Summary: NAFDAC’s current regulations will not permit in a body lotion, the level and form of mercury it claims to be harmless in some vaccines being administered to children.
Copious news reports have brought to our attention a
Press Release issued by the National Agency for
Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on 24th October, 2022. The Release attempts to underplay the
indisputable fact that vaccines, in formats long-proscribed in the developed
nations, on safety considerations, are still being shipped to Nigeria for use
in our children.
The NAFDAC’s
Press Release was craftily directed at an uncited media “statement” which supposedly
claimed that the mercury content in the vaccines in question is 40%. The focus
of the Release was thereafter directed at this wrongly quoted value. In actuality, it is thimerosal that contains
49.6% of ethyl mercury, while the concentration of thimerosal in vaccines could
range from 0.003 to 0.01% as correctly stated in the NAFDAC’s statement. Since the NAFDAC’s Release is obviously directed,
ultimately, at submissions made at the recently concluded 7th
National Conference on Environment and Health convened by us, we reproduce
here, for the records, our exact statement on the issue. Observation No 3 in the Conference Communique
reads:
i.
It was observed that while the use of thimerosal (49.6% ethyl mercury) as
preservative in traditional vaccines had been proscribed in the USA for over 2
decades, and in Europe for more than 30 years, this practice is still ongoing
in Nigeria. This is based on
recommendations stemming from Risk Assessment exercises carried out by
foreign/global agencies. Vaccines so
affected include Hepatitis B and Tetanus-Diphteria multidose vaccines. Mercury in all forms is known to be
neurotoxic.
ii.
By switching to single-dose forms of the same vaccine, as is done in the
developed countries, the need for the use of thimerosal (as preservative) will
be eliminated.
The full Communique
can be obtained from http://conferences.lsfnigeria.org.
The issue is therefore not the wrongly-ascribed (possibly
a typo) value of 40% as mercury content
in the vaccine The 0.003 – 0.01% value
quoted by the NAFDAC, while sounding miniscule as expressed in percentages, is
actually humongous in trace elements toxicology. The upper limit actually
translates to 25 microgram of ethyl mercury in a typical 0.5mL dose which could
be administered, in the case of Hepatitis B vaccine, to day-old low-birthweight
babies. By comparison, the WHO
recommended limit for mercury in 0.5 mL of waste water that can be used for
agricultural purposes
is 0.0005 microgram. That is 50,000 times lower than the mercury level in the
vaccine!
The NAFDAC is certainly not unaware of the highly
toxic nature of mercury. Indeed the
Agency has literally ZERO tolerance for mercury appearing, in any form, in all
cosmetics and other household products. A
statement on NAFDAC’s website explains this proscription:
“Mercury is prohibited in cosmetics products
because it can be harmful to health and can be absorbed into the body and
causes damage to the kidneys and nervous system, as well as disrupt the brain
development of young or unborn children…” https://www.nafdac.gov.ng/public-alert-no-007-2020-alert-on-ban-on-distribution-of-three-cosmetics-products-by-malaysian-ministry-of-health/
Deliberately loading babies, repeatedly, with such humongous
amount of mercury is therefore clearly unconscionable. The practice was
proscribed in Europe over 30 years ago, and despite considerable resistance by
the formidable Vaccine Lobby, it was also proscribed in the USA some 10 years
later. Despite NAFDAC’s repeated claim
of no evidence of harm, the sole reason for the proscription of these vaccines
in the developed nations is SAFETY.
The NAFDAC attempts to befuddle this straightforward
issue by repeatedly appealing to the World Health Organization. According to the NAFDAC, since the WHO has
not placed an outright proscription on the product, NAFDAC can continue to load
the brains of Nigerian children with levels of mercury which would be
unacceptable in waste waters and cosmetics.
And just to be clear, global bodies such as the WHO
or the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) are primarily concerned with
issues that traverse nations. Using
negotiations and consensus-building, acceptable middle-ground solutions that
would least rock the boat are endorsed and recommended in the sensitive task of
accommodating the widely different values and interests represented in nearly
200 member states. It is left for each nation to decide on
strictly local issues – such as how much mercury to pump into the brain of
their babies.
For emphasis, it was not the WHO that proscribed the
use of thimerosal in vaccines in the developed nations, but the national
agencies - the equivalents of our NAFDAC – in those nations. The WHO’s perspective for risk assessment of
the continued use of thimerosal-containing vaccines is not by any means a secret. It is clearly indicated in several technical
articles, such as the one by Drain
et al (2003)
published in the official Bulletin of the WHO (Drain
PK, Nelson CM, Lloyd JS. Single-dose versus multi-dose vaccine vials for
immunization programmes in developing countries. Bull World Health Organ.
2003;81(10):726-31). Simply put, if a nation considers herself too
impoverished to afford safer single-dose vaccines which do not contain mercury
as preservative, it is better to recommend they accept the morbid risk of
impaired neurodevelopment in their children than the mortal risk associated
with such infections as hepatitis, tetanus, and diphtheria. And, of course, there is also the need to
stabilize a sensitive global vaccine industry.
It is not our intention to by any means discredit
the NAFDAC or take up issues with her. This
issue in question predates her by decades and there are several intimidating global
players involved. Our overriding concern
is that health products which are not acceptable for use in the manufacturer/donors’
own children cannot be good enough for our own children and grand children. We encourage NAFDAC to rather side with the
Nigerian people and advise government on budgetary requirements to shift to the
use of single-dose vials, or other upcoming innovations; such that Nigerians
who require vaccines could continue to have them with at least the same
relative safety enjoyed in other climes.
Prof Joshua O.
Ojo
President/CEO, LivingScience
Foundation, Ile-Ife
www.lsfnigeria.org
Ile-Ife, 3rd
November, 2022
“That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving
health among all nations” - Psalms 67:2
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