I disagree that autism be labeled a "burden" to parents. Many people with disabilities are stronger, smarter, and more empathetic than the general population. Let's concentrate on educating those who live unaffected by diseases like autism and remove the stigma associated with it. That is the real burden.

Autism is a very sensitive subject.

I've met parents whose children have full blown classic Autism through lesser degrees of PDD-NOS.

My comment to all parents is that you sould have your child thouroughly evaluated by a licensed/experienced/educated professional before you accept this diagnosis by public school 'officials'. Too often this label is used to shuffle 'different' children off to the Resource Room where the issues are masked and not addressed. Public schools get federal funding for each and every child who has an IEP of Autism.

Our son is a strange bird at times. In K-5 the public school he attended 'diagnosed' him as Autistic. We had independent CARS, ADOS and other evaluations done by the best developmental pediatricians in our state (at our own expense). The professional DX: ADHD with Speech Articulation issues.

We switched schools and added all the other interventions suggested by the Developmental Pediatricians. Our son is now a thriving second grader (with some residual Stereotypical Behaviours).
Many of the interventions suggested are those that are recommended for Autisim.

My warning is... get a second/professional opinion before you let the public school system shuffle your child off to special services. Those 'services' are often not 'special'.

To those of you who are dealing with all issues of Autism through PDD-NOS... and the broad range of developmental disorders... a big ((((hug)))) I know you need it! I do every day.    

SO SAD.  ALWAYS THE SAME STUDIES REPORTING THE "NO CONNECTION" THEORY... WHY DON'T YOU LIST THE "CONNECTION" STUDIES THAT HAVE BEEN DONE AND PUBLISHED.  I'M SURE DAVID KIRBY, ANDREW WAKEFIELD, BOYD HALEY AND THE GEIERS (MARK & DAVID) COULD CLUE YOU IN.  HOW MANY VACCINE DAMAGED CHILDREN WILL IT TAKE TO GET THE TRUTH OUT AND THIS MEDICAL CRISIS STOPPED.  WHY NOT POSTPONE VACCINES TIL THE AGE OF 3 AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS TO AUTISM. THAT WOULD BE A START.  THESE NEWBORNS/TODDLERS ARE TOO FRAGILE FOR 28+ VACCINE INSULTS NO MATTER WHAT IS IN THEM.  MERCURY, ALUMINUM, LIVE VIRUSES, ETC.  WHERE ARE THE VACCINE SAFETY STUDIES BY THE CDC?

AM A GRANDPARENT OF AN AUTISTIC BOY BORN IN 1993 ASSUMED TO HAVE THIERMASOL PRESENT IN HIS INOCULATIONS.
I STRONGLY OBJECT TO YOUR CONCLUSION THAT EVEN THOUGH ALL SCIENTIFIC TESTS HAVE FOUND NO CORRELATION BETWEEN THIERMASOL AND AUTISM-YOU BLITHELY SURMISE THAT UNTIL A CAUSE FOR AUTISM IS FOUND MORE TESTING -ON THIS ISSUE AS WELL-HAS TO BE DONE.YOU ARE DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD BY GIVING LIFE TO THIS MINORITY NON SCIENTIFIC THEORY RATHER THAN LETTING THOSE INVOLVED CONCENTRATE FACILITIES TO THE CAUSE OF AUTISM

I am not suprised at the results. Of course the government will not admit to having anything to do with children getting autism. I am a classroom teacher who has talked with several parents that know the day their child became autistic. How does the government explain the change from 1 in 10,000 children 20 years ago to 1 in 150 children being diagnosed with autism today? I agree the debate is far from over, especially for those parents with autistic children.

We have to wonder why people who are not doctors or any other type of medical professional like the spokeswomen for the parents group, Laura Bono, are allowed to make comments that question the CDC's integrity and in turn create panic about vaccines.

Robert Bazell.  Please be careful about the wording of your comments. You can share misinformation and lead to the confusion of viewers.

Autism refers to a GROUP of children with similar major social deficits. There are MANY causes of autism, some are genetic and some may be environmental, and some may involve the way our bodies react to the environment.  A leading Geneticist in the Mid West has identified about 40 -60% of the children that he sees with known causes of autism.  Thimerosal has clearly been shown, by rigorous studies, to NOT cause autism. Our children are at greater risk from the lead in products from China or the Mercury in energy effecient light bulbs than the extremely small amount of thimerasol in the life saving influenza vaccine.  

Dr Paul A. Offit, M.D. in the New England Journal of Medicine shares his views in "A Cautionary Tale". He points out that Media has influenced political will in unproductive panic.  MSNBC and other media should meet this challenge as an opportunity to educate viewers with thoughtful documentary with knowledgable experts in the field and direct political will and precious resources towards meaningful diagnosis of the many causes of autism and effective therapies for the children and their families.

Kindest Regards,

Dr "B"

I would just like to say that we all need to stop refering to these kids as "autistic children", please. Instead, they are children with Autism.  It's about the child, not the disability.  Please talk about the child first, focus on them and not the disability.  I teach children with Autism, and while it's challenging trying to find ways to communicate with them, it's so rewarding, seeing the progress they make.  Whether there is a known cause or not, these children are intelligent and need to be able to find the best way for them to communicate that to those around them.  They can be taught and want to learn just like, or maybe more than, any "typically developing" child.  Parents of children with Autism need support as well, just like these kiddos.  It has to be tough on them, but if everyone involved in their kids' lives are open, communicate with each other and work together, it's amazing what you'll see happen.  We just all need to remember that these kids are just kids.  They may learn in different ways, they may have different needs, but they are kids and they need love and attention, as well as a chance to grow to their maximum potential!

Are these "researcher's?" own children getting the same shots that the general public are being given? How many of their children have autism?? Do any of the people defending the shots have an autistic child? Let's hear some statistics !!!!

It always amazes me that some individuals believe that our government is repsonsible for the autism epidemic. This makes no sense because it is that same government that will be supporting people with autism most of their lives finicially. Early detection, better assessment tools and re-evaluating individuals who may have been labeled with a disability other than autism previously (those who are now adults) help drive the numbers up. Instead of childhood vacinations as the focus of many studies more should done with changing environmental conditions, genetics (may explain why there are families with more than one child with autism)and now with all the recent toy recalls, exposure to lead (since most individuals with autism have high lead counts).

I am a parent of an 8 year old child with autism. I am not a scientist, but I have several concerns with the study cited in the NEJM.  This is a study that is looking at a general population of children.  Most of the research today is leading to a subset of children having a genetic predisposition that leads them to reaction to something in their environment and causes autism.

As an example, if you wanted to look at the likelihood of people developing diabetes, and you look at the entire population, a certain, small, percentage of people will be identified. If you look at a population of people who have a family history of developing diabetes, the number soars.

I really feel that general "broad population" studies are not very helpful. It seems to me that the studies that need to be done are not happening. We need to look at large numbers of kids who develop autism and compare their biological and genetic profiles in large number to see if some conclusions can be drawn.  

It is difficult to see mainstream media suggest Thimersol not having any connection to the rise of autism having reviewed research from Canadian, British and American studies not affiliated, sponsored or submitted by Aventis and/or other pharmaceuticals. Public discussion and nonbiased research is needed. It is insulting to be told there is no connection having read available statistical correlations of the increased use of thimerosal and autism since the 1970s. It's like saying it's not the Agent Orange, you just have bad genes and smoked a bit too much over there.

There is only one way to prove thimerosal is as "safe and harmless" as public health "experts" would have us believe.  That would require toxicological testing, the same type of testing that eventually proved cigarettes were "causing" cancer".  Not surprisingly, public health officials refuse to do toxicological testing, preferring instead epidemiological tests, which are notorious failures when seeking "cause and effect".

Would Dr. Brazell publicly support Rep. Carolyn Maloney's pending legislation that seeks to provide funds to study "vaccinated vs unvaccinated" populations to ascertain if BOTH populations suffer the same 1 in 150 rate for autistic?  Asthma?  Allergies?  Common sense dictates it should not be left to parents or grandparents to promote this type of study, instead, Dr. Brazell should be promoting this type of study to prove once and for all childhood vaccines are harmless as he apparently believes.  

Where is my comment?

As the parent of a now 14 year old autistic child there is no doubt in my mind the vaccines were the problem. Here is another thing that should be studied. In our case we moved from one state to another just before Kindergarten. the new state required an additional MMR made by a different company from the first state and the change in our child was dramatic after the 3rd shot. with the way our world has become so mobile the possibility of the different manufactured shots interacting needs to be looked into as well.

the risk of not being immunized is too great to not have it done. medical safety needs never to be less vigilant. life is risk reward. the rewards of the absence of polio, measles, chickenpox, mumps, diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, small pox, etc.; trump the danger of immunization. now what to do about malaria and the million deaths a year it's responsible for. is DDT that bad in these endemic areas?

Federal health authorities have become artful in putting together studies that won't find a link between thimerosal exposure and neurodevelopmental disorders.  

If parents are alleging that thimerosal exposure triggers autism, a now common neurological disorder, but autism is not included in this study of thimerosals link to neurodevelopmental disorders, then how can this possibly be measuring true risk for brain damage when you have left out most of the kids with the brain damage?

Add to that the fact that they dropped any children born premature from the study, the children who would be the most vulnerable to mercury damage, and the report that almost all 18 researchers have conflicts of interest and ties to vaccine manufacturers, and it is easy to see why autism parents like me believe that  federal health authorities pretense of looking at what really happened to our kids has gone from being a joke to being worthy of our strongest contempt.

It is also easy to see why autism parents like me, who read these studies for themselves, have such contempt for the 'science reporters' of major news outlets who won't call a spade and spade and admit that these attempts to float the silly notion that mercury one of the most powerful neurotoxins on earth, injected into the veins of newborn infants, does not cause brain damage.

I encourage NBC to start reporting objectively on all the fatal flaws in these studies, because until you do, you will continue to loose the public trust.  Not just with in the autism community, but across the board.

From the original New England Jourmal of Medicine report:

Re: Method "(We did not assess autism-spectrum disorders.)"

Re: Conclusion "Our study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and deficits in neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years"

Perhaps our indignation should be directed toward the media's interpretation and reporting of this study. This particular research was not tightly focused on autism but on general neuropsycholigcal functioning. Its hypothesis was NOT to prove or disprove that there has been an increase in the numbers of children with autism for those exposed to increased levels of mercury from the thermisol used in vaccinations. Yet that is what has been reported.

Children from the general population were the subjects -- not children with autism. This loosely associated research is being SPUN by the media, perhaps under the direction of other interested parties, to suggest that there is no link between autism and mercury exposure. Could this be a deliberate mis-representation of the results in effort to diffuse a sensitive socio-political issue? If this reporting doesn't sit well on your heart, you need to trust your instincts and dig deeper for the truth.

Someone help me understand why this additive is in the vaccines.  Pregnant women are warned to limit their consumption of tuna because of the contamination. Isn't it because of the tuna containing mercury?  We are required to dispose of mercury thermometers at special collection sites because it is dangerous, yet we use some form of mercury to preserve our vaccines?  How does this make sense?  Something is causing this increase in autism that did not exist when I had my babies 25 to 30 years ago.
I have advised my daughter who has a beautiful 6 month old healthy baby boy to avoid any further vaccines until we know the truth here.  My grandson is an alert, communicative, active, happy baby and that's how I would like him to remain.
This may seem unrelated to you but I had a cat that was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor that grew in an area of his body that was associated with the vaccine issue with felines a couple of years ago.  At the time the vet mentioned that they were trying to identify the cause so they were administering the various vaccines in different places to see if they could identify which vaccine was the cause of these tumors.  A year later when I brought another cat in for vaccinations I asked about it and he said that the drug company discovered that it was the preservative they were using in the vaccine that was the culprit not the type of vaccine or where it was administered, so they stopped using it.  Sound familiar?  I think so.  Of course with the issue of human vaccine, I imagine if they stop using it or admit that it caused autism, the lawsuits will put the drug companies out of business. This must be "covered up" to protect them. So I would say that I am of the opinion of saying "no" to any vaccine with this thimerasol additive.  It seems they cannot prove that it causes autism but they also can't prove that it doesn't cause autism.  Don't play Russian roulette with our babies!!!

I care deeply for parents and children affected by this terrible medical failure. I also fully intend to join in the fight to see this through. If you work for this drug company you are dutybound as an American to blow the whistle. If this is who you work for you also are a victom. Maybe not today but eventually.  Stardust Steve, Brownsboro, Tx.  

If parents think it is the thimerasol in vaccines that is the blame for autism, how do they account for the growing number of young children now diagnosed with autism? Thimerasol was taken out of vaccines several years ago except some flu vaccines (you can get preservative-free flu vaccine for < 3 years old) and some Td that is only given at 11 years and up?  Maybe we need to pursue all of the additives in processed and fast foods since that what the majority of children are brought up on these days which is definitey a difference for children over the last 30 years and other environmental issues that are constantly changing.

The facts are that Thimerosal is 49.6% Ethyl Mercury by weight.  Mercury in ANY form is the second most toxic substance known to human beings on the face of the planet.  Therfore mercury should not be used in anything that comes into contact with human beings.  Anybody that doesn't understand this needs their head examined.  The government,cdc,fda,big pharma, etc. are all just conducting these studies to blow another smokescreen in front of the american public. Be your own best advocate for your family and children.  Read labels on products, and inserts in vaccines and medications before you let you loved ones use anything.        

regarding Kim in California's comment that only doctors or other medical professionals should be able to question the CDC's integrity, that would bring the comments back only to those with a vested interest one way or another in this issue.  There should always be public comment, if there is hard science to refute the public comment than it will win out in the end

To Lois in NC
You didn't read the article above that says thermirasol is still in the vaccine in trace amounts.

I have a 5 year old son with ASD(he's my oldest) and I am not convinced of the link with vaccines. We didn't give him his first vaccine until he was 6 months old. Some have pointed out that I had rhogam when pregnant and it caused his autism. I still am not convinced, I could drive myself crazy trying to find the source, but I just don't have the time. Autism has been a huge burden, socially, financially and otherwise for us. I have 4 children altogether and have lost two good friends because of our struggles. He showed signs of autism as early as two weeks old.

Can any of the Dr's here answer this regarding autism:
Has the CDC studied the effect the sheer number of vaccines given to infants and the close spacing of these vaccines [16 to 21 within 2 yrs] as a probable culprit in Autism? How can a tiny body tolerate so much toxin so frequently?

I have a child that was affected by vaccines.  Scientists need to look at the AMOUNT of vaccines given in that 2 year period of life.  They need to lengthen the schedule instead of just shoving more shots in at such a young age.In 1983 there were only 10 shots, now there are 36. Infants are fragile why should we believe they can handle 5 different viruses shot into them at one time??? They also need to look at genetic predisposition.

I have a sister-in-law with an autistic child.  I can assure anyone that it IS a life-changing event. Yes, it is also, at times, a heavy burden to bear.  It can take it's toll on a marriage; it did her's.  In respect to the study finding no correlation between autism and thimerosal is pure denial, for whatever reason.  I submit that it is very possible, because of genetic makeup, many children are more sensitive to the effects of mercury than other children. A great possibility exists that those who are unfortunate enough to carry this genetic sensitivity are afflicted with autism.

To Christina D in Connecticut.  
The only vaccine for children < 6 years old that has even a trace amount of mercury is Tripedia, which is only one brand of DTaP & it contains 0.00012% and as I said earlier, some flu vaccines, but you can still get preservative-free flu vaccine for children < 3 years old. Check out http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm for a complete listing of all vaccines and thimerosal levels by clicking on Table 1 or scrolling down the page.  All I'm saying is there are a lot of things that have changed in the last several years in our world and immunizations are definitely not the only possibility for this.  We need to pursue other possibilities as well, ie. environmental, diet, etc.  Why not explore the possibility that parents think they must have an antibiotic for every sniffle, etc.?  Maybe overuse of antibiotics could be another possibility.  

Autism is inflammation of brain, autoimmunity, heavy metal poisoning, and oxidative stress. Thimerosal, the mercury containing preservative is responsible for the explosion of the numbers in autism and other diseases. ADD/HD, asthma, bi-polat disorder are also symtoms of mercury poisoning. The children need an Urinary Porphyrin Profile, which is the test that NIH came up with to measure mercury toxicity. All the kids I know, that have had one are positive to mercury. Rho-gam immungloblins given to pregnant mothers, which contained mercury, are involved in about half of autistic children. These children have major gastro-intestinal damage, the majority of the immune system is in the digestive tract. It is medical neglect for a physician not to help them. They are suffering, the media needs to fully investigate this issue and not quote the people who caused it. Elaine Dow

Let see. In 1983, the CDC mandated list of vaccines totaled 10. Today, the list has increased to 36. From 1983 to today, the autism rate has gone from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 150, including 1 in 94 boys. I'm not a scientist, but one could come up with a hypothesis that vaccines may be having an impact on the autism rate. Where is the research? The CDC seems to be focused on eliminating thimerosal as the cause. What about the overall vaccine program? Do we expect the CDC to police itself? I think not. Do we expect big pharmacy to determine if one or more of it's vaccines is causing harm? I think not. Do we expect the mainstream media to be fair and balanced when reporting on vaccines and autism, when they receive a large portion of their ad revenue from big pharmacy? I think not. So, it will continue to be the parents and grandparents that will need to force the issue.

Shame on NBC and Robert Bazell for suggesting that this issue is "still on the table." There is no room for conspiracy theory here- many scientifically rigorous studies have been published showing no association between thimerosal (a.k.a. ethylmercury, which is excreted by the body quickly, unlike methymercury which accumulates in the environment) and neurologic effects. Yes, the incidence of autism has been increasing but it is more likely that this phenomenon is due in part to more vigilant screening and diagnosis. Research efforts should continue towards discovering the cause of this condition; these efforts are only impaired by focusing time and energy on false associations.

Giving several immunizations on the same day, or within a time span of months to a few years, is safe. Many parents are often worried that this taxes the immune system or may "overwhelm" their child but this is not the case.

Rare adverse events do occur with vaccine administration. Autism due to the presence of thimerosal is not one of these events.

I have a boy (almost 5 & not autistic) with several food allergies and have read about some children with autism (& ADHD) responding well to casein-free and/or gluten-free diets. My child has been exclusively breastfed and diagnosed with milk and other allergies early on (between 4-6 mos) when I tried to introduce some formula to his diet. The allergens (milk, eggs and nuts) have never been introduced to his diet and were excluded from mine during breastfeeding. I asked my allergist about any connection between autism and milk allergy because milk/casein allergy is mentioned frequently on websites concerning autism. My allergist assured me that none of her young allergic patients are autistic and that with autism, it may be casein/gluten intolerance rather than an allergy. Apparently casein/gluten intolerance can have addictive drug-like effects on people. Have there been any studies on the effects of this increasingly common type of food intolerance on the developing brain & gut, especially since many children are now exclusively formula-fed. Regarding the vaccines, my son has had his full baby lot and I split the mmr.

My question that no one has answered anywhere is; If thimerosal was not dangerous why did they take it out? My niece was developing "normally" until she was 18 months old and had a MMR shot. She had already had the shots required for her age. After the MMR shot she began showing symptoms of autism and was diagnosed at 4 years of age.

For Kim Adams in NY, NY....You say you split your childs MMR, how much time did you give in between the shots?

I wonder how the CDC can recommend that pregnant women and young children not eat certain types of fish (tuna for example) due to the risk of neurological problems from mercury if they still contend that the mercury in immunizations is not a concern?

Very interesting info from http://www.immunize.org/express/issue691.asp.  It refers to a Wall Street Journal editorial that defends childhood vaccination and counters Jenny McCarthy's claim of vaccination harm.  
Exerpt below:
[For example:] Ms. McCarthy told Oprah that her son was a normal toddler until he received his measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (at 15 months of age). . . .  Yet she contradicts herself in her book: "My friends' babies all cracked a smile way
before Evan did . . . he was almost five months old." Which is it? Was he normal until his MMR vaccine or were some of the signs [of autism] missed before he got that shot?

Ms. McCarthy also contends that mercury in vaccines caused damage to her son's gut and immune system, leading to autism. Yet the mercury preservative Ms. McCarthy assails was removed from the childhood vaccination series in 2001. Her son, Evan,
was born in 2002. . . .

Doctors do need to do a better job of guiding families through the maze of autism treatments. I also desperately want to know why autism happens and how to treat it. But let's put our energy into funding autism research and treatment, not demonizing our vaccination program. . . .
To access the full text of the editorial from Dr. Brown's website, go to: http://baby411.typepad.com/baby_411_blog/2007/10/the-new-mccarth.html

This is like the evolution debate. The issue has been settled long ago but con artist continue to present nonsense to the scientifically illiterate public and we get wasted time and money on this idiocy.

I have to say, I do love the advent of the new class of respected scientist...playboy model!!

Nonsense Rod? If you have ever seen a child who is deveoping normally backslide into a world where they are sealed off from communication, you would know what nonsense really is, a bloated egomaniac who thinks he knows something. If you are such a genius then tell us oh wise one why have we seen such a rise in cases of autism? Also settled, when was it settled there is no conclusive evidence on either side. What pharma company do you work for, you hack.

Its actually interesting that even though there seems to be no clear link between autism and vaccines, data does show a probable link between "specific learning disabilities" and mercury/thermiserol in vaccinations.
mercury/thermiserol was phased out of many vaccines around 2001, old vaccine stocks were still used a few years after that...

http://www.fightingautism.org/idea/lineplot.php?z=l&m=t&t=i&d0=SLD&s0=US&a0=6&v0=y&d1=SLD&s1=US&a1=22&v1=y

http://www.fightingautism.org/idea/lineplot.php?z=l&m=t&t=i&d0=MR&s0=US&a0=6&v0=y&d1=MR&s1=US&a1=22&v1=y

That graph is what you might expect given that relationship, it also appears that it affects older people as well, however a little mental retardation can have much more devastating affects to a developing child than an adult.

Scary graph, I may skip some of those flu vaccines next year myself.  I believe flu vaccines still contain thermiserol, at least when I have been vaccinated for the past 4 years the doctor never ever has a thermiserol free vaccine available!

See other graphs here:

http://www.fightingautism.org/index.php

This other data explains the problem trending some of these graphs

http://www.fightingautism.org/idea/autism-diagnostic-substitution.php

The truth is that nobody knows precisely what causes Autism Spectrum Disorders like Autism or PDDNOS.
Jenny makes me mad because she represents the other side of the coin - the vaccines definitely caused autism crowd.  It's possible that it’s caused by a number of reasons.
However the other side frustrates me to the vaccines couldn't cause autism crowd.

As a scientist I find it frustrating that there is so little evidence either way.   This website I just found does have some interesting data compiled from various sources http://www.fightingautism.org/index.php , its a good start, I will have to look at the data closely.

Having worked for a vaccine company I can tell you that we know that vaccines work and that they cause the responses they are supposed to i.e. to immunize the patient.  However most vaccine companies will not do any study outside the scope of the drug actual effectiveness.  Drugs are tested in adults, not in pregnant women, and most likely not in very young children.  When I child is young as a fetus or a baby is when this developmental disorder strikes.
Sometimes vaccines can't be tested thoroughly, like the yearly flu vaccine it's here today and gone tomorrow.  That’s the reality of the business; no company will look at a connection between their drug and autism, what if they find one? They’d be out of business, that's not being evil, it’s just not profitable!

Companies test vaccines in adults and see if there is an immune response e.g. by ELISA, if the adult if fine and show an immune response the drug is considered safe, to be truely proved safe these drugs need to be tested next to a placebo group, since childhood vaccinations are mandatory that won't happen.

Pregnant women and young children are the targets of Autism, and they need to be looked at closely, in order to find the real reason(s) for Autism.  For me no reason has been proved either way.

What is needed is a national medical system that is computerized and connected, so that trends can be seen nationwide, to some degree privacy must be thrown out the window for the greater good.  All vaccines lots should be sample or at least randomly sampled and their contents verified by the FDA or CDC and even independent labs and correlated with patients who have them and followed up to see if they develop a Autism Spectrum Disorder.  This would be all childhood vaccinations including flu vaccines.  Probably there will be no correlation, but at least we would have data.

Right now the CDC says it isn’t happening, vaccines don’t cause autism, maybe they don’t in which case propose an alternative and test for it.
Computerizing the nations medical the system and asking other questions to pregnant and young mothers may also show other trends that we haven’t thought of, because right now someone could say that autism is caused by Microwave ovens, Live Polio Vaccine, Condoms, Tampons or any other number of other reasons and sadly there is no large scale data that could conclusively prove otherwise.  I’ve often wondered if plastics cause autism, plastics are in toys and microwaveable meals it may get into the food when heated, who knows!  I would like data to disprove these theories easily available.
Likely though Autism is caused by something global, genetics, a virus, a bacteria, some other disease caused by who knows ticks, there was that study on Lyme Disease and Autism.  Basically nobody knows what causes Autism, there may be multiple causes.  We need a system to gather data, we need to run a battery of genetic tests on those affected, to understand the disease more thoroughly.  Please Government get us more data, I’ve even debated that an open source initiative should be opened up to collect medical history on autistic individuals for study, because the Government is not doing enough.  Autism can affect 1 in 80 people in some parts of this country, the general consensus is 1 in 150.  However since Autism is likely under diagnosed as no parent wants to admit their child is different the real rate is likely higher, so maybe its 1 in 104 children.  That’s too high, and if its increasing it’s a dangerous number.  In a few years it could be higher, if it continues to climb it will be certain that Autism can no longer be explained by simple hereditary genetics alone, something needs to be done.

People saying they have all the answers be they scientist or celebrities are dangerous, what we need is more data to help us find a cause or causes and ultimately this may lead to a solution, if not for my son then for the next generation of Americans.

The stats of 1 in 150 also hide the scale of the problem… this means that the number of families affected is probably around  1 in 100, given the rates of births to unmarried women taken into account.

I skin tested positive for thimerasol allergy. I've had all amalgam fillings removed, just incase causing further inflammation. I didn't know of the allergy until 1997, in 1982, used contact lens solution, severe headache/itching. of course , stopped using,  then found out it's in vaccines, but
only got vaccines(military)before knowing of allergy. didn't seem to cause problems. Should I still eat fish if I have a thimerasol allergy???. My heavy metal screening was negative.
Another issue, is that veterinarians have stopped giving dogs rabies vaccines yearly and other injections, they do titres instead. That says something, not a money issue.

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