Q. With restrictions lifted on who can get a flu shot, I'm thinking of getting it. My concern is that the only available flu vaccine contains a high amount of mercury. Is the risk worth it?

A. Mercury is present in thimerosal, a preservative used to inhibit germ growth in flu vaccines. Mercury is toxic at excessive levels.

Chiron, one of two companies providing flu vaccine to the United States, was shut down because of manufacturing problems, an event that led to this season's widely publicized vaccine shortage.

Chiron is the only manufacturer that offered an adult dose of flu vaccine containing just a trace amount of mercury (1 mcg).

The currently available flu shot (from Aventis Pasteur) comes in a pediatric dose containing a trace amount of mercury (0.5 mcg) and an adult dose containing a higher (standard) amount of mercury (25 mcg).

The offshoot is that pregnant women and others (including children over age 3) who get an adult dose of the flu shot do not have a trace-mercury option this season.

However, this isn't meant to imply that the standard-mercury adult dose might be unsafe.

One way to gain perspective is to compare the amount of mercury in the flu shot with the amount found naturally in tuna fish.

According to the EPA, light tuna, considered to be low in mercury, contains an average of .12 PPM (parts per million) of mercury (www.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/ sea-mehg.html).

That works out to 0.12 mcg of mercury per gram of tuna. A typical 6-oz (170 grams) can of light tuna would thus contain 20.4 mcg of mercury, on average.

That's very close to the 25 mcg of mercury contained in the adult dose of the flu shot.

The bottom line: For most people, the risks and miseries of getting the flu far outweigh any risks that might be associated with mercury in the flu vaccine.

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