"To summarize, of the 58 empirical reports on autism and heavy metal toxins, 43 suggest some link may be present, while 13 reports found no link. Even with the tendency for null results not to be reported, it cannot be said there is no evidence for a link between heavy metal toxins and autism: although the question may still be open--in sum, the evidence favors a link."

Sorting out the spinning of autism: heavy metals and the question of incidence, DeSoto and Hitlan, 2010: http://www.ane.pl/pdf/7021.pdf

Just saw "Confessions of a Pharmaceutical Rep" on YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOOWmw2mNOw

I should have said Forbes magazine Articlesss - there's funnily enough one on how Prevenar hasn't worked out as well as they projected for but you can see many Forbes articles on how vaccines are expected to grow (especially in China) in part to make up for drugs that are coming off patent.
Bill and Melinda Gates came up in some of the Forbes pieces and I can't help but think how it's time for Bill and Melinda to re-evaluate their strategy.
Their original logic was that" 'if a mother and father know their child is going to live into adulthood, they start to naturally reduce their population size,' says Melinda. Rather than prevent births, he would aim his billions at saving the kids already born. 'We moved pretty heavily into vaccines once we understood that.'" They clearly have followed the pharma industry presumption of safety, even though there are studies to show that autism was once rare in Africa (Lotter) and if fact certain clues such as socioeconomic status (elite families had higher incidence) points to a possibility of vaccine causation. Mark Blaxil wrote a good piece covered in AoA:
www.ageofautism.com/2008/11/out-of-Africa-a.html
Apparently the Gates' like formulas- stuff like: succes=teachers divided by students. Sounds good except they realized they were wrong on that one. They totally changed their formula to realizing that teacher quality was the main factor for children's school success. In that same spirit they need to reevaluate their ill-conceived vaccine program (Gavi).
Not only is it horrifically exposing children to cheaper, more available mercury-laden versioned of vaccines but surely he must now be realizing that the safety studies underlying immunisations policies are lacking or just plain biased and poorly done. I mean I can forgive him for his initial foray into this mess because quite frankly, even as parents you would Have assumed that pharma had safety tested the vaccines properly. But by now they should start to be clued in. Bill- NEWSFLASH- cutting corners on vaccine ingredients (oral polio, mercury) is not a good idea -even if you were to accept that vaccines are all safe and have no risk of side effects under the best conditions, which is not the case. I'm pretty sure clean water, improved sanitation, good nutrition are more important in disease eradication.
In fact your new formula is starting to read something like this: massive increased vaccination schedule=more increase in autism=more cost for government and family burden. More likelihood of autism might= having more children in the hopes that some of them escape that possibility. I'm sure some of you can come up with some other formulas...
Bill Gates- re-think your formula!

Jenny, very interesting study and I am heartened to see more and more scrutiny of vaccines in the way of reviews/studies such as Shaw/Tomljenovitch's of Gardasil vaccine. I also think that we have put to rest that untrue claim that " vaccines aren't big money- makers." The Forbes magazine article shows that to be blatantly untrue; in fact vaccines are a huge growth market.

Someone commented that they think there's severity distinctions btwn different autism age groups and I agree bc I notice that also. I'm sure there are a number of things contributing to this but a big part of it has to be that there are many of us whose eyes have been opened about the relationship btwn autism & vaccines/toxins in recent years. The parents that have educated themselves and understand what's really going on, most likely have been truly dedicated to healing their children from the start and their lil sick toddlers from 5 yrs ago are now healthy, thriving 7yr olds. I see it in my son's school for ex. In the older autism class of kids ages 8-12 these kids are at the same level they were the yr before & the yr before that. A 9yo girl is still not potty trained after yrs of enormous effort & much intervention on everyone's part. Most are non-verbal, aggressive & stim all day long-clearly frustrated & in pain. I see one of the moms giving the teacher a box of cheezitz for her son bc it's the "only thing he'll eat"! I shake my head in horror & disbelief-want to shout so many things. One word is sufficient though- "DUH!?!?!"
In the 5-8 yo and even in the 4/5yo K class they are happier, calmer, interact more & speech is improving. It's obvious they are learning & making progress. When u dig a lil u find out things like-another 7yo boy in my son's class is also on a special diet, the 5yo girl's mom takes her to a homeopath, the 4yo boy's mom has stopped vaccinating,etc...AHH Ofcourse!
Ppl would never know where my son has been if not for me telling them. What a bittersweet feeling, lemme tell u. BC I am the only one who really knows how difficult life used to be for him (&us) and how hard we worked to heal his body & mind. My son is very healthy, well-adjusted & only struggles w academics now. We have a reading LD, visual processing disorder,mild ADD & dyslexia to deal with but no more sensory issues or obstacles related to autism. When I look at pics of him back then and pics of him now it is amazing to see the difference. They say a picture says a thousand words so I decided to create a recovery video of his life thus far so ppl can CLEARLY SEE that there are 3 phases-before,during&after. Never did I think I'd have WAY MORE "after" pics than "during" pics, but I do. Probably bc it was just so difficult to take any pics at all plus why would I want to capture sadness & frustration. What I've created so far is beautiful & awesome. The problem is it's taking me forever to finish bc I get so choked up everytime,start crying so I have to keep stopping. But I will get it done bc I know everyone needs to see it as much as I need to make it. 

Angus files, I agree, the other side does seem a bit weary, and I have noticed that the more we talk about our side of the vaccine tragedy the more it becomes the evident truth, since more people look into it from all angles and aspects.Foe example the blond on blond segment with Imus, the girl that always opposed the vaccine/autism link said she had to flip-flop om her views, and now she stands with us.

Greg, I don't think that people with vaccine concerns - including AoA - are "ignoring all the other ingredients". There is a lot of news here, for example, about aluminum and Gardasil and the MMR.

But like Cassandra and Teresa and others have said, mercury is huge.

Jen "you hum it, I'll play it"...Monkeys scratching heads looks evolutionary...shame on them!!

Greg,

I disagree with you. The mercury argument is the eaisest to win. It is already removed from most vaccines here and everyone understands that it is toxic. No one buys their methyl is toxic but ethyl mercury is safe argument. To continue to support it means backtrackig and this is where they are going to shoot themselves in the foot. The US public in my opinion will not settle for the "it is safe, it should never have been removed from vaccines here" argument. Not when autism rates are 1 in 88 with no answers in sight.
There is no question there is more to vaccine injury than mercury but this is an ingredient that is not necessary.
We have to win this fight one battle at a time.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is a culture of damage - a culture in which medical ethics are stood on their head: "Don't count the human cost, there is a war on" never mind about "Do no harm". We have to change the culture and getting the mercury out would be a very good thing (and a start), but it is also true that unless there is active independent monitoring and a complete change in "the more the merrier" attitude there is going to be damage, and lots of it. We also have to ask as this article does, what kind of people want to keep on injecting babies with mercury, as these people do, and what they are really about.

Dan, I truly do believe that mercury is harmful. I also truly believe its only a matter of time before the anti-vax (safer vax) movement wins because truth is on our side. How then do we fight most effective to ensure the swiftest victory? Pushing the mercury argument will always be a weaker assault because it allows them to tweak here and there with their epidemiology studies to give the results that they want? Obfuscating things will not be so easy with a vax/unvax study. I am not sure if you read Dr. Offit criticisms of our movement in his 'A Tale of Shifting Hypothesis'. Notice how he rants on about all the studies that vindicate mmr and thimerosal, yet when he came to discuss the cumulative effect of vaccines his criticisms amount to declaring this a non-argument that does not deserves studying.

Hi Greg,

I personally think it is correct to go after a chemical that has so much evidence of harm in the epidemic of autism. We know that those who had acrodynia had a much higher rate of children and/or granchildren with autism:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15287394.2011.590097
"The results showed the prevalence rate of ASD among the grandchildren of pink disease survivors (1 in 25) to be significantly higher than the comparable general population prevalence rate (1 in 160). The results support the hypothesis that Hg sensitivity may be a heritable/genetic risk factor for ASD."

We also know for certain that mercury and specifically, thimerosal can cause damage to the immune system, a big piece to autism:

-- Among all metals, mercury appears to have the most diverse effects on the immune system....mercury compounds may cause immunosuppression or immunostimulation, autoimmune reactions, or hypersensitivity. http://pac.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/2009/pdf/8101x0153.pdf

-- More recently, scientists have observed associations between immune system disorders and exposure to both organic and inorganic (elemental) mercury http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898874/

-- The continuing use of thimerosal in some vaccines and other products warrants further investigation of possible immunotoxic effects of this compound and its constituent ethylmercury. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1513333/

-- Immunosuppressive and autoimmune effects of thimerosal in mice. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15808517

Exposing these facts only makes the entire topic of "vaccine safety" a more tangible topic, not a lesser one.

The reality is that the industry could adapt - which would not in itself mean that it had become a safe culture - but it would cost them money, and they would have to admit that they were wrong: the WHO and their cronies have now succeeded in obstructing reform for more than a decade and they are not about to give in. But they are protecting their backsides not the globe's children.