WHO information materials on thiomersal and mercury treaty

Many thanks to Alison Ruth Brunier for sharing this information Please note that we have today posted on the WHO web site an information sheet and questions and answers on thiomersal. - Information sheet - http://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/thiomersal_information_sheet/en/index.html - Questions and answers - http://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/thiomersal_questions_and_answers/en/index.html The documents cover issues relating to the use of thiomersal in vaccines including why it is used; evidence regarding safety; and WHO's position. Translations of these documents into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish are being requested and will be posted on the WHO web site in due course. The documents have been prepared in view of the forthcoming 3rd session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on Mercury (INC3), convened by the United Nations Environment Programme, due to be held in Nairobi, from 31 October to 4 November 2011. As many of you are aware, activists for mercury-free drugs have been lobbying for the use of mercury preservatives in medicine, including vaccines, to be listed in "Annex C (Mercury-added product not allowed)" of the proposed treaty. During recent weeks, we have been working closely with partners to ensure that ministries of health are briefed on the implications of a decision to include thiomersal in a list of banned products, and that country delegates participating in the negotiations - to a large extent thus far representatives of ministries of the environment or foreign affairs - are in turn, also well briefed. WHO participates in the treaty process with observer status. As well as being present at the INC sessions, WHO is providing submissions, technical briefings, and contributions to Secretariat meeting documents. Further information on addressing health in the mercury instrument can be found in the UNEP document located at: http://www.unep.org/hazardoussubstances/Portals/9/Mercury/Documents/INC3/3_6_health.pdf Annex 1 (page 5) "Mercury in human vaccine preservatives" was submitted by WHO. For further information on the INC process, see http://www.unep.org/hazardoussubstances/MercuryNot/MercuryNegotiations/tabid/3320/language/en-US/Default.aspx For more general questions and answers prepared by WHO on mercury and health, see http://www.who.int/phe/chemicals/faq_mercury_health/en/index.html You are actively encouraged to share the WHO information sheet and questions and answers on thiomersal with your own professional networks. Kind regards. Alison Mrs Alison Brunier, MBA Communications Officer Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals World Health Organization