Lack of Evidence: Vaccine additive not linked to developmental problems
By Brian Vastag
A mercury-containing vaccine preservative is not associated with problems in speech, intelligence, memory, coordination, attention, or other measures of childhood development, a large new study finds.
Child-health experts say that the results should allay concerns that thimerosal, a preservative first added to vaccines in the 1930s, affects children’s brains.
“The study was enough to convince me that this small amount of mercury … was not harmful to the children,” says Michael Goldstein, vice president of the St. Paul, Minn.–based American Academy of Neurology.