In the wake of a merger between Bayer and Monsanto, new evidence has found the active ingredient in Monsanto‘s Roundup glyphosate is present in childhood vaccines.  How did it get there?

Living in California, the vaccine debate has been heated with the start of the school year and the implementation of SB 277.  This law mandates all children receive vaccines at certain checkpoints of school enrollment.((http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB277)) It allows for medical excemptions only, and doctors are scrutinzied for the legitimacy of such claims, as in the case of Dr. Sears.((http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oc-vaccine-doctor-20160908-snap-story.html)) 

Vaccine Ingredients

Parents choose to opt out of vaccines for various reasons.  One of these reasons is the vaccine ingredients.  According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) common vaccine ingredients include:

• Aluminum gels or salts of aluminum which are added as adjuvants to help the vaccine stimulate a better response. Adjuvants help promote an earlier, more potent response, and more persistent immune response to the vaccine.
• Antibiotics which are added to some vaccines to prevent the growth of germs (bacteria) during production and storage of the vaccine. No vaccine produced in the United States contains penicillin.
• Egg protein is found in influenza and yellow fever vaccines, which are prepared using chicken eggs. Ordinarily, persons who are able to eat eggs or egg products safely can receive these vaccines.
• Formaldehyde is used to inactivate bacterial products for toxoid vaccines, (these are vaccines that use an inactive bacterial toxin to produce immunity.) It is also used to kill unwanted viruses and bacteria that might contaminate the vaccine during production. Most formaldehyde is removed from the vaccine before it is packaged.
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 2-phenoxy-ethanol which are used as stabilizers in a few vaccines to help the vaccine remain unchanged when the vaccine is exposed to heat, light, acidity, or humidity.
• Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative that is added to vials of vaccine that contain more than one dose to prevent contamination and growth of potentially harmful bacteria.

When viewing a complete list of ingredient by vaccine, there are some very strange ingredients like((http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf)):

• Monkey kidney cells

• Calf serum/Fetal bovine serum

• Detergent

• Human embryonic lung cultures/Human diploid cells derived from aborted female fetuses ((http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC274969/))

• Dog kidney cell protein

• Phosphate

• Chick embryo cells

• Human albumin derived from human blood((http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/BloodBloodProducts/ApprovedProducts/LicensedProductsBLAs/FractionatedPlasmaProducts/ucm056845.pdf))

• Embryonic guinea pig cell cultures

   

The basis of many religious exemptions to vaccinations are the cells that originated in aborted fetuses.  To be clear, these human cells originated from aborted fetuses obtained 50 years ago.  The current human cells used in vaccines have been grown in laboratories off these original fetus cells. 

ABC News explains:

Some childhood vaccines, including the one against rubella — which is part of the MMR vaccine given to millions of children worldwide for measles, mumps and rubella — is cultured in “WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts,” according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s fact sheet on the vaccine’s ingredients…

Other common vaccines, including those for chicken pox, hepatitis and rabies, are also propagated in cells originating from legally aborted human fetuses, according to the FDA.

“These abortions, which occurred decades ago, were not undertaken with the intent of producing vaccines,” said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers Disease Control and Prevention. ((http://abcnews.go.com/Health/stay-measles-parties-docs-warn-parents/story?id=28842782)) 

It is important to note that all of the abortions were voluntary.  

Other vaccination objectors cite animal rights as concerns in the production of vaccines as well.  Take for example, fetal calf serum.  It is taken from cows that are found pregnant at slaughter. Humane Research Australia explains:

After slaughter and bleeding of the cow at an abattoir, the mother’s uterus containing the calf fetus is removed during the evisceration process (removal of the mother’s internal organs) and transferred to the blood collection room. (3). A needle is then inserted between the fetus’s ribs directly into its heart and the blood is vacuumed into a sterile collection bag…

It remains questionable as to whether or not fetuses have already died from anoxia (deprivation of oxygen) prior to serum collection. Nevertheless, no anesthesia is given, despite their possible ability to experience pain and discomfort.((http://www.humaneresearch.org.au/campaigns/fetal_calf_serum))

Humane Research Australia does offer alternatives.   “In summary, HRA believes strongly that researchers have a moral and a legal obligation to replace animals with alternatives when they are available. We feel it therefore makes sense to shift toward a more humane and scientifically valid methodology.”

Now we can add Monsanto’s glyphosate to the list of vaccine ingredients!

Moms Across America reports:

Glyphosate, a chemical ingredient found in Monsanto’s Roundup and hundreds of other herbicides, has been found in vaccines.  Moms Across America received preliminary screening results from Microbe Inotech Laboratories Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri which show the DTap Adacel (Sanofi Pasteur) vaccine had 0.123 ppb, Influenza Fluvirin (Novaris)  0.331 ppb and HepB Energix-B (Glaxo Smith Kline) 0.325 and Pneumonoccal Vax Polyvalent Pneumovax 23, (Merck) had 0.107 ppb of glyphosate.The MMR II (Merck) vaccine, which CDC whistle blower Dr.William Thompson has linked to autism, had levels up to 25 times higher than the other vaccines, at 2.671ppb.  Subsequently, multiple rounds of additional independent tests have confirmed these findings at or above the same levels.((http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_in_childhood_vaccines))

How did the glyphosate end up in the vaccines? Many vaccine ingredients are genetially-modified.  80% of genetically-modified organisms (GMO) are designed glyphosate resistance.

According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff of MIT:

…glyphosate could easily be present in vaccines due to the fact that certain vaccine viruses (including measles in MMR and flu virus) are grown on gelatin derived from the ligaments of pigs fed heavy doses of glyphosate in their GMO feed. Livestock feed is allowed to have up to 400 PPM of glyphosate residues by the EPA, thousands of times higher than has been shown to cause harm in numerous studies.((http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_in_childhood_vaccines))

Some of the vaccine ingredients listed above may be the source of the glyphosate contamination.  

 

Photo credit: JeepersMedia via Foter.com / CC BY

Recently Monsanto’s glyphosate has been found as an unintentional ingredient in tampons,  honey, and wine.((http://www.organicauthority.com/american-honey-tainted-with-twice-the-legal-eu-limit-of-glyphosate-fda-documents-show/))((http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/tampax-tampons-always-sanitary-towels-feminine-hygiene-potentially-toxic-chemicals-a6894751.html))((http://asheepnomore.net/2016/04/19/roundups-toxic-chemical-glyphosate-found-in-100-of-california-wines-tested/)) The World Health Organization declared glyphosate a “probable” human carcinogen.((http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/widely-used-herbicide-linked-to-cancer/)) 

Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America stated,

We were shocked to find the presence of glyphosate in all five of the vaccines and to find that the contamination of glyphosate has extended into our medical treatments. The fact is that the CDC, vaccine makers and our regulatory agencies should have been testing for herbicide/pesticide contamination 40 years ago before they started spraying these chemicals on our food and feed crops. If anyone questions these results we ask them to test.((http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_in_childhood_vaccines))

Roundup is the world’s most widely used pesticides. It’s found in breastmilk and American drinking water. ((http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_testing_results))It’s not surprising it has made its way into vaccines. 

The intent of this post is not to be anti-vaccine or pro-vaccine, pro-life or pro-choice, anti animal testing or pro animal testing.  It is not meant to kindle the vaccine debate.  Depending on your beliefs, you may interpret it as such.  Vaccines are a hot topic!

 The intent of sharing this information is to inform what ingredients intentionally or unintentionally are present in vaccines that may raise ethical or safety concerns for some. This post is not about public versus private health.  It’s about ingredients. I am not a doctor, and I am not going to advise any parent on what decisions ot make in regards to vaccinations.