October 1, 2016
By Christine Cheng, R.Ph.
Q: I visit my elderly parents in their care home and was told that I should get a flu shot. Should I be concerned about the mercury content?
A. In order to minimize the impact of influenza infection on the elderly population, it is important for their visitors and caregivers to consider getting the flu shot. Thankfully, mercury poisoning is not something you need to worry about. Thimerosal, the preservative used in some forms of the flu vaccine is derived from mercury, but has none of the toxic effects associated with methyl mercury. To put things in perspective, there is more to be concerned about getting mercury poisoning from eating too much canned tuna than getting a flu shot.
