Study finds no link between aluminum in vaccines and autism, asthma

Aluminum in infant vaccines is a target of vaccine skeptics, which blame the ingredient on a myriad of health problems. But a study of more than a million people, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found no link between aluminum in vaccines and an increased risk of 50 chronic conditions, including autoimmune diseases, allergies and autism.

The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has propagated the disinformation of vaccines for years, said on a podcast in 2024 that aluminum in vaccines was “extremely neurotoxic”. (HHS spokesperson has not responded to a request for comments.)

The author of the main study Anders Hvid said that as a parent, he included concerns about vaccine safety.

“Our study responds to many of these concerns and provides clear and solid evidence of infant vaccine safety. This is proof that parents must make the best choices for the health of their children, “said HVIID, who is a professor and head of research on epidemiology at the serum Institute of Statens, a sector of the Danish Ministry of Health focused on the fight against infectious diseases.

HVIID and his team used the Denmark national register to seek any link between aluminum exposure of infantile vaccines and 50 chronic disorders, including 36 autoimmune disorders, nine allergy or asthma conditions, and five neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and ADD.

The study examined more than 1.2 million people born in Denmark from 1997 to 2018 and followed them until the end of 2020. Because health files in Denmark are meticulously preserved by government agencies, researchers were also able to compare children who received more aluminum in their vaccines at the age of 2 compared to those who received less. The study did not include non -vaccinated children.

The researchers found no link between aluminum in infant vaccines and one of the 50 conditions.

Ross Kedl, professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus, said that Scandinavian public health studies are of good quality.

“”[This excellence is] Partly because they have long had such a unified health system, “said Kedl, who was not involved in the new study.” Everyone is followed for life and you can return for many years and ask: “Can we find a link between something that has happened in the past and in the future?” “”.

HVIID said that the Danish study catalyst was a highly criticized study of centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in 2022, which suggested a link between aluminum in infant vaccines and increased asthma risk. The study, however, did not distinguish between the aluminum of vaccines and aluminum of other sources. It also contained inconsistencies: for example, in a group that researchers analyzed, a greater aluminum exposure was not linked to an increase in the risk of asthma, unlike the conclusions of the study.

“If you are looking at people who have obtained vaccines containing aluminum compared to those who had less, you must control the confusion factors, you should know that the only different source of aluminum that these people received came from these vaccines,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccines and Doctor of Infectious Disease Division at the Children’s Hospital Philadelphia.

The study of the CDC was unable to do so, said offer. Aluminum is the third most abundant metal on earth and people are exposed to metal by breast milk, air and water, he said.

“Aluminum is part of our daily diet and has done it since the start of time. This is the point that people do not understand, “said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Neither Osterholm nor Offer were involved in the new study.

CDC officials said at the time that it seems that vaccines containing aluminum “do not take into account the global trends that we see”.

Osterholm said that the strength of wider research is that it stains dozens of studies that have drawn the same conclusion as the new study.

“A study does not or not a security study or not,” he said. “These are the cumulative data that comes from many studies that have been carried out, which together demonstrate the safety of vaccines.”

Why is aluminum in vaccines?

Different ingredients are added to vaccines for various reasons. Aluminum – added to vaccines in the form of aluminum salts – is what is called an adjuvant. These additives act as a tag for the immune system, emphasizing invaders and inciting the body to produce antibodies against an antigen, or the virus or bacteria, a vaccine aims to protect.

“You cannot just have an antigen and an immune response, you need a kind of stimulus to trigger this answer,” said Kedl, from the University of Colorado. “An adjuvant is a substance that alerts the body’s immune response to the vaccine antigen. Without adjuvants, you actually create tolerance, which is the opposite effect of what you want a vaccine to do.”

In the United States, aluminum salts are used in the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping vaccine (DTAP) as well as pneumonia, HPV and hepatitis B.

“The aluminum that is in vaccines is in the form of extremely small quantities of aluminum salts which are not the same as elementary aluminum which is a metal,” said HVIID. “It is really important that parents understand that we do not inject metal to children.”

The aluminum salts of the vaccines are injected into the muscle and most are eliminated by the body and filtered through the kidneys within two weeks, although small quantities can linger for years.

“Vaccines containing aluminum form the backbone of our infantile immunization programs,” said HVIID, adding that there are currently no viable replacements. “It is extremely important that we separate politics and science in this issue. Otherwise, it is children, including American children, who will suffer the consequences. ”