Mercury-containing vaccines may help not harm kids
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -There have been widespread concerns that mercury-based preservatives used in vaccines might impair the neurological development of children, but the opposite seems to be true.
Immunizing infants with vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal may actually be associated with improved behavior and mental performance, according to two British studies published in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Dr. Jon Heron of the University of Bristol, and colleagues followed 12,956 children, born in 1991 and 1992, until they were about 7-1/2 years old. Information was collected on doses of thimerosal-containing diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines given at ages 3, 4, and 6 months, as well as on measures of behavior, fine motor skills, speech, tics and special education needs.