Does the Danish aluminum study hold up?

Anti-vaxxers are contradicting a new study, claiming that aluminum in vaccines travels into the brain, sparking inflammation, and that this process can lead to autism, asthma, and other immune or neurological problems.

The Children’s Health Defense article skews what the Danish cohort study shows in several ways:

• First, they claim that researchers only compared kids who got shots with aluminum compared with kids who got “slightly less aluminum, when in reality, the dataset included 15,237 children who received no aluminum vaccines before age 2.
• They also insist that the groups differed by only about 1 mg of aluminum, when the study actually analyzed a full dose‑response span, capturing up to a 4.5‑fold difference in cumulative exposure.
• In the end, the study found that babies who received aluminum from their vaccines in the first two years did not have higher rates of any of the 50 health problems the researchers examined.

Aluminum is used as an adjuvant to boost the immune response, reducing the number of doses needed. Studies have repeatedly shown that the levels of aluminum in vaccines are far below harmful thresholds. The body naturally processes and eliminates small amounts of aluminum found in food, water, and medicines, including vaccines.

Studies show that the body clears most of it quickly through the kidneys. A study published in Vaccine found that the amount of aluminum in vaccines is much smaller than what people are exposed to daily from food and the environment. The aluminum that remains temporarily in the body does not accumulate to harmful levels.