[syriacus]

Thanks for the ping, neverdem.

I had noticed that "bottles" of contact-lens saline solution that I bought for my children said "Contains no thimerosal." I wondered what that statment was referring to.

I'm now wondering what other products, that people used every day, contained thimerosal.

Sensitive Eyes® Saline Solution is a thimerosal-free preserved saline solution for people with sensitive eyes. Use Sensitive Eyes Saline Solution for rinsing your soft contact lenses after cleaning or chemical disinfection. May also be used for storing lenses during thermal disinfection.

[syriacus]

Description: Thimerosal

or sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate is a mercury-containing organic compound (organomercurial) that has been used since about 1930 as an antimicrobial preservative in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines. Thimerosal effectively inhibits/prevents bacterial and fungal growth, and is widely used as an preservative in aqueous biopharmaceutical and drug products, particularly those packaged in multiple use vials (needle repeated inserted to withdraw contents for injection), and in cosmetics and other products. [snip]

With a formula of C8H9HgNaO3S2 and molecular weight of 404.82 Daltons, thimerosal is 49.6% mercury by weight. [snip]

[Born Conservative]

Back in the 1980's (and maybe even after that), contact lens solution contained Thimerosol. I used it for years, and so far haven't had any signs of mercury toxicity.