Aluminum Safety

Have patients asking you about aluminum in vaccines? Listen to this episode to learn about important facts so that you can answer their questions appropriately.

This episode was written by pediatricians Tammy Yau and Lidia Park with content support from Anh Nguyen (allergy and immunology). Pediatricians Tammy and Lidia take full responsibility for any errors or misinformation.

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Key Points:

• Alumium is an immune adjuvant, it helps the body's innate immune cells recognize vaccine antigen and enhances the ability of the vaccine antigen to activate innate immune cells. Your body has a better response to vaccines with aluminum than without. This is especially important for infants
• Aluminum toxicity is mostly only seen in adult dialysis patients or chronic kidney disease patients due to aluminum in dialysis and total parenteral nutrition. There are no credible reports of aluminum toxicity linked to vaccines
• There are higher levels of serum aluminum after taking over the counter antacids used to treat GERD than after giving an intramuscular vaccine.

Sources:

• “The Role and Safety of Aluminum Adjuvants in Childhood Vaccines”. Pediatrics (2025)
• https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2025-074874