Unlike recent letter writers, I commend the Gazette for its July 12 editorial "Peril? Mercury in Vaccines." No one questions the EPA's recommendation that pregnant women consume only certain fish because of mercury contamination. Why then is it a stretch to question the wisdom of injecting very young children with mercury in excess of the EPA's and National Academy of Science's standard safe level for daily ingested mercury? For example, a 22-pound child given a flu vaccine receives 25 times the established safe level with this one shot, unless the (close to) mercury-free version of the vaccine is given. (Both Fluzone, for children under 4, and Fluviron, for children over 4, make two versions of the influenza vaccine. One of each of these versions has only 0.3 micrograms of mercury, while the other has 25 micrograms of mercury.)

It is not true that no rigorous studies support a link between vaccines and autism. I suggest reading the Environmental Working Group's Executive Summary on the subject. It can be found at www.ewg.org/reports/autism [1]. There is no question that vaccines are an important public health measure, but until mercury is removed from all flu vaccines and are banned from other vaccines, parents have a right to be informed about this complex and controversial issue and to request one of the limited mercury free flu vaccines.

Catherine Carter

Charleston