Study: Mercury in vaccines doesn't hurt kids

A new study has come out that adds to evidence suggesting that a mercury-based preservative previously used in vaccines isn't harmful to children. 

The study tracks children who, in the early 1990s, got whooping cough vaccines with two different amounts of the preservative thimerosal in all of their routine shots. Ten years later, 1,403 of those children took brain function tests. In the tests, researchers found only small differences in two of 24 measurements between the two groups, differences that could have been attributable to chance.

The study, which appears in the February issue of Pediatrics, noted that only one case of autism was found, in the group getting the lower level of thimerosal. This weighs against arguments that thimerosal may be responsible for autism in some children, scientists suggested.

To learn more about the study:
- read this Associated Press piece