A group of Argentine scientists identified 55 chemical elements - not listed on package inserts - in the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, CanSino, Sinopharm and Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines

Good stuff these vaccines - you survive them unharmed and it would have to be a miracle.

Covid Vaccines 55 Undeclared Chemical Elements Including Heavy Metals - Found in Covid Vaccines

By Brenda Baletti, PhD, as published by The Defender on 15 October 2024

A group of Argentine scientists identified 55 chemical elements - not listed on package inserts - in the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, CanSino, Sinopharm and Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines, according to a study published last week in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research.

The chemical elements include 11 heavy metals - such as chromium, arsenic, nickel, aluminium, cobalt and copper - which scientists consider systemic toxicants known to be carcinogenic and to induce organ damage, even at low exposure levels.

The samples also contained 11 of the 15 lanthanides, or rare earth elements, that are heavier, silvery metals often used in manufacturing. These chemical elements, which include lanthanum, cerium and gadolinium, are lesser known to the general public than heavy metals but have also been shown to be highly toxic.

“The detection of multiple undeclared toxic elements, including heavy metals and lanthanides, in covid-19 vaccines raises a dual and multiplied concern for human health,” James Lyons-Weiler, PhD, a member of the journal’s editorial board who was not involved in the research, told The Defender. “Individually, these chemicals are known to cause neurological, cardiovascular and immunological damage.”

“Together, their synergistic toxicity could exacerbate these risks far beyond what regulators and manufacturers have disclosed or studied,” Lyons-Weiler added.

The research builds on a series of studies conducted since 2021 using different analytic techniques to analyse covid-19 vaccine vials from major manufacturers. Previous studies also identified significant numbers of chemical elements not listed on vaccine labels.

Research efforts included a 2022 study by a German working group, including the late pathologist Arne Burkhardt, submitted to the German government; a 2021 study by scientists in England; a 2022 study by Canadian Dr. Daniel Nagase; and a 2023 Romanian study by Dr. Geanina Hagimă.

[Related: Canadian Researchers Find Carbon Nanotech and Thulium in Moderna and Pfizer Covid Injections, The Exposé, 27 May 2022]

Across those global studies, by the end of 2023, researchers had identified 24 undeclared chemical elements in the covid-19 vaccine formulas.

Marcela Sangorrín, PhD, co-author of the Argentine study, told The Defender these different international studies are important because there is “a significant gap in the quality control of biological products by the national regulatory authorities of each country.”

“This situation is even more urgent and concerning when we consider the rapid advancements observed in cutting-edge biotechnological developments, the complexity of which requires a more thorough legislative and regulatory framework to ensure the safety of individuals who choose to use these therapies,” Sangorrín said.

CDC Makes Vaccine Excipient Information “Almost Impossible To Find”

For the Argentine study, researchers aimed to corroborate the previous findings of undeclared elements and to detect and measure any elements not identified in those studies.

They analysed 13 vials from different lots of six brands of the covid-19 vaccines at a laboratory at the National University of Córdoba. They used a highly sensitive analytic technique - inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry - which makes it possible to measure elements at trace levels in biological fluids.

The researchers analysed at least two vials of each vaccine, except for CanSino, a viral vector vaccine made in China, for which they analysed only one vial.

Their paper included a long list of covid-19 vaccine components declared by the manufacturers. The components vary by vaccine maker. The researchers obtained the lists through public information requests.

With the exception of Sputnik V and Sinopharm, manufacturers don’t declare the quantities of the named excipients in their vaccines, which the researchers flagged as a “very serious omission at the regulatory level.”

Vaccines often include excipients - additives used as preservatives, adjuvants, stabilisers or for other purposes. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), substances used in the manufacture of a vaccine but not listed in the contents of the final product should be listed somewhere in the package insert.

Listing excipients is important, researchers argue because excipients can include allergens and other “hidden dangers” for vaccine recipients.

OpenVAERS reports that the CDC has made publicly available vaccine excipient information “almost impossible to find.” OpenVAERS offers a comprehensive list of vaccine of excipients by type and by vaccine.

However, the OpenVAERS website also notes that independent tests of vaccine vials have found “contaminants that go well beyond those publicly disclosed by the manufacturers,” as identified in this study.

The researchers found the results of their chemical analysis varied by vaccine and also by vial tested. In some cases, the vials were subjected to repeated testing on different dates and produced slightly different results.

In one lot of the AstraZeneca vaccine, researchers identified 15 chemical elements, of which 14 were undeclared. In the other lot, they detected 21 elements of which 20 were undeclared. In the CanSino vial, they identified 22 elements, of which 20 were undeclared.

The three Pfizer vials contained 19, 16 and 21-23 undeclared elements respectively. The Moderna vials contained 21 and between 16-29 undeclared elements. The Sinopharm vials contained between 17-23 undeclared elements and the Sputnik V contained between 19-25 undetected elements.

82% of Vaccines Tested Contained Undeclared Arsenic

Overall, researchers identified 55 different undeclared elements across the 17 samples analysed.

All of the heavy metals detected are linked to toxic effects on human health, the researchers wrote. Although the metals occurred in different frequencies, many were present across multiple samples.

“There are undeclared chemical elements in common, such as boron, calcium, titanium, aluminium, arsenic, nickel, chromium, copper, gallium, strontium, niobium, molybdenum, barium and hafnium in all of the brands” of covid-19 vaccines, the researchers wrote.

Others, such as chromium and arsenic, which increase the risk of serious cancers and skin diseases, were present as undeclared elements in 100% and 82% of the samples respectively. The researchers also found the lanthanide cerium, which can damage the liver and cause lung embolisms, in 76% of the samples.

These chemical elements are just a few examples of the 62 undeclared chemical elements identified by this study and previous studies combined, the researchers wrote.

They concluded that given the “diversity and notable presence in all brands, along with the peculiar characteristics of the elements found,” is unlikely the findings are due to contamination or accidental adulteration.

‘Utmost Urgency’ that Governments Investigate these Products

The researchers, who said the exploratory study was limited by the small sample size, called for a broader analysis of a larger number of samples. They suggested the broader analysis would confirm the trends they identified.

Sangorrín said this should be the work of government researchers.

“It is of utmost urgency that governments around the world conduct relevant investigations into these products, as is typically done in response to quality complaints identified through pharmacovigilance,” she said.

Those seeking justice, she added, must call on the World Health Organisation, the pharmaceutical companies and governments to take urgent action, “in accordance with the severity of the situation, given the rise in global mortality rates, recorded adverse effects and the clear demonstration that these products were not developed with the intention of providing immunity.”

The authors underscored the high rates of serious adverse events, including deaths, associated globally with the covid-19 vaccines. They suggested the adverse events and deaths, which are likely substantially undercounted, could be linked to the toxins they identified.

Lyons-Weiler also called for regulatory action to protect public health.

“Regulatory agencies must take immediate action to halt the use of these vaccines, thoroughly investigate how these toxins were missed, and ensure that the full spectrum of ingredients is transparently declared and the public duly and fully warned,” he said.

“The public’s health can no longer be gambled with in the face of such profound uncertainties.”

About the Author

Brenda Baletti, PhD,is a senior reporter for The Defender.

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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Aug 26.

Published in final edited form as: EXS. 2012;101:133–164. doi: 10.1007/978-3-7643-8340-4_6

Heavy Metals Toxicity and the Environment

Paul B Tchounwou 1,*, Clement G Yedjou 1, Anita K Patlolla 1, Dwayne J Sutton 1

PMCID: PMC4144270 NIHMSID: NIHMS414261 PMID: 22945569

The publisher's version of this article is available at EXS

Abstract

Heavy metals are naturally occurring elements that have a high atomic weight and a density at least 5 times greater than that of water. Their multiple industrial, domestic, agricultural, medical and technological applications have led to their wide distribution in the environment; raising concerns over their potential effects on human health and the environment. Their toxicity depends on several factors including the dose, route of exposure, and chemical species, as well as the age, gender, genetics, and nutritional status of exposed individuals. Because of their high degree of toxicity, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury rank among the priority metals that are of public health significance. These metallic elements are considered systemic toxicants that are known to induce multiple organ damage, even at lower levels of exposure. They are also classified as human carcinogens (known or probable) according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. This review provides an analysis of their environmental occurrence, production and use, potential for human exposure, and molecular mechanisms of toxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity.

Keywords: Heavy metals, production and use, human exposure, toxicity, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity

Introduction

Heavy metals are defined as metallic elements that have a relatively high density compared to water [1]. With the assumption that heaviness and toxicity are inter-related, heavy metals also include metalloids, such as arsenic, that are able to induce toxicity at low level of exposure [2]. In recent years, there has been an increasing ecological and global public health concern associated with environmental contamination by these metals. Also, human exposure has risen dramatically as a result of an exponential increase of their use in several industrial, agricultural, domestic and technological applications [3]. Reported sources of heavy metals in the environment include geogenic, industrial, agricultural, pharmaceutical, domestic effluents, and atmospheric sources [4]. Environmental pollution is very prominent in point source areas such as mining, foundries and smelters, and other metal-based industrial operations [1, 3, 4].

Although heavy metals are naturally occurring elements that are found throughout the earth’s crust, most environmental contamination and human exposure result from anthropogenic activities such as mining and smelting operations, industrial production and use, and domestic and agricultural use of metals and metal-containing compounds [4–7]. Environmental contamination can also occur through metal corrosion, atmospheric deposition, soil erosion of metal ions and leaching of heavy metals, sediment re-suspension and metal evaporation from water resources to soil and ground water [8]. Natural phenomena such as weathering and volcanic eruptions have also been reported to significantly contribute to heavy metal pollution [1, 3, 4, 7, 8]. Industrial sources include metal processing in refineries, coal burning in power plants, petroleum combustion, nuclear power stations and high tension lines, plastics, textiles, microelectronics, wood preservation and paper processing plants [9–11].

It has been reported that metals such as cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn) are essential nutrients that are required for various biochemical and physiological functions [12]. Inadequate supply of these micro-nutrients results in a variety of deficiency diseases or syndromes [12].

Heavy metals are also considered as trace elements because of their presence in trace concentrations (ppb range to less than 10ppm) in various environmental matrices [13]. Their bioavailability is influenced by physical factors such as temperature, phase association, adsorption and sequestration. It is also affected by chemical factors that influence speciation at thermodynamic equilibrium, complexation kinetics, lipid solubility and octanol/water partition coefficients [14]. Biological factors such as species characteristics, trophic interactions, and biochemical/physiological adaptation, also play an important role [15].

The essential heavy metals exert biochemical and physiological functions in plants and animals. They are important constituents of several key enzymes and play important roles in various oxidation-reduction reactions [12]. Copper for example serves as an essential co-factor for several oxidative stress-related enzymes including catalase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, cytochrome c oxidases, ferroxidases, monoamine oxidase, and dopamine β-monooxygenase [16–18]. Hence, it is an essential nutrient that is incorporated into a number of metalloenzymes involved in hemoglobin formation, carbohydrate metabolism, catecholamine biosynthesis, and cross-linking of collagen, elastin, and hair keratin. The ability of copper to cycle between an oxidized state, Cu(II), and reduced state, Cu(I), is used by cuproenzymes involved in redox reactions [16–18]. However, it is this property of copper that also makes it potentially toxic because the transitions between Cu(II) and Cu(I) can result in the generation of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals [16–19]. Also, excessive exposure to copper has been linked to cellular damage leading to Wilson disease in humans [18, 19]. Similar to copper, several other essential elements are required for biologic functioning, however, an excess amount of such metals produces cellular and tissue damage leading to a variety of adverse effects and human diseases. For some including chromium and copper, there is a very narrow range of concentrations between beneficial and toxic effects [19, 20]. Other metals such as aluminium (Al), antinomy (Sb), arsenic (As), barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), bismuth (Bi), cadmium (Cd), gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), gold (Au), indium (In), lead (Pb), lithium (Li), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), silver (Ag), strontium (Sr), tellurium (Te), thallium (Tl), tin (Sn), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V) and uranium (U) have no established biological functions and are considered as non-essential metals [20].

In biological systems, heavy metals have been reported to affect cellular organelles and components such as cell membrane, mitochondrial, lysosome, endoplasmic reticulum, nuclei, and some enzymes involved in metabolism, detoxification, and damage repair [21]. Metal ions have been found to interact with cell components such as DNA and nuclear proteins, causing DNA damage and conformational changes that may lead to cell cycle modulation, carcinogenesis or apoptosis [20–22]. Several studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and oxidative stress play a key role in the toxicity and carcinogenicity of metals such as arsenic [23, 24, 25], cadmium [26], chromium [27, 28], lead [29, 30], and mercury [31, 32]. Because of their high degree of toxicity, these five elements rank among the priority metals that are of great public health significance. They are all systemic toxicants that are known to induce multiple organ damage, even at lower levels of exposure. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), these metals are also classified as either “known” or “probable” human carcinogens based on epidemiological and experimental studies showing an association between exposure and cancer incidence in humans and animals.

Heavy metal-induced toxicity and carcinogenicity involves many mechanistic aspects, some of which are not clearly elucidated or understood. However, each metal is known to have unique features and physic-chemical properties that confer to its specific toxicological mechanisms of action. This review provides an analysis of the environmental occurrence, production and use, potential for human exposure, and molecular mechanisms of toxicity, genotoxicity, and carcinogenicity of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury.