Seeing red? Not now

DEAR DR. GOTT: I just saw an old television show where a mother put merthiolate on her son’s knee following a scrape when he fell off his bicycle. I didn’t even know the product was still around, or isn’t it?

DEAR READER: Iodine, mercurochrome and merthiolate were used by my parents, grandparents and the rest of the nation for scrapes and skin tears on a regular basis when I was a child.

The red liquid products came in slender brown bottles with glass wicks for application. I can remember my mother washing away all the sand and dirt I managed to pick up from bicycle mishaps with a warm, soapy washcloth every time I came home from a day of riding with my friends. I was treated with iodine and can remember the product stung like the devil.

If memory serves me correctly, we then switched to mercurochrome, a compound containing mercury and bromine that was still red, still liquid and still came in a thin glass vial with a glass applicator. Somehow, this product didn’t sting as much as the iodine did but my knees remained red year-round, anyway.

Merthiolate then followed in our household. This germ-killer was red, liquid and contained mercury because of thimerosal, a compound that was found to be almost 50 percent ethylmercury. Eli Lilly and Company developed and registered thimerosal under its trade name, Merthiolate, in 1929 and marketed it as an antifungal, antibacterial product.

Following that, it became the most widely used preservative in vaccines; however, it could not be used with live-cell vaccines such as MMR or polio because it would kill the vaccine. According to In These Times magazine, safety issues were addressed in 1930 by Lilly’s sponsored physicians who injected it into 22 patients with meningitis. The experiment failed to prove thimerosal was nontoxic.

A study published in the American Journal of Hygiene in 1931 stated it had a “low order of toxicity” for humans; however, the report failed to mention that all the humans studied were ill and subsequently died.

The toxic ingredient was subsequently injected into dogs and several local reactions were reported, leading a Lilly spokesperson to state the product was unsatisfactory as a preservative for serum intended for use on dogs.

Strangely enough, in the 80 years that have followed, the FDA never required Eli Lilly to conduct clinical studies on the product’s safety, however the FDA ultimately banned the use of merthiolate in over-the-counter products such as eye drops, nasal sprays and contact lens solutions in the late 1990s.

Symptoms of over-use included mouth ulcers, diarrhea, abdominal pain, difficulty breathing, seizures, vomiting and more.

Since that time, a great deal of research has gone into the product. It is now promoted as an excellent first aid product for external use only and it appears to be just that. The most important breakthrough is that the product, (at least HUMCO’s brand) is mercury-free. It is still in a brown bottle, the applicator is plastic, and the solution is clear!

There are numerous other brands on the market such as De La Cruz from Walmart so I am sure other large department stores and pharmacies carry their brands of merthiolate, as well. Be sure to read the labels to make certain you are purchasing a product that is free of mercury. Who knows — this product from childhood just might get us all back to biking around the block once again!

Peter Gott practiced medicine in Lakeville for 40 years and was a syndicated health columnist for decades. He continues to write six days a week for his website, www.AskDrGottMD.com.