Ethylmercury: Difference between revisions

 

==Public health concerns ==

Concerns based on extrapolations of the effect of methylmercury caused thimerosal to be removed from U.S. childhood vaccines in 1999, but it remains in use in all multi-dose vaccines and flu shots (though many single use vaccines without thimerosal are available).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Research|first=Center for Biologics Evaluation and|date=2019-04-05|title=Thimerosal and Vaccines|url=http://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/safety-availability-biologics/thimerosal-and-vaccines|journal=FDA|language=en}}</ref> Researchers have argued that risk assessments based on methylmercury were overly conservative in light of observations that ethylmercury is eliminated from the body and the brain significantly faster than methylmercury.<ref name=Clarkson/> Moreover, the same researchers have argued that inorganic mercury metabolized from ethylmercury, despite its much longer half-life in the brain, is much less toxic than the inorganic mercury produced from mercury vapor, for reasons not yet understood.<ref name=Clarkson>{{cite journal | title = The toxicology of mercury and its chemical compounds | journal = Critical Reviews in Toxicology | volume = 36 | issue = 8 | pages = 609–62 | date = September 2006 | pmid = 16973445 | doi = 10.1080/10408440600845619 | s2cid = 37652857 | last1 = Clarkson | first1 = Thomas W. | last2 = Magos | first2 = Laszlo }}</ref>