Does aluminum in vaccines cause neurological disorders? The study that has the answer

Last June, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the aluminum found in some vaccines , citing it as the cause of food allergies , autism, and depression in children.

However, a national cohort study of Danish children has examined the association between cumulative aluminum exposure from early childhood vaccination and the risk of developing autoimmune, atopic or allergic, and neurodevelopmental disorders .

The document, published this Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found no evidence to support an increased risk of these disorders associated with exposure to aluminum-adsorbed vaccines in early childhood.

Therefore, the findings contribute to "addressing the lack of evidence" in human data on the association between aluminum-adsorbed vaccines and adverse events, particularly neurological disorders .

Researchers from the Statens Serum Institute analyzed national changes in the Danish Childhood Immunization Program over a 24-year period, during which vaccines with different aluminum contents were introduced .

They included 1,224,176 children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2018 and used Danish national health registries to obtain information on cumulative aluminum exposure from childhood vaccines given to each child before age 2 and the incidence of 50 different chronic disorders.

Specifically, they examined the development of 36 autoimmune disorders , 9 atopic or allergic disorders, and 5 neurodevelopmental disorders. Children were followed from age 2 years for study outcome events through December 31, 2020, or until they reached age 5, died, or were lost to follow-up.

Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios that represent how much the risk changed when a child received one more milligram of aluminum in their vaccines at age two, compared with a child who received one less milligram.

Researchers found a hazard ratio for autoimmune outcomes of 0.98 [95% CI: 0.94 to 1.02] per 1 milligram increase in cumulative aluminum exposure from childhood vaccination . The hazard ratio was 0.99 [95% CI: 0.98 to 1.01] for atopic/allergic disorders and 0.93 [95% CI: 0.90 to 0.97] for neurodevelopmental disorders.

For autism spectrum disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the hazard ratios per 1 milligram increase in cumulative aluminum exposure from childhood vaccination before age 2 were 0.93 [95% CI: 0.89 to 0.97] and 0.90 [95% CI: 0.84 to 0.96], respectively.

Last June, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the aluminum found in some vaccines , citing it as the cause of food allergies , autism, and depression in children.