Purpose:
To determine the thimerosal and, consequently, the mercury content of a current vaccine.

Materials:

1. Vaxigrip Influenza Vaccine
2. Fluvirin Influenza Vaccine

Procedure:

1. The Vaxigrip Influenza Vaccine was procured
2. The Vaxigrip and Fluvirin Influenza Vaccines was sent to the University of Guelph Food Lab for analysis by ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrophotometer).
3. Results were compared to the the officially published mercury contents of each vaccine.

Observations:

Vaccine Name	Published Mercury Content	Discovered Mercury Content
Vaxigrip	50 ppm (25 microgram/0.5mL dose)	2 ppm (1.0 microgram/o,5 mL dose)
Fluvirin	50 ppm (25 micrograms/0.5mL dose)	50 ppm (25 micrograms/0.5mL dose)

Conclusion:
Our results showed that, while the Flivrin vaccine had had the same amount of of mercury as its published mercury content value, the Vaxigrip vaccine's merury content was significantly less than its published mercury content, However, it is important to note that 2.5 micrograms is the maximum amount of mercury that can be safely absorbed by a person (110 lbs).