent study showed that the aluminum content cited by the manufacturer was not accurate for the majority of the tested vaccines. For example, Vaqta (a hepatitis A vaccine) says that it contains 225 µg of aluminum, but when tested, it was as high as 796 µg.
Parents concerned about aluminum exposure should weigh the definite risks versus the possible benefits of each aluminum-containing vaccine. For example, hepatitis B is passed through blood or sexual contact, rather than casual contact. Should we really adhere to a policy that injects newborns with a dangerous level of a neurotoxin for a disease that they are quite unlikely to be exposed to in the near future? The Vaccine Book by Dr. Bob Sears helps parents make informed and thoughtful decisions about each vaccine, given the relative frequency, seriousness, and treatability of each associated disease.
Unfortunately, parents looking for information about the safety of aluminum adjuvants will find disingenuous arguments. For example, the CDC provides clinicians with a response if parents ask whether aluminum is dangerous: “Adjuvants or enhancers, such as aluminum salts, are used to help the body develop immunity and a better immune response”. That is true and does not answer the question about the toxicity profile of this metal.
As another example, one of the top results on Google comes from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia website, which assures parents that they need not worry about aluminum. But let’s look closer at one of their main arguments. “Breast-fed infants ingest about 7 mg, formula-fed infants ingest about 38 mg, and infants who are fed soy formula ingest almost 117 mg of aluminum during the first six months of life.” Because aluminum adjuvants are at lower doses, they are “really not an issue”. However, ingesting aluminum is very different from injecting aluminum adjuvants. 99.7% of aluminum in the gastrointestinal tract is not absorbed into the body because the gastrointestinal tract acts as a protective barrier. Approximately 100% of injected aluminum gets into the body.
Doing the math:
7000 µg (7 mg) of aluminum in breastmilk over 6 months
Multiplied by .003 absorption
Divided by 182 days
Equals 0.1 µg of aluminum absorbed into the baby’s body in a day
Applying the same formula to the other numbers:
38,000 µg of aluminum in formula over six months = 0.6 µg/day
117,000 µg of aluminum in soy formula over 6 months = 1.9 µg/day
You can compare these concentrations to the advised amount of 5 µg/kg/day and see that they are all below this threshold. However, injections give much higher doses of aluminum.
We may also be told that the vaccines have been thoroughly tested for safety. Yet, the FDA vaccine inserts suggest that the testing is far from thorough. For example, the two hepatitis B vaccines for infants were tested for adverse events for a mere four days and five days, respectively. This is certainly not an in-depth look at neurological function for children receiving a vaccine containing a known neurotoxin. Those running the clinical trials should be actively studying any long-term effects, such as speech issues, memory impairment, and attention problems. Anytime parents are told that the aluminum adjuvants have been thoroughly tested for safety, they should remember what the CDC and NIH actually said through the FOIA requests: those agencies have no documents on which to base the claim of safety.
Sadly, many pediatrician offices refuse to see families when the parents do not consent to the vaccination schedule; at these establishments, automatic compliance is valued much higher than partnering with parents to decide on the optimal care plan for a child, given the benefits and risks of each vaccine. Fortunately, DrGreenmom.com has a list of US doctors who are open to parents’ vaccination decisions.
We should not overuse aluminum-containing vaccines. Vaccine advocates can derisively use the term anti-vaxxers for anyone with concerns, but alas, name calling will not change the demonstrated toxicity of aluminum.
