§ Lord Colwynasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they regard the United States Government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's research into the possible relationship between autism and the presence of mercury in 60WA thiomersal as definitive, or whether they consider that further studies should be undertaken. [HL667]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)The United States Centers for Disease Control have conducted two studies, as yet preliminary and unpublished, which have not demonstrated any association between autism and thiomersal in vaccines (the amount of thiomersal in vaccines in the United Kingdom childhood immunisation programme is considerably less than that used in the United States programme).
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the Department of Health's statutory independent advisory committee, has reviewed the available evidence and has concluded that the present evidence does not support a link between thiomersal vaccines and autism.
The Public Health Laboratory Service has been asked by the World Health Organisation to set up a study to look into the relationship between thiomersal and possible neurological outcomes using United Kingdom data.