Warning: Extremely tired poster asking a possibly stupid question...

varkam

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Tue Jan-29-08 01:31 PM
Original message

Warning: Extremely tired poster asking a possibly stupid question...

So I've been up since yesterday (long story), and I'm effing beat right now - but there's something that I just realized. I know that mercury is in vaccines, and I know that it is evul and we're using it as part of our plans to turn the population autistic and thereby harvest their bodies for energy, but here's the thing I'm missing: what makes mercury special? I know it is a preservative, but aren't there others? What happens if there is no preservative?

'Splain it to me! (and try to do so in a way that a non-chemist would understand) Linkys are always appreciated.

:pals:

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Tue Jan-29-08 02:05 PM
Response to Original message

1. short answer...

Preservatives keep out bacterial contamination and increase the shelf life of vaccines.
THere are other preservatives, sodium azide is one that comes to mind. Preservatives are used in miniscule doses usually .1% of the vaccine usually. I can get you some links from home. But really you can go to NIAID's home page and get some good info (NIH-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases..just google NIAID)
ANd mercury is a small part of the preservative thimerosol so over all mercury exposures from vaccines are minimal. NIAID has an excellent discussion on this.

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varkam

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Tue Jan-29-08 02:06 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. So then what makes thimerosal so special? eom

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Tue Jan-29-08 05:28 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. Here's the best discussion of the topic I could find

http://www.fda.gov/CbER/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#pres

Looks like it has to do with historical precedent..ie it was a known antimicrobal agent at very small doses...Note that it is in concentrations of .001 in vaccines.

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trotsky

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Wed Jan-30-08 08:54 AM
Response to Reply #2

6. It's proven and cheap, basically.

Helps make it possible for more people to be vaccinated in more locations, since the vaccine can be stored and transported more safely.

But since the mercury militia are ALSO anti-vaccine in general, they don't like that.

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lizerdbits

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Tue Jan-29-08 08:00 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. I think sodium azide is explosive around some metals

Edited on Tue Jan-29-08 08:03 PM by lizerdbits

If we ever had a buffer than had it as a small amount of preservative and it went down the sink we had to flush with LOTS of water in case the pipes were copper. I don't know what concentration it's normally used at in buffers and what would be required in a vaccine and if that reactivity would even be an issue other than spilling it on metals. I also don't know if there's any other reactivity issues either.

After typing all that I decided to look on an MSDS:

5. Fire Fighting Measures
Fire:
Combustible solid. May pose a fire hazard upon heating, shock, concussion, or friction.
Explosion:
Decomposes explosively upon heating, shock, concussion, or friction. Reacts with both copper and lead to produce explosive azides. Explosions in laboratory plumbing containing these metals is possible. Sensitive to mechanical impact.
Fire Extinguishing Media:
Water spray, dry chemical, alcohol foam, or carbon dioxide.
Special Information:
In the event of a fire, wear full protective clothing and NIOSH-approved self-contained breathing apparatus with full facepiece operated in the pressure demand or other positive pressure mode. Water spray may be used to keep fire exposed containers cool. Poisonous gases are produced in fire, including nitrogen oxides.

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Tue Jan-29-08 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. They used it in buffers at NIH....

and had special chemical disposal for it. Though Allan and I had a big discussion about sodium azide vs. thimerosol and ended up using neither. I don't thik THEY used it in the vaccines though..but if they did it would have been .001%.
Considering those vaccines were being shipped to Africa, having preservatives was VERY important.

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