Thimerisol or not, autism happens

A CNN report from last week highlights a new study that shows a consistent rise in autism rates in California even after thimerisol (a mercury derivitive used as a preservative in vaccines) was removed from vaccines in 2001. Rates of autism in children born after 2003 continued to rise despite the fact that these children were never injected with thimerisol. I've had family members express concerns about thimerisol to me, so it's worth saying that Wilder, born in 2003, has never been exposed to thimerisol. The jury is still out over whether some kind of environmental factor has influenced the rise in autism diagnoses, but thimerisol is looking less and less like a culprit. The rise in autism diagnoses is almost certainly due in part to better awareness of the disorder among physicians and broader definitions of autism. For an excellent discussion of the changing definitions of autism since the disorder was initially identified by Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, see Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Grinker, Jr. It's a fascinating examination of the cultural history of autism by an anthropologist.