Somebody told me yesterday that there is antifreeze and formaldehyde in a flu shot. Is this true?

No, not true. Someone enjoyed yanking your chain. Why would you even consider believing this ??...

oh good grief, will you please grow up. NO there is no formaldehyde or antifreeze in flu vaccines. In fact, as long as you are not allergic to eggs, there is NOTHING in a flu shot that can make you ill.

It depends on the brand of flu vaccine.

Fluarix contains about 50 mcg of formaldehyde. http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_fluarix.pdf (first page)

Flulaval contains about 25 mcg of formaldehyde http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_flulaval.pdf (page 8)

Fluzone contains about 100 mcg of formaldehyde

http://www.fda.gov/CBER/label/fluzoneLB.pdf (page 10)

Afluria, FluMist, and Fluvirin do not contain formaldehyde.

You should be even more concerned about mercury than formaldehyde.

Here's a list of the mercury content in this year's flu vaccines.

No mercury:

Fluzone single dose vial or prefilled syringe (ages 6 months and above)

Flumist live intranasal spray (ages 2 – 49) http://www.medimmune.com/pdf/products/flumist_pi.p...

Afluria single dose vial (ages 18 and above)

Less than 1 mcg of mercury:

Fluvirin pre-filled syringe (ages 4 and above) http://www.fda.gov/CBER/label/fluvirinLB.pdf

Fluarix (ages 18 and above) http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_fluarix.pdf

24.5 or 25 mcg of mercury:

Fluzone multi-dose vial (ages 3 and above) http://www.fda.gov/CBER/label/fluzoneLB.pdf

Fluvirin multi-dose vial (ages 4 and above) http://www.fda.gov/CBER/label/fluvirinLB.pdf

FluLaval (ages 18 and above) http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_flulaval.pdf

Afluria multi-dose vial (ages 18 and above) http://www.afluria.com/docs/pi.pdf

no that's not true. it's probably just a coincidence that you don't feel good.