Contains no thiomersal

[Dave_46]

Earlier this week I attended Moorfields eye hospital in London. Their preferred contact lens cleaning solution was not available, and I was issued with a different one from the last time.

When I looked at the leaflet in the box, I saw, at the end of the contents section, "CONTAINS NO THIOMERSAL" (capitalisation theirs).

There was no indication of any other substances that it did not contain.

Are manufacturers being frightened into putting this sort of message on their products ?

Dave

[Dogdoctor]

Typically they would be doing that to "add value" to the product because the consumer is already scared of it.

[jimtron]

Typically they would be doing that to "add value" to the product because the consumer is already scared of it.

Right. They might be doing this not out of fear, but as a marketing tool. Like, "all natural" or "contains no trans fats" or "free range chickens".

[apocalypse]

Earlier this week I attended Moorfields eye hospital in London. Their preferred contact lens cleaning solution was not available, and I was issued with a different one from the last time.

When I looked at the leaflet in the box, I saw, at the end of the contents section, "CONTAINS NO THIOMERSAL" (capitalisation theirs).

There was no indication of any other substances that it did not contain.

Are manufacturers being frightened into putting this sort of message on their products ?

Dave

I liken this to latex gloves. The "latex-free" is there for a reason, some people are allergic to it.

There are people in the population who are allergic to thimerosal (not thiOmersal as you wrote). That warning is there for a reason, not just because manufacturers are frightened into putting in on there. Perform a web search on "thimerosal allergic reaction" and read some of the results.

Of course, there are people who think that vaccines with thimerosal caused autism, but no research to date seems to be able to conclude that.

[Dave_46]

There are people in the population who are allergic to thimerosal (not thiOmersal as you wrote).

The spelling thiomersal is that used on the Bausch & Lomb leaflet.

Dave

[This Guy]

Earlier this week I attended Moorfields eye hospital in London. Their preferred contact lens cleaning solution was not available, and I was issued with a different one from the last time.

When I looked at the leaflet in the box, I saw, at the end of the contents section, "CONTAINS NO THIOMERSAL" (capitalisation theirs).

There was no indication of any other substances that it did not contain.

Are manufacturers being frightened into putting this sort of message on their products ?

Dave

I believe this is because of the fact that some people's eyes are sensitive to Thiomersal (however it's spelled).

When I got my first pair of contact lenses, I bought standard solutions for cleaning them. When I put them back in after my first home cleaning, I thought I was gonna go blind. Eyes got red, burned, just generally felt awful.

Called my eye doc, and they suggested Thiomersal free solutions. Tried those, and never had a problem again (well, till my vision got worse, and I was told I needed to go back to glasses).

Now, whether or not this is the same Thiomersal that is being blamed for everything from athletes feet to dandruff, I don't know ;)

[Dave_46]

I believe this is because of the fact that some people's eyes are sensitive to Thiomersal (however it's spelled).

When I got my first pair of contact lenses, I bought standard solutions for cleaning them. When I put them back in after my first home cleaning, I thought I was gonna go blind. Eyes got red, burned, just generally felt awful.

Called my eye doc, and they suggested Thiomersal free solutions. Tried those, and never had a problem again (well, till my vision got worse, and I was told I needed to go back to glasses).

Now, whether or not this is the same Thiomersal that is being blamed for everything from athletes feet to dandruff, I don't know ;)

That makes sense - although the solution I was dispensed previously, although it didn't explicitly state that it was thiomersal free, didn't have it listed as an ingredient.

I would prefer to go back to glasses. However my sight cannot be corrected adequately by glasses, hence the need for contact lenses. I was warned a few years ago that I would not be legal to drive without my contact lenses. Since then the corneal lens (about 8mm dia) would no longer fit properly in my right eye, and I have had to change to a scleral (sp) lens (21mm dia). More fiddly to insert, but much more stable.

Dave

[Eos of the Eons]

It would be like me implying my product is better off by being "salt free" and feeding peoples' fears that a bit of salt every day will give them all high blood pressure.

-comments retracted, please see below.

[Eos of the Eons]

I believe this is because of the fact that some people's eyes are sensitive to Thiomersal (however it's spelled).

When I got my first pair of contact lenses, I bought standard solutions for cleaning them. When I put them back in after my first home cleaning, I thought I was gonna go blind. Eyes got red, burned, just generally felt awful.

Called my eye doc, and they suggested Thiomersal free solutions. Tried those, and never had a problem again (well, till my vision got worse, and I was told I needed to go back to glasses).

Now, whether or not this is the same Thiomersal that is being blamed for everything from athletes feet to dandruff, I don't know ;)

Are ya sure he didn't say peroxide free? How much thiomersal would have to be in something to cause the burning sensation?

preservative called thimerosal was found to cause problems in about 10% of patients, so most brands do not use it nowadays. Thimerosal-free saline is usually marked "for sensitive eyes."
However, people do have reactions to other preservatives as well, and need to switch to preservative-free care products. Some of these have what's called a "disappearing" preservative that's gone before the solution comes in contact with your eyes. Hydrogen peroxide, for example, is a preservative, but the neutralizing step in hydrogen peroxide disinfection makes the solution eye-friendly. Other products are actually free of preservatives and may have expiration dates. Non-aerosol preservative-free saline, for example, will generally last about two weeks after you open it.


I wouldn't recommend the peroxide solutions. I forgot the neutralizing step once, and OWWWW!!!!

So, please ignore my first post, it is very very evident that some folks need to choose their solutions carefully because of sensitivities.

http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/caresoftlens.htm

[This Guy]

Are ya sure he didn't say peroxide free? How much thiomersal would have to be in something to cause the burning sensation?



I wouldn't recommend the peroxide solutions. I forgot the neutralizing step once, and OWWWW!!!!

So, please ignore my first post, it is very very evident that some folks need to choose their solutions carefully because of sensitivities.

http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/caresoftlens.htm


Yea, I'm sure it was the thimerosal (that spelling looks more familiar also;-). To my knowledge I never used any contact solution (cleaning or saline) that had peroxide. The cleaning solution I picked up did have thimerosal in it though. I confirmed that while on the phone with the eye doc. Been quite a few years now, but I believe I put on my old glasses, and went and bought thimerosal free stuff, re-cleaned the contacts, popped them in, and had no more problems. From that point on I went with the sensitive eye stuff, and all was well. Actually, if I recall correctly, there was a brand of contact care products that were all thimerosal free. Once I figured that out, I used their stuff only.

[TobiasTheViking]

Well, atleast you won't get autism.

* TobiasTheViking shakes head.

[ysabella]

I think "thiomersal" is how the British use it, and "thimerosal" is American usage. Not sure about Canada...?

According to some old thread on here, "thiomersal" is actually more correct. But hey.

And yes, I'm surprised that the thimerosal-equals-autism people aren't shrieking about contact lens fluid and the many kinds of makeup that contain the stuff as a preservative.

[blutoski]

And yes, I'm surprised that the thimerosal-equals-autism people aren't shrieking about contact lens fluid and the many kinds of makeup that contain the stuff as a preservative.

They're shreiking about it, but as a fallback: it's the explanation for why studies show that not only are autistic children no more likely than healthy children to have had thimerosal vaccines, but many autistic children have not had thimerosal vaccines. Explanation: well, they must have been exposed through these other means.

The primary thrust of the movement, though, is the vaccine issue. There's a second cluster that claim it's not the thimerosal, but the MMR combo that causes autism by overwhelming the immune system with multiple simultaneous exposures. This claim is incompatible with the thimerosal explanation (the solution is to give three vaccinations - triple the thimerosal - instead of a single MMR), but that doesn't stop them from allying.

[Chris Haynes]

,,,This claim is incompatible with the thimerosal explanation (the solution is to give three vaccinations - triple the thimerosal - instead of a single MMR), but that doesn't stop them from allying.

The MMR is a live virus vaccine and has never contained thimerosal.

And really this thread is about contact lens saline. Once upon a few decades ago I wore soft contact lenses. I found that the lens solution irritated my eyes... the eye doctor looked, and noticed that I was REALLY having a reaction because he could see that cells on the surface of my eye were dying and falling off. I decided to just stop wearing contact lenses (especially since I have severe astigmatism, and the weighted toric lenses never really worked as well as glasses do).

People do actually have a sensitivity to thimerosal in contact lens solution.

By the way, I also am allergic to the element nickel. I'd be happy if people would stop using it to harden gold (I cannot wear my wedding set anymore) or to coat a bunch of stuff like snaps on jeans, and sewing needles. Where is the hue and cry against nickel!?

[Eos of the Eons]

The prevalence of pervasive developmental disorder in thimerosal-free birth cohorts was significantly higher than that in thimerosal-exposed cohorts (82.7 of 10000 vs 59.5 of 10000). Using logistic regression models of the prevalence data, we found no significant effect of thimerosal exposure used either as a continuous or a categorical variable. Thus, thimerosal exposure was unrelated to the increasing trend in pervasive developmental disorder prevalence. These results were robust when additional analyses were performed to address possible limitations because of the ecological nature of the data and to evaluate potential effects of misclassification on exposure or diagnosis. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination coverage averaged 93% during the study interval with a statistically significant decreasing trend from 96.1% in the older birth cohorts (1988–89) to http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/math/sim.gif92.4% in younger birth cohorts (1996–1998). Thus, pervasive developmental disorder rates significantly increased when measles-mumps-rubella vaccination uptake rates significantly decreased.http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/e139?maxtoshow

Hmm. Should post this in a relevant thread...

[Capsid]

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/1/e139?maxtoshow

Hmm. Should post this in a relevant thread...
This looks like the study I reported in this thread (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=59518).