Health reminder - garden safely

20 years ago

Q: My daughter thinks I need a tetanus shot because I spend a lot of time gardening. I can't remember the last time I had one. But I'm not likely to step on a rusty nail in my yard. Is it really necessary to have a tetanus shot to garden?

A: Yes. It's actually a myth that tetanus comes from stepping on rusty nails. Tetanus is a bacterium found in soil and manure. Because gardeners often scrape or scratch themselves while working, the bacteria can easily enter. They don't need a puncture wound.

Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is an acute infectious disease of the nervous system characterized by spasms and painful convulsions. The toxin secreted by tetanus bacteria is extremely potent. The disease is hard to diagnose; symptoms can appear three days to three weeks after exposure. And it can be deadly. About 20 percent of cases are fatal.

The tetanus vaccine can prevent infection. Check with your doctor. You need booster shots every 10 years to be protected.

For more information, go to www.nfid.org and search for "tetanus."

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Comments (4)

leftwood
20 years ago
When I got a new doctor (my previous one move away), and he found I did a lot of gardening, that was one of the first things he asked: when was you last tetanus shot?
hortist
20 years ago
If you are asked or considering a tetanus shot take these issues into consideration:

Even with up to date tetanus shots potential infections warrant antibiotic use as tetanus shots frequently fail. Treating with an antibiotic is the best way to prevent tetanus, not the shot.

Most tetanus shots also contain a preservative called thimerosal which is 49% mercury. The amount in one tetanus shot is generally 25ug (micrograms). Though considered only a small amount, if one does the math, they will notice that this amount puts an average weight person over the safe allowable federal government standard (0.1ug/Kg) by about 2x for ingested mercury exposure and this mercury is injected.

Thimerosal is being phased out of some childhood vaccines but not adult ones like tetanus.
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leaveswave
Original Author
20 years ago
Interesting point. I hadn't heard that antibiotic treatment was the preferred way to treat tetanus. I would be very interested to learn of your source for this info. I'd also always heard that mercury intake was only of concern to children and women of child-bearing age. Since I'm neither, if this has changed I want to know about it. Does ingested mercury act differently in the body than injected mercury?

Sign me "wanting to be in the know"...
hortist
20 years ago
Access a medical text for tetanus information. This was related to us by our MD.

As for ingesting, the body has various measures in place to prevent or reduce absorbtion of toxins into the blood stream. Injecting it bypasses this and sends a more concentrated dose directly into the blood stream. Even though the damage occurs in minutes most people can deal with excreting most of the exposure but some with comprimised immune systems or other burdens cannot.

As for children and mothers:

A person must weigh over 500 pounds to safely absorb the amount of mercury contained in a single tetanus vaccine and special hazardous waste sites are required for shot disposal. Some tetanus vaccines contain 25,000-50,000 parts per billion mercury. The standard for mercury in landfill waste is that the material contain less than 200 parts per billion.

Interesting that doctors can't place that in an ordinary landfill but inject that into patients.