Brucie, I'm sorry, but the mercury theory just does not hold water. I'm a developmental pediatrician and I've been working with autistic children and their families for over 25 years, more intensively in the last 3 years. One simple reason for mercury in vaccines not being the problem is that the brains of children with autism are probably abnormal from the time of birth, before they've had any vaccines. A recent study in the journal Pediatrics (sorry, I don't have time to look up the reference at the moment, but I can later) showed that the incidence of autism increased after thimerosal had been removed from vaccines. It's very easy to see conspiracies everywhere (I see them all the time in the Bush-Cheney cabal!) but most of the assertions in that article can be fairly readily refuted.

So what does cause autism? The hypothesis that makes the most sense to me is that it's a two-step process. First there are genetic factors that predispose you to autism, and second, there are prenatal triggers that affect a fetus that has one of those genetic predispositions. Note the plurals: there is clearly no one cause, no one cure, and no one single condition. Autism is almost certainly a cluster of abnormalities of the brain resulting from a number of different causes.   Some genetic syndromes, such as velocardiofacial syndrome, or homocystinuria, have a high incidence of associated autism. (My first article in Discover Magazine, November 2001, was about such a child.) But most cases are probably due to the combination of genetic predisposition and prenatal triggers. It's possible that some environmental pollutants or toxins could be among the triggers (the incidence of autism is very high in Brick Township, NJ, a Superfund site), but there would have to be prenatal exposure, not in vaccines.

One of the problems is that autism is often not diagnosed until sometime in the second or third year of life, and some children with autism start talking at a year and then stop talking by 18 months, so people assume it must be something that happened after the first birthday. But it's clear that the children were different very early on. (All these statements should include "in most cases", since there is so much variability.)

I too have a great deal of compassion for children with autism. Fortunately, in the last few years, we've found that it's no longer a "developmental death sentence." For many children, early intervention programs that start before age 3 or 4 can produce great gains in the ability of a child to communicate and socialize. And some children, especially those with normal nonverbal intelligence, simply get better on their own, no matter what we do...which is the reason so many autism "cures" have such passionate adherents.

Gotta run now, but I'd be happy to discuss this later.

Aloha,
Mark