In 1984, Christopher Exley, Ph.D., watched a young fish die from acute aluminum toxicity. The whole process took just under forty-eight hours. But, those two days changed his life.
Within the first six hours of exposure to aluminum, the young salmon showed signs of distress and marked behavior changes. After that, it began to seek out the corners of the tank, pushing its head and body against the side of the tank.
After twenty-four hours, the salmon began to move randomly and chaotically around the tank. Finally, after losing its orientation, it flipped onto its back and took its last breath. It died from aluminum toxicity.
Exley felt deeply troubled. He had just witnessed with his own eyes how acute aluminum exposure could be toxic to living things. This profound experience directed the course of his scientific research into aluminum toxicity.
A professor at Keele University in Staffordshire, England, Christopher Exley has been researching and publishing original science about aluminum exposure and aluminum toxicity for 35 years.
Aluminum toxicity in childhood vaccines
Aluminum is one of several adjuvants used in childhood vaccinations.
An adjuvant is a substance added to vaccines to provoke a stronger immune response.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, several different adjuvants are used in vaccines. In addition to aluminum, these vaccine adjuvants include:
- MF59: an oil-in-water emulsion made of squalene that is used in the influenza vaccine Fluad
- AS01B: used in the vaccine for shingles, this adjuvant is made from bacteria and a compound extracted from soapbark trees
- CpG 1018: a more recent adjuvant made from cytosine phosphoguanine, a synthetic DNA, and used in the Heplisav-B vaccine
List of the vaccines that contain aluminum adjuvants. Screenshot from the CDC.
Amounts vary
The amount of aluminum varies by vaccine. Some vaccines, including chickenpox, MMR, meningococcal, and rotavirus, do not contain any adjuvants. The amount of aluminum in childhood vaccines ranges from approximately 125 to 625 micrograms per dose depending on the vaccine.
In a recently published commentary in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, Exley explains that a single injection of a vaccine that includes an aluminum adjuvant can be considered acute exposure to aluminum.
Aluminum known to be toxic
While common in the environment, aluminum is toxic to humans. It is both a central nervous system and bone toxin.
It’s important we understand how common medical practices are making us sick, especially our children. The more we educate ourselves, the more empowered parents we become and the better able we are to help our children be healthier.
The human body most effectively prevents aluminum from being toxic when we ingest it (that is, swallowed aluminum) and it passes through our gastrointestinal tract.
In fact, less than 1 percent of ingested aluminum is thought to be absorbed. So, in other words, almost all ingested aluminum leaves the body through the natural digestive process.
By contrast, our human bodies have very little defense against aluminum that is “parenteral,” or that bypasses the gastrointestinal tract.
Parenteral aluminum exposure
“Parenteral” is a medical term. It refers to something put inside the body but not by swallowing. For example, an injection into the muscle on the leg, a subcutaneous injection, or an IV are all common routes of parenteral drug administration.
Injected and intravenous aluminum are both parenteral aluminum exposure.
According to Exley’s scientific review: “All intramuscularly injected aluminum, e.g. from vaccines, may eventually be absorbed” (my emphasis).
Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the United States and the world, showed evidence of aluminum neurotoxicity due to IV nutrition in premature infants in neonatal intensive care units. The strength of these research findings directly led to strict FDA guidelines on parenteral aluminum in IV nutrition to prevent damage to newborns.
But here’s the problem: The cumulative amounts of aluminum exposure via adjuvants in vaccines far exceed the FDA’s own safety limits.
Exceeding FDA’s safety limits
As outlined by the FDA, children who received injected aluminum at greater than 4 to 5 micrograms per kilogram per day “suffered from central nervous system and bone toxicity. Tissue loading may occur at even lower rates of administration.”
What does this mean?
Let’s say that a typical 2-month-old baby weighs about 5 kilograms. If that baby receives a brand of the DTaP vaccine which contains 625 micrograms of aluminum, then the baby receives 625/5 = 125 mcg/kg parenteral aluminum by injection, which passes directly into the bloodstream, the brain, and other organs. The “safe” amount for that baby is only 25 mcg per day. But the baby is receiving 625 mcg. So the amount the baby is receiving with just one injection is twenty-five times higher than the 25 mcg (4-5 mcg/kg/day) maximum that FDA stipulates for parenteral administration via IV nutrition. This level of exposure, from just one vaccine, constitutes aluminum toxicity.
If you want to pursue the question of aluminum toxicity, you’ve got some more research to do.
I recommend you print these articles out, grab a highlighter pen and a strong cup of coffee. Then read them in their entirety.
Critical peer-reviewed scientific papers about the safety of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines:
1) Reconsideration of the immunotherapeutic pediatric safe dose levels of aluminum (Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, July 2018)
2) Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? (Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, November 2011)
3) Aluminum in brain tissue in autism (Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, March 2018)
4) Aluminum hydroxide injections lead to motor deficits and motor neuron degeneration (Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, November 2009)
5) Autoimmune/autoinflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA syndrome) in commercial sheep (Immunology Research, July 2011)
Exley’s research suggests that aluminum exposure in a single vaccine is acute
In the case of Infanrix Hexa, a vaccine used in Europe and Australia to prevent six diseases (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, polio, and Haemophilus influenzae type b or Hib), the concentration of aluminum is approximately 8,000 times higher than was required to kill the salmon parr Exley saw being poisoned to death by aluminum.
Exley has noted that the total concentration of aluminum in the immediate vicinity of the injection site is extremely high.
When a baby or small child receives a vaccine, the injection site often becomes red and sore.
The immune system causes this inflammation. White blood cells rush to the injection site to respond to the immune assault.
Exley explains that a number of different cells that come to the injection site will actively take up, literally eat, the majority of injected aluminum adjuvant.
Infiltrating brain tissue
Macrophages are large white blood cells that have the ability to locate and ingest foreign substances, like bacteria and viruses. Some particles of aluminum adjuvant will be taken up by the body’s macrophages and retained at or close to the injection site as a granuloma.
A granuloma is a collection of macrophages—a small area of inflammation. Other cells heavily laden with aluminum will leave the injection site, visiting local lymph nodes and carrying aluminum to other places in the body.
This is a lot of medical lingo, but stay with me. The important take-away here is that evidence is mounting that these cells may be transporting aluminum into brain tissue.
Perhaps most concerning is that in his research, Exley has found evidence that aluminum can infiltrate brain tissue by crossing the blood-brain barrier and meninges. Post-mortem research shows that the brain tissue of people with autism contains higher than normal levels of aluminum.
Significant exposure to aluminum
An aluminum adjuvant in a vaccine is an acute exposure to aluminum at the vaccine injection site, and also significant exposure to aluminum throughout a baby’s body.
Exley urges that we not be complacent about the use of aluminum adjuvants. Because infants have increased gastrointestinal absorption, reduced urinary excretion, and a developing blood-brain-barrier, he argues that they are uniquely vulnerable to aluminum.
But what about aluminum in breast milk?
The injection of a single dose of Infanrix Hexa (mentioned above) into an infant is equivalent to 164 times the daily dose of aluminum that a baby may drink in breast milk. A granuloma at the vaccine injection site will likely retain a portion of this aluminum. But even if 40 percent of the aluminum were contained, the daily dose of aluminum in this particular vaccine is still 100 times higher than an infant would receive while breast-feeding.
This high exposure to aluminum, some of which may end up in a baby’s brain, is not safe for infants.
Some researchers have dismissed the concern over aluminum exposure. They argue that people come in contact with aluminum all the time: in breastmilk, beauty products, and cookware.
If we humans have more aluminum in our bodies than we can handle, we should be very, very concerned.
Thoughtful researchers and scientists worry about the cumulative over-exposure to aluminum.
Aluminum has no place in the human body.
It’s toxic to humans and has no beneficial role of any kind in our bodies. So it stands to reason that we should take every possible step to reduce aluminum exposure and lower our body burden of aluminum.
Aluminum content in childhood vaccines, vaccine by vaccine. Please note the aluminum content in vaccines is highly variable depending on the brand. Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Vaccine Safety has the most up-to-date information. Photo courtesy of The Vaccine-Friendly Plan.
Related Posts:
13 Reasons Why the CDC is Right & You Need to Vaccinate Your Kids
Wondering About Vaccines, Not Sure Where to Start
Three Toxins to Avoid During Pregnancy, Three to Embrace
Aluminum and Breast Cancer: New Science Shows a Strong Connection
Published: November 12, 2019
Last update: March 29, 2021
625/25= 25. Your Maths is off by a factor of five.
Thank you so much for catching that, Steve. We have fixed it now.
Is there aluminum in the current flu vaccine? I am concerned about the elderly receiving the high dose flu shot. Would that have even more adjuvants? Could that lead to higher incidents of dementia and Alzheimers from accumulation in the brain tissue?
Flu shots are made every year and their contents vary but it is my understanding that there is no aluminum in the current iterations of flu vaccines. You can read the CDC’s vaccine excipient list (a tremendously helpful reference) here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/b/excipient-table-2.pdf That said, several studies have found an association between aluminum and compromised brains in older adults and there is aluminum in other shots that are urged on the elderly, including at least two brands of the meningitis vaccine and at least one brand of the Pneumococcal vaccine (PCV13 – Prevnar 13).
Correct. Flu vaccines never contain Al adjuvant. The immune activation from Al adjuvant is not appropriate for flu vaccines. Al adjuvant causes Th2 type activation. Th2 is associated with autism, asthma and allergic disorders. Th2 activation
http://vaccinepapers.org/two-vaccines-opposite-effects-brain/
Just because they say that there is no Aluminum in those Vaccines doesn’t make it true. Vaccines are designed to damage the patients. The for Profit Medical industry has pushed Vaccines as a way of making life long customers. There are dozens of chemicals added to Vaccines that do nothing for the efficacy of the Vaccine. They have other purposes that are contrary to the Patient’s best interest. When you look at the real list of chemicals in those Vaccines you see MSG. Formaldehyde, fetal human cells, Cancer cells and the smoking gun Polysorbate 80. Polysorbate 80 helps heavy metals pass the Blood- Brain barrier into the Brain where they will wreak havoc for the rest of your life. I got ADHD and a plethora of Allergies from the Polio Vaccine back in 1961. I spent over 10 years going to my father’s Clinic for allergy shots. Over 10,000 kids seen and not one with present day Autism. Then the adjuvant was switched to Aluminum from Mercury and the proliferation of Autism began. My several thousand hours of intense study over more than 50 years clearly shows that the carnage is Intentional as the Vaccines kill more people than the diseases that they “allegedly’ prevent. No Flu shots and NO Gardasil, EVER…
Here’s how they get chemicals into Vaccines without listing them. Chemicals have to be listed if they cross a preset number. So they set the threshold above the amount of the Toxin that they have added to the Vaccine. The CDC IS a Vaccine company so the regulators are the manufacturers…. The UN has declared Agenda 2030 with the goal of dropping World population by several Billion. Vaccines allow for ‘selective herd thinning’ by giving one social sub-group an inert Vaccine while giving another group a deadly Vaccine. Gardasil was designed to give young women reproductive damage besides all the Deaths that were caused by the Vaccine.
Flu vaccines do not and never did contain aluminum.
There was no “switch” from mercury to aluminum. Mercury and Al have different functions in vaccines, and BOTH were present in some vaccines when mercury was used. Mercury (thimerosal) is a preservative. Its function is to prevent fungi and bacteria from growing in the vaccine during storage. Aluminum is an adjuvant. its function is to stimulate inflammation (an immune response).
Preservative and adjuvant functions are completely different.
Hi, I am currently 24 weeks pregnant And I have been getting my allergy shots the entire pregnancy so far without realizing there is aluminum in them. I get four shots usually twice per week, so 8 total! I’ve been on allergy shots for about 6 years now for severe allergies. I am very concerned for my baby and the exposure of aluminum. I am stopping the shots immediately upon realizing this but it has been 24 weeks Already. Is there anything I can do to help my baby get rid of the aluminum, I’m so scared I’ve done serious damage already and caused autism. Autism does not run in mine or my husbands family but I know autism is very prevalent now days and I am having a boy. Do all allergy shots have aluminum or is there a chance mine maybe doesn’t? I just can’t believe no one told me and this has happened.
Jessica — I asked Dr. Exley for his advice to answer your question. Here’s what he sent back: “Please recommend that she reads my book to get a full understanding of her situation and, she should begin to drink a silicon-rich mineral water every day to help to remove aluminium from her body and that of the foetus.”
Christopher Exley PhD FRSB
Professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry
Aluminium and Silicon Research Group
The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories,
Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
I also asked SM’s hive mind. There’s a very interesting discussion over there with lots of comments. I think the baby is protected by both your liver and the placenta, which both provide a filter of sorts for toxic exposures. My thought is that the best thing you can do moving forward is to eat really clean, exercise as a way to detox, and do everything you can to not feel stressed. Nettles and quercitin are both very very helpful for allergies. Here’s the link to the FB comments, in the hopes this thread is helpful: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.margulis.1/posts/10226217962863808
Jessica — I asked Dr. Exley for his advice to answer your question. Here’s what he sent back: “Please recommend that she reads my book to get a full understanding of her situation and, she should begin to drink a silicon-rich mineral water every day to help to remove aluminium from her body and that of the foetus.”
Christopher Exley PhD FRSB
Professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry
Aluminium and Silicon Research Group
The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories,
Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
I also asked SM’s hive mind. There’s a very interesting discussion over there with lots of comments. I think the baby is protected by both your liver and the placenta, which both provide a filter of sorts for toxic exposures. My thought is that the best thing you can do moving forward is to eat really clean, exercise as a way to detox, and do everything you can to not feel stressed. Nettles and quercetin are both very very helpful for allergies. Here’s the link to the FB comments, in the hopes this thread is helpful: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.margulis.1/posts/10226217962863808
Darlene, If you are interested in learning more about the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s check out the work by Dr. Chris Exley at Keele University and books by Dr. Dennis N Crouse. Dr. Exley has found large amounts of aluminum in the brains of people with Autism and Alzheimer’s. This research is published. Dr. Crouse has an evidence based chapter in one of his books on aluminum being a causal factor of Alzheimer’s. Aluminum slowly accumulates in our bodies and we are being exposed to an increasing amount of aluminum and this is why the rates of Alzheimer’s and Autism are rising. The rise in Autism is mostly due to the increase amount of aluminum children are getting in vaccines.
I appreciate the conversation on this health concern. It’s so important to be able to talk about potential risks so that we can develop safer medical care.
It is misleading to directly compare the Al quantity in vaccines with the Al quantity in IV feeding solutions. The chemical form and elimination of the Al is different from these two forms of aluminum. Al adjuvant in vaccines is much more dangerous than apparent from a simple comparison with Al in IV solutions.
Al in vaccines is made of solid particles, which are persistent in the body and cause chronic inflammation. The Al in IV solutions is water soluble and is eliminated by the kidneys (though this elimination is much slower in infants since infant kidneys work slower). So Al from IV solutions does not tend to cause long term inflammation.
The particulate nature and persistence of Al adjuvant is an important factor contributing to its toxicity, particularly to the brain. This important fact is lost if Al adjuvant dose is compared with IV solution dose.
I think the comparison actually works pretty well. Granted, it’s misleading, but in this case, it makes the case even more important to understand. Not only is it not the same AL, it’s not used in the same manner. So if the safer AL administered to our body in a relatively safe way is unsafe in small doses, then a more dangerous AL administered in a dangerous way, in high doses, is that much worse. AL is not safe. AL is poison, and should be treated as such. I will go so far as to say any substance that is injected into the human body to trigger an immune response, should never be injected into a human body. Build immunity, don’t trigger it.
But the neurotoxicity observed in the preemies that received the IV nutrition containing AL is what prompted the FDA to create the guidelines.
Thank you Jennifer for writing about the dangers of aluminum! This information needs to be mainstream! We all need to share this information. It is beyond alarming what we are doing to our children. I witnessed this first hand working having spent my career working as a Psychologist in the public schools. We are seeing increase rates of Autism due to the increase in the amount of aluminum children are being exposed to and the major source of aluminum is vaccines. One thing I would add which will bring people hope is drinking silica rich mineral water is effective at removing aluminum from our bodies and brains. Dr. Chris Exley has many done research in this area. There are children who have autism and seizures who are seeing improvement from drinking silica rich mineral water.
Thank you for this article! I shared this on Facebook and a friend of mine who is a nurse commented the following: what are your thoughts on this?
“I’m concerned the writer doesn’t fully grasp some of the terminology they are using. For example, in what is quoted, the person is likening the safe amounts for IV (intravenous) administration to a vaccine which is IM (intramuscular). These different administration routes have vastly different safe dosages and even what medications are safe to give in each route. Medical professionals do not give vaccines via IV, they give them IM. Similarly, they don’t give them orally. Comparing them is not only providing incorrect information, but could be confusing for someone who doesn’t understand the difference between them. The IM route holds the medication in your muscle to slowly be released. Because of this it does not overload the system immediately but slowly gives it out into the bloodstream. IV immediately releases the medication into the blood, and there is a lot of increased monitoring because of it. “
Thanks for this comment, Sarah. I asked Dr. Exley and others to respond. I will post each response as an individual comment. Hopefully this will be helpful. This is from James Lyons Weiler:
The absorption via the enteral route is tiny – 0.3% by published estimates. The rest simply passes through and never makes it to the internal body; thus, “exposure” does not occur (unless there are lesions in the gut). The denialists have it backwards due to this very fact. In contrast, via any injection route, venous or intramuscular, the body must deal with 100% of the dose. We understand all of this completely and in great detail..
See for example:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29773196/
The Supplementary Data in this study shows the relative total body burden from various sources adjusted for real exposure.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0946672X19305784?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0946672X19305784?via%3Dihub#sec0060
James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D.
Author, CEO, President, Scientist
Editor-in-Chief, Science, Public Health Policy, and the Law
Guest Contributor, Children’s Health Defense
The Environmental and Genetic Causes of Autism (Skyhorse Publishing)
Cures vs. Profits: Successes in Translational Research (World Scientific, 2016)
Ebola: An Evolving Story (World Scientific, 2015)
From Dr. Exley: I write about this extensively in my book and cite all the relevant primary research papers in doing so. The book is called Imagine You Are an Aluminum Atom, published by Simon & Schuster.
Christopher Exley PhD FRSB
Professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry
Aluminium and Silicon Research Group
The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories,
Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
Complex topic. Parenteral is not oral. Of course IV is different from IM but both are much more toxic than enteral = by mouth. ~Paul Thomas, M.D.
The article talks about muscle injections as well as IV delivery. Both are bypassing the mucosal barriers. Research has shown that macrophages take up the aluminum at the injection site in the muscle and carry it into the brain using a “trojan horse” type mechanism. So it is not true that the aluminum stays at the site of injection.
In fact, I think there are rodent studies that show that much of the aluminum in the injection does not get excreted in the urine, which is ominous because it probably means that it is staying in the body.
Dr. Stephanie Seneff
Senior Research Scientist
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Last response. This one is from a physics major and former engineer: “Yes, they are different. And the level for intravenous aluminum is assuming a certain accumulation over time that is (hopefully!) not going to occur with vaccines. But we have to use that dosage level because the FDA has never determined a safe dose for injected aluminum adjuvant AT ALL. It would be advisable to come up with a maximum for a bolus dose, but recently we have come to learn that smaller doses can be more immediately toxic. This is the closest thing they have to “safe” dosing for injected aluminum because parenteral feeding bypasses the natural screening of the gut in the same way as intramuscular injections do. And it’s not entirely inappropriate because most of the aluminum will end up in the bloodstream if it is not walled off in a granuloma.”