DOH asked to check alleged ills of mercury in medicines

A Provincial Board member has requested Health Secretary Francisco Duque to verify the warning of an international group on the imprudent use of mercury in vaccines and medical or dental health care devices, and see if it needs government action.

PB member Jose Maria Gastardo recently filed a proposed measure requesting the DOH to validate the warning, issued by the Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) group, which has been the gist of its "Making Medicine Mercury-Free" program since 1998.

The HCWH is an international coalition of organizations in 40 countries worldwide that has been pushing for its program calling on all hospitals to phase out mercury-containing products and help resolve the risk in the use of mercury in medical health devices.

Medical studies in the United States revealed that toxicity due to medical and dental application of mercury poses tremendous hazards to health.

Vaccines, containing thimerosal and silver amalgam fillings in teeth, also facilitates ingestion of mercury that will cause degenerative and poisonous effects in people, the study said.

Mercury can be found in devices such as thermometers, sphygmomanometers, dilation and feeding tubes, batteries, fluorescent lamps, thermostats and bleaching substances.

Studies also show that the most likely routes of exposure to mercury are inhalation of inorganic mercury vapor after a spill or during its manufacture, and ingestion of methylmercury from contaminated fish, among others.

Several states in the US had already enacted legislation banning the sale and use of mercury in vaccines and mercury-containing medical and dental devices, including thermometers. - Cristina C. Birondo