MINNEAPOLIS, January 8, 2008—A new California study, conducted over a 12-year period, is the first to offer hard evidence that thimerosal plays no role in autism. Results of the study were released Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry. 

Results of the study were released Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Data showed that the rate of autism in children has continued to rise despite the removal of thimerosol from vaccines in 2001.

Even as researchers released the study, some pointed out what they saw as flaws in the report. They maintain that thimerosol is a major cause of autism, no matter what the data show.

At least 300,000 children ages 4 to 17 had autism in 2004, according to the CDC, and as many as 1.5 million people in the United States currently have autism.

A San Francisco Examiner article sad that many neurological experts and child psychiatrists attribute the rise in autism to increased awareness among parents and doctors, possibly resulting in over-reporting of symptoms.

A copy of the study can be found at: links.sfgate.com/ZBZJ

MMA materials on Autistic Spectrum Disorder