I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 881 
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to reduce human 
exposure to mercury through vaccines. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 7, 2007 
Mr. WELDON of Florida (for himself and Mrs. MALONEY of New York) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 
and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to 
reduce human exposure to mercury through vaccines. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mercury-Free Vaccines 
Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) In July 1999, the Public Health Service 
and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a 
joint statement, which was later endorsed by the 
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American Academy of Family Physicians, pro-
claiming: ‘‘[The] Public Health Service, the Amer-
ican Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufac-
turers agree that thimerosal-containing vaccines 
should be removed as soon as possible. Similar con-
clusions were reached this year in a meeting at-
tended by European regulatory agencies, the Euro-
pean vaccine manufacturers, and the US FDA which 
examined the use of thimerosal-containing vaccines 
produced or sold in European countries.’’. 
(2) In July 2000, the Public Health Service, 
the Advisory Commission on Immunization Prac-
tices, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the 
American Academy of Family Physicians issued a 
joint statement, providing: ‘‘The AAFP, [the] AAP, 
and the PHS in consultation with the ACIP reaffirm 
the goal set in July 1999 to remove or greatly re-
duce thimerosal from vaccines as soon as possible 
for the following reasons: (1) the removal or sub-
stantial reduction of thimerosal from vaccines is fea-
sible, (2) the progress in removal which has been 
made to date is substantial, (3) the discussions be-
tween the Food and Drug Administration and the 
vaccine manufacturers in removing thimerosal are 
ongoing, and (4) the public concern about the use of 
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mercury of any sort remains high. Based on infor-
mation from the FDA and manufacturers, the PHS 
projects that the United States will complete its 
transition to a secure routine pediatric vaccine sup-
ply free of thimerosal as a preservative (i.e., at least 
two vaccine products each for Hep B, Hib, and 
DTaP) by the first quarter of 2001.’’. 
(3) The Institute of Medicine’s Immunization 
Review Committee concluded that significant reasons 
existed for continued public health attention to con-
cerns 
about 
thimerosal 
exposure 
and 
neurodevelopmental disorders and recommended the 
removal of thimerosal from vaccines administered to 
children and pregnant women. 
(4) Federal regulatory agencies and manufac-
turers have taken positive steps to remove thimer-
osal from some medical products, most notably rou-
tinely administered childhood vaccines. 
(5) Considerable progress has been made in re-
ducing mercury exposures from childhood vaccines, 
yet 8 years after the July 1999 statement, thimer-
osal remains in several nonroutinely administered 
childhood vaccines and many pediatric and adult in-
fluenza vaccines. 
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