Aluminum in the Vaccine Schedule Recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recommends this vaccine schedule.

There exists concern that aluminum present in some of the vaccines poses a health risk. Does the amount of aluminum in a standard vaccination series approach levels which warrant such concerns? What are these levels of aluminum? How do the levels of aluminum in vaccine compare to baseline levels of Al absorbed? How do the levels of Al in vaccine compare to levels that are known to be toxic?

Let's say we have an average, healthy male child. We take a naive schedule, following the AAP's recommendations to the letter while not shying away from products that are high in Al. In the first 6 months, we take:

Hepatitis B (*HepB*),
Hamophilus influenzae (*HIB*),
Pneumococcus (*Pc*),
Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertusis (*DPT*),

These vaccines have aluminum; how many milligrams, supposing that we take no care to choose products that minimize Al?:

# amount of aluminum in milligrams
HepB = .25
HIB = .225
Pc = .125
DTP = .625

Now, let's say that we choose to follow the AAP vaccination schedule aggressively.

AAP_recommended_schedule = dict(
    birth=[HepB],
    month1=[HepB],
    month2=[HIB, Pc, DTP],
    month4=[HIB, Pc, DTP],
    month6=[HIB, Pc, DTP, HepB],
)

We can see these as Al totals:

Al_doses = [(k,sum(v)) for k,v in AAP_recommended_schedule.iteritems()]

The total amount of Al at each stage (in mg):

>>> Al_doses
[('month1', 0.25),
 ('month2', 0.975),
 ('month4', 0.975),
 ('month6', 1.225),
 ('birth', 0.25)]

Our total Al then, in the first 6 months is:

>>> sum([v for k,v in Al_doses])
3.675

3.675 mg, this figure is consistent with what the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHoP) reports here (CHoP actually says 4 mg in the first 6 months).

Could this amount of Al cause worry?

Let's look at the average, healthy weight of our child:

average_kg_weight = {
        'birth': 3.5,
        'month1': 4.5,
        'month2': 5.5,
        'month4': 6.75,
        'month6': 8,
}

How much Al per kg, then, do the vaccines deliver?

Al_doses = dict(Al_doses)
vaccinations = 'birth', 'month1', 'month2', 'month4', 'month6'
for vaccination in vaccinations:
    print 'Al at %s: %s mg per %s kg bodyweight = %s mg/kg' % (
            vaccination,
            Al_doses[vaccination],
            average_kg_weight[vaccination],
            Al_doses[vaccination]/average_kg_weight[vaccination])

Al at birth: 0.25 mg per 3.5 kg bodyweight = 0.0714285714286 mg/kg
Al at month1: 0.25 mg per 4.5 kg bodyweight = 0.0555555555556 mg/kg
Al at month2: 0.975 mg per 5.5 kg bodyweight = 0.177272727273 mg/kg
Al at month4: 0.975 mg per 6.75 kg bodyweight = 0.144444444444 mg/kg
Al at month6: 1.225 mg per 8 kg bodyweight = 0.153125 mg/kg

Let's grab this data as a new dict:

mg_per_kg_doses = dict(
    zip(Al_doses.keys(), [Al_doses[k]/average_kg_weight[k] for k in Al_doses.keys()])
)

{'birth': 0.071428571428571425,
 'month1': 0.055555555555555552,
 'month2': 0.17727272727272728,
 'month4': 0.14444444444444443,
 'month6': 0.15312500000000001}

How do these amounts compare with normal ingestion of Al? How do they compare with toxic amounts of Al?

According to an article in Pediatric Nephrology, an average adult absorbs 0.0004-0.0007 mg/kg per day. The same study reports that a newborn on cow's milk formula will absorb 0.0008 mg Al per kg bodyweight every day. How many times more Al does the child get on these vaccination days than regular days?

# the number of time more Al the child receives on vaccination days
[mg_per_kg_doses[k]/.0008 for k in sorted(mg_per_kg_doses.keys())]

In the month2, the vaccine round involving the most Al per bodyweight, the child receives around 220 times the average daily intake.

A study that looked at Aluminum Neurotoxicity in Preterm Infants Receiving Intravenous-Feeding Solutions found measurable neurotoxicity at .045mg per kg bodyweight compared to .005mg per kg in the control group administered for more than 10 days.

Each of the 5 vaccine rounds in the first 6 months delivers more Al per kg bodyweight (on that day) than was found to be toxic over 11 days.

For a rough comparison between premature apples that receive Al over the course of 11 days and healthy apples that receive Al in 5 spikes over the course of 6 months, we can use (mg/kg)days.

The premature neonates who received ~11 days at ~0.045mg/kg had reduced developmental attainment compared to those who received ~0.005mg/kg for 11 days:

>>> 11*0.045        # 11 days at 0.045mg/kg -- reduced developmental attainment
0.495
>>> 11*0.005        # 11 days at 0.005mg/kg -- control
0.055
>>> sum(mg_per_kg_doses.values())   # our vaccination schedule
0.602

The amount of Al in the vaccination schedule gives a child, on the heaviest day, 220 times the amount of Al per bodyweight that a normal adult absorbs, 4.2 times the amount of Al per bodyweight compared to an adult eating a common antacid, about half the amount of Al per bodyweight compared to a 10kg child eating an adult antacid, 3.9 times the amount in one day than an amount found to be toxic over 10 days in premature neonates.

We set the premature neonates aside and look for toxicity in healthy children and animals. Turning back to Sedman in Pediatric Nephrology.

Concerning the amount a child absorbs by eating an antacid:

Only those who cared for children in the late 1970s during liberal use of aluminum-containing antacids and citrate can appreciate the horror of helplessly watching previously normal children die of severe encephalopathy over months to years.

True, most Al poisoning occurred in children with renal problems. However, Sedman goes on to conclude:

I recommend that no child, with or without renal failure, receive aluminum-containing antacids. The Food and Drug Administration should regulate parenteral fluids so that patients receive a total dose comparable to normal en- vironmental exposure.

Vaccines do deliver amounts of aluminum that, if continued daily over even a few weeks, would definitely be cause for alarm.

But, is there enough aluminum in the 5 vaccine cycles to cause developmental impairment?

Sedman states:

Sensitive species, such as cats and rabbits, demonstrate highly reproducible signs of memory and learning impair- ment with a single intracranial administration of soluble aluminum salts which raises their aluminum content in gray matter fourfold from 1.5 mg/kg dry weight to 5.5 mg/kg dry weight.

Which leads us to the gruesome quesion: How many kg of dry weight is an average 6 month old's brain? Let's say our baby has a good size brain of 500 grams. With 77% water, the dry weight is 165 grams or 0.165 kg. If all (3.675mg) of the Al was deposited into the young brain, it would contain Al 22.27 mg/kg dry weight! In the single largest introduction of 1.225 mg at 6 months, if all of it was deposited in the brain, the brain would have a concentration of 7.42mg/kg dry weight. So, without the kidneys excreting the Al, the amount of Al in the AAP-recommended vaccine, would be a sure-fire cause of cognitive dysfunction and dementia. The question then is: Do the vaccine recipients have kidneys capable of clearing 1.225mg of injected Al without any appreciable deleterious effects? 3.675mg over 6 months?

The answer is unclear; but, what is clear is that the amount of Al in an aggressive interpretation of the AAP vaccine schedule is well within the range where worry is reasonable.