[Fwd: Mercury's removal doesn't stop autism's rise, study shows]

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**Mercury's removal doesn't stop autism's rise, study shows**

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-sci-autism8jan08,1,5109581.story?coll=la-he\

adlines-california

Cases of the disorder continued to increase in California children

from 2004 to 2007, even after a preservative was removed from

vaccines.

By Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 8, 2008

The prevalence of autism in California children continued to rise

after most vaccine manufacturers started to remove the mercury-based

preservative thimerosal in 1999, suggesting that the chemical was not

a primary cause of the disorder, according to a study released Monday.

The analysis found that from 2004 to 2007, when exposure to

thimerosal dropped significantly for 3 to 5 year olds, the autism

rate continued to increase in that group from 3.0 to 4.1 per 1,000

children.

" If mercury exposure in vaccines was a major cause of autism, then

the number of . . . affected kids should have diminished once they

were no longer exposed to thimerosal, " said Dr. Schechter,

lead author of the study and a medical officer at the state

Department of Public Health. " That is not what we found. "

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is the

latest in a series that has investigated the connection between

thimerosal and autism. The vast majority have found no association.

The latest findings failed to convince some parents and advocacy

groups, which have long blamed mercury, a neurotoxin, for the

disorder.

" This study presents a greatly oversimplified explanation of a very

complex problem, " said Bothwell, chairwoman of the board at

the National Autism Assn., which works on behalf of families with

autism. " Rising numbers do not confirm that thimerosal never had a

role. "

Autism is a severe developmental disorder in which children seem

isolated from the world around them. There is a broad spectrum of

symptoms, marked by poor language skills and an inability to handle

social relations.

Over the last two decades, the number of cases has boomed across the

country for still-unexplained reasons. Psychiatrists estimated that 20

years ago there were 0.2 to 0.5 cases for every 1,000 children. Last

year, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

estimated that there were 6.6 cases per 1,000 schoolchildren, based

on a study of 8-year-olds.

The latest study was based on data from the state Department of

Developmental Services, which provides services to about 36,000

people with autism and has one of the best reporting systems in the

country.

The researchers looked at all reported cases in the state starting

with children born in 1989. They found the number of cases per 1,000

children has been steadily increasing from that point to March 2007,

the end point of the study.

In a commentary accompanying the study, Dr. Fombonne called the

data " a clear and unambiguous test. "

" Parents of autistic children should be reassured that autism in

their child did not occur through immunizations, " wrote Fombonne, a

psychiatrist at Montreal Children's Hospital who was not involved in

this study. He has provided advice to vaccine manufacturers in the

past but has received no research funding from them, he said.

Steve M. Edelson, an experimental psychologist who is director of

the Autism Research Institute, a nonprofit organization in San Diego,

said the study, along with evidence from previous research, argued

against thimerosal as the major culprit in autism.

But he added that thimerosal may still play some role. Edelson said

such large-scale analysis could overlook smaller groups of children,

who for whatever reason have a particular vulnerability to mercury.

He said more solid evidence can only come from laboratory studies,

such as postmortem analyses of the brains of autistic children.

The National Autism Assn. criticized the study, saying that some

children may still be exposed to mercury through either flu shots or

trace amounts in other vaccines. The group also said that some

vaccines containing thimerosal had expiration dates as late as 2005

and may have been used up to that point.