Why is Aluminum Used in Vaccines?
Aluminum is an adjuvant used to make vaccines more effective. It helps the body produce an immune response strong enough to protect the person from the disease they are being vaccinated against.
Certain vaccines are made from weakened or killed germs containing naturally occurring adjuvants, thus why aluminum or other adjuvants are not needed.
Is Aluminum Safe?
There has been well over 90 years of widespread use of aluminum adjuvants, however there is still a huge lack of data on toxicology and pharmacokinetics. In spite of this, there is widespread belief in the medical community that aluminum in vaccines appears to be safe.
However, there is also experimental research that shows aluminum adjuvants carry a risk for autoimmunity, long-term brain inflammation, and associated neurological complications (18).
On the other hand, there is research that suggests aluminum adjuvants pose extremely low risks to infants (19).
Dr. Paul Sears notes that the toxic effects occur most often when too many aluminum containing vaccines are given at once.
Premature Infant Parenteral Studies
When it comes to infant parenteral nutrition, the FDA recommends a maximum daily aluminum dose of 4 to 5 mcg/kg a day (which comes out to about 10-25 mcg/day) in premature infants, or patients with kidney failure, to prevent accumulation and toxicity (20).
Let’s look at the amount of aluminum in infant vaccines:
Pneumococcal vaccine - 125 mcg
DTaP vaccine - 300 mcg (Daptacel)
Hib vaccine - 225 mcg (PedVaxHIB)
Hep A - 250 mcg (Havrix (GSK)
Hep B - 500 mcg (Recombivax HB)
These amounts are 5-20x higher than the above recommendation.
While the FDA recommendation is for parenteral nutrition in premature/kidney failure patients, many parents are uneasy about the amount of aluminum in vaccines since they are exponentially higher, and there’s not much research on internal vaccine aluminum toxicity in healthy full term babies.
The Issues Within the Research
The Cochrane Collaboration studied the side effects of aluminum in the DTP vaccine to determine if aluminum vaccines caused more side effects than non-aluminum vaccines - they found that they didn’t (Lancet: Infectious Diseases 2004).
The problem with this study is that they only focused on visible symptoms (redness, swelling, and pain in injection site). They did not look at the metabolism of aluminum and how much built up in the brain or bone tissue. It also only looked at one singular aluminum-vaccine, not the multiple aluminum vaccines typically given all at once to infants.
Studies on IV feeding solutions in babies did find that aluminum impaired their neurological and mental development. But that study was not done on full-term healthy babies, nor specifically with vaccines. Likewise, there are many animal studies showing aluminum-containing vaccines may cause neurological harm. But it’s hard to relate these studies into human terms, as there are hardly any human infant studies, and humans may be able to excrete aluminum better.
At the end of the day there needs to be more research done where various amounts of aluminum is injected into children to see what happens internally for many parents to feel more at ease. The problem is that most parents don’t feel comfortable letting their child partake in those types of studies. Others have no concerns as things stand, and feel more at ease with the pros of disease protection vs the cons of possible aluminum side effects.
Both feelings are valid.
Options to Consider
There is a HIB brand that does not contain aluminum (ActHIB). Ask your dr to order this brand.
You can tell your doctor you will only allow your child to receive one aluminum containing vaccine at a time.
Avoid combo vaccines that have high amounts of aluminum (i.e Pediarix).
You can also do a vaccine detox before and after aluminum shots to mitigate the toxicity.
List of Aluminum Vaccines
Pneumococcal
Diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP)
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
Hepatitis A (Hep A)
Hepatitis B (Hep B)
Hep A/Hep B vaccine
DTaP/inactivated polio/Hep B
DTaP/inactivated polio/Hib
Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
Japanese Encephalitis (JE)
Meningococcal B
Td
Tdap
Sources:
18 Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA. Aluminum vaccine adjuvants: are they safe? Curr Med Chem. 2011;18(17):2630-7. doi: 10.2174/092986711795933740. PMID: 21568886.
19 Updated aluminum pharmacokinetics following infant exposures through diet and vaccination.”
Vaccine 29 (2011)
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