NJ Transit: Tuberculosis test & vaccine policy

[Thrasymachus]

Today I finally got a call back from NJ Transit for a physical for a job I have been chasing for over a year. I should be happy, but I am not. Instead I am terrified and anxious. I called their health department and found out I would have to take a Montaux test for Tuberculosis. I found this source that lists the ingredients in vaccines from a very official source:
CDC.gov: Vaccine Excipient & Media Summary Excipients Included in U.S. Vaccines, by Vaccine[PDF]
They mention that vaccines excipients/ingredients include aluminum compounds, formaldehyde, thimerosal(mercury), monkey kidney cells, bovine, chicken "protein", other foreign animal content, etc.!

Now I am having trouble finding equivalent info for the Montaux test, because contrary to most people I don't want unknown substances in my body just because someone with a medical degree says to. The best I could find was this:

Fda.gov: Tuberculin Purified Protein Derivative (PDF)
(Mantoux)
Diagnostic Antigen
(Aid in the detection of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
FOR INTMDERMAL USE
Polysorbate 80 Stabilized Solution of Tuberculin Purified Protein Derivative for Tuberculin

...

But that is not very informative. From what/where is the tuberculin protein cultured from? Diseased rotting human tissue, animals, fetuses? Do they use additives such as thimerosal(mercury) like vaccines?

I want the job, but I don't want unknown substances inside me as well. I have listened to podcasts of this vaccine attorney's radio show. A while ago on a podcast he said that basically there is no express right for an individual to control what goes into their body or not. The government does however grant religious freedom, which can be used to regulate what goes into your body, hopefully in terms of employment, but there are no gurantees. It all just seems so macabre and frightening from where I sit.

I don't know what to do. I don't have much time either only 3 days. Is this montaux test as harmful as a vaccine? Can I avoid the test and still land the job? How do I find out Transit's vaccine policy, even? The workers who answer the phones seem to not know about any such policy, maybe because it doesn't exist. 

[Olegkha]

You have had that test done atleast 2 times already (atleast in NY )  ( ones before kindergarden and ones somewhere around school  ( forgot when )

you can not enter public school with out it.

 

Its a small shot on your hand, and 3 days later you come back and they measure it, if its more then X mm then you have to go take Xray of your chest.

 

Most people from Eastern Europe will have a positive test and will be a subject to secondary test ( false positive )  The accident at Chernobil Nuclear plant has something to do with that.

[Thrasymachus]

Hi Olegkha,
I looked at my medical transcript from high school as I did live in New York and receive the test twice. However back then I was kid too ignorant to know anything and now I am concerned about the contents of the "Purified Protein Derivative for Tuberculin" and where it was cultured from: a cadaver, animal tissue and if there are any additives like aluminum.

[Olegkha]

Thats why i dont look at ingredients, scary stuff is all around you.

Have you looked at advil or other drugs ?

Cmone sometimes people scare me because of their stupidity!

[Thrasymachus]

Does anyone have any knowledge if NJ Transit requires vaccinations or is just the tuberculosis test as I was informed?

 

@Olegkha: 

I don't think ignorance is a good policy. If you ignore what you put into your body, you will still have to deal with the consequences eventually after years of abuse accumulate. 

[QM1to6Ave]

The test for tuberculosis is more commonly called a PPD, if that rings a bell. Almost any job in the healthcare, education, transportation industries, and probably 100 more industries, requires that you get it once per year. It is probably given thousands of times to people across the world, and I've never heard of any problems with it. At worst, if you are susceptible to tuberculosis, the injection spot it gets a little red and they give you an X-Ray to make sure everything is good. 

 

I've had a PPD probably 30 times and never had any problems. I would not look on the internet at the nutjobs that post garbage about this stuff. If you are really curious about it, call up your doctor and ask what is in it. I gaurentee you it is perfectly safe.  

[realizm]

The test for tuberculosis is more commonly called a PPD, if that rings a bell. Almost any job in the healthcare, education, transportation industries, and probably 100 more industries, requires that you get it once per year. It is probably given thousands of times to people across the world, and I've never heard of any problems with it. At worst, if you are susceptible to tuberculosis, the injection spot it gets a little red and they give you an X-Ray to make sure everything is good. 

 

I've had a PPD probably 30 times and never had any problems. I would not look on the internet at the nutjobs that post garbage about this stuff. If you are really curious about it, call up your doctor and ask what is in it. I gaurentee you it is perfectly safe.  

 

The problem with this is that sometimes with psople outside the US, they can test positive as the test only looks for the antibodies produced by the immune system after the fact. I've seen this many times in nursing school before I called it quits and walked into the world of IT for financial reasons. In cases like that, they would perform other tests (x-rays, etc) to look for physical signs of pnenomia and other such symntoms to confirm that the person tested does not have TB. It's no big deal, many people seeking clearance have to go through these extra steps in case it happens that they test positive.

 

And on that note, the PPD test is safe. Here let me drop a link that breaks it down a bit further:

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003839.htm

[QM1to6Ave]

The problem with this is that sometimes with psople outside the US, they can test positive as the test only looks for the antibodies produced by the immune system after the fact. I've seen this many times in nursing school before I called it quits and walked into the world of IT for financial reasons. In cases like that, they would perform other tests (x-rays, etc) to look for physical signs of pnenomia and other such symntoms to confirm that the person tested does not have TB. It's no big deal, many people seeking clearance have to go through these extra steps in case it happens that they test positive.

 

And on that note, the PPD test is safe. Here let me drop a link that breaks it down a bit further:

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003839.htm

I agree. It can be a pain to do the extra steps, but it certainly isn't dangerous whatsoever. The truth is that TB is pretty rare so its probably not all that useful, but it can't hurt to be too careful.

[realizm]

Yeah true, we have to be careful because New York City did experience some majorly serious noscomial TB outbreaks before durinfg the last two decades.

[Thrasymachus]

Again, does anyone know if the TB test is the only test and/or vaccine that is required for NJ Transit during the physical?

 

@All the doubters:

Here is a very authoritative source:

 

CDC.gov: Vaccine Excipient & Media Summary Excipients Included in U.S. Vaccines, by Vaccine[PDF]
They mention that vaccine excipients/ingredients include aluminum compounds, formaldehyde, thimerosal(mercury), monkey kidney cells, bovine, chicken "protein", other foreign animal content, etc.!

Now please prove to me using any good source that those items which you should not even be eating or inhaling particles thereof, and mind you then you have more immune system and bodily process to mitigate the harm then, that it is somehow healthy to inject any of those substances intravenously into the blood where only meager white blood cells can try to combat them? Yet somehow all these compounds known to be harmful to humans when used by Pharmaceutical giants and put directly into the blood, are all healthy. Do a restricted web search using "site:.gov" and check those common vaccine ingredients and see what the government says about them in isolation and they are somehow magically different compounds that are highly toxic and poisonous to humans. Reality: he who has the money makes the rules, he doesn't have money suffers the rules. 

 

Now the mantoux test according to the cdc.gov PDF in my original post contains the ingredient phenol:

This is the EPA.gov warning on that toxic ingredient.

Another ingredient is Polysorbate 80 which according to this Pubmed.gov extract:

RESULTS:

Polysorbate 80 was identified as the causative agent for the anaphylactoid reaction of nonimmunologic origin in the patient.

 

Anaphylaxis: Anaphylaxis is a rapidly progressing, life-threatening allergic reaction.

 

So how is the mantoux test that inserts these substances intradermally actually safe? 

 

Also about the imaginary tuberculosis outbreak nonsense:

CDC.gov: Trends in Tuberculosis 2011

"10,528 TB cases were reported in the United States in 2011"
"There were 529 deaths from TB in 2009"

So why are millions of people every year, transit workers among them being tested for a disease that is largely eradicated in this country? Well it is something for lots of smaller players in the medical system to bill as a line item, and it is something for the bigger players to make billions from. The mainstream medical system is a racket, a monopoly cartel, if you don't know this, it is because you haven't checked. All the sources I used have been .gov! Sure the CDC says vaccines are safe, but it also lists many common vaccine ingredients. So do your own research and look them up and restrict to site:.gov.

 

@Olegkha/realizm:

On another venue where I cross-posted the same inquiry a Russian replied saying that Russians get false positives as well because of a tuberculosis vaccine they take/have taken. Far as I know in the USA there is no such vaccine. Maybe you received that in the past too.