Formaldehyde in Vaccines

While formaldehyde is an ingredient in many vaccines and other products, it is also naturally found in all of our bodies and in some foods.

“Formaldehyde also occurs naturally in the environment. It is produced in small amounts by most living organisms as part of normal metabolic processes.”

National Cancer Institute

Doctors get to be familiar with formaldehyde in medical school. It is the preservative that is used in mortuaries and in gross anatomy lab and students often leave the lab with the “pungent, suffocating odor” of formaldehyde on their clothes.

Formaldehyde in Vaccines

So why is formaldehyde in the vaccines that we give our children?

Formaldehyde is present in some of the vaccines on the childhood immunization schedule, including the flu shot, polio vaccine, and DTaP vaccine, because it works to eliminate any possible harmful effects of these bacterial toxins (like diphtheria toxin) and makes the viruses unable to replicate or reproduce themselves.

The very small amount of formaldehyde that is left over in the vaccines that are given to kids is less than the amount naturally found in children and much less than that amount safely given to animals in research studies.

And that formaldehyde is quickly broken down by our bodies and then excreted in urine.

The residual amount (most is removed) of formaldehyde in vaccines is safe.

Formaldehyde vs Formaldehyde

But even if your body makes formaldehyde, is that the same thing as the formaldehyde that is in a vaccine?

“When the body breaks down formaldehyde, it does not distinguish between formaldehyde from vaccines and that which is naturally produced or environmental.”

FDA Common Ingredients in U.S. Licensed Vaccines

While you may be shaking your head wondering why this is even being questioned, some folks are debating the differences between synthetic copies of natural chemicals and the original chemicals. Are they really the same?

If they are a true copy, with the same exact chemical structure, then yes.

For some chiral compounds or stereoisomers, like d-α-tocopherol and dl-α -tocopherol, which are both vitamin E, they might have different effects. One is natural, while the other is synthetic. They have the same molecular formula, but they are different, much like your right and left hands are different.

Formaldehyde is not a chiral compound though, so formaldehyde is formaldehyde.

Does Formaldehyde Cause Cancer?

Exposure to formaldehyde is known to cause cancer in rats and it is now classified as a known human carcinogen.

“Carcinogens do not cause cancer at all times, under all circumstances.”

American Cancer Society

It is the long-term exposure to high amounts of formaldehyde, usually inhaled formaldehyde, that is the big concern though. Those most at risk would be workers, who are hopefully protected with the latest OSHA standards that limit exposure to formaldehyde.

What To Know About Formaldehyde in Vaccines

The small amount of formaldehyde in vaccines is safe and is not toxic.

More Information About Formaldehyde in Vaccines:

• Vaccine Ingredients – Formaldehyde
• What Goes Into a Vaccine?
• Demystifying Vaccine Ingredients – Formaldehyde
• The Toxin Gambit Part 1: Formaldehyde
• The Use of Formaldehyde in Vaccines
• Injection vs Ingestion. Myths and Facts.
• Simple math behind scary flu vaccine ingredients
• Formaldehyde, chemophobia, EWG and the MOST IMPORTANT THING to know about “toxic” stuff
• NCI – Formaldehyde and Cancer Risk
• Formaldehyde and the American Cancer Society

Last Updated on April 8, 2017