Vaccines Don't Cause Brain Damage. But What About Autism?

Mercury is a known neurotoxin that can cause serious and prolonged brain damage, but a new study finds that when used as a preservative in vaccines, mercury does not cause babies to develop language, behavior or intelligence problems. Because parents have long suspected mercury as a potential cause of autism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study instantly became a lightning rod for criticism.

A second CDC study, still underway, looks specifically at mercury in vaccines as a potential cause of autism. The newly published study did not. The study did correlate a greater risk of verbal and motor tics in boys with the highest exposure to the preservative -- thimerosal. Boys are also much more likely to be diagnosed with autism, for reasons that have yet to be explained. About one in every 150 children is diagnosed with autism, and four boys are diagnosed to every one girl.

Autism is characterized by its symptoms, and because the severity of those symptoms vary, the disease is thought of as a “spectrum disorder” -- one that affects one child more severely than others. Symptoms emerge very early in life and last throughout. Children are unable to interact with people as others do: for instance, they may shun hugs, fail to understand facial cues that are an intuitive form of communication to others, maintain unusual focus on seemingly inconsequential things, and develop repetitive physical tics like rocking back and forth.

Because chemicals have been shown to interrupt or disrupt the normal development of the brain during fetal development in the womb and during early childhood development, environmental toxins have long been suspects in the search for a cause. In a variety of diseases, chemicals and other environmental cues are thought of as triggers that prompt genes to act, and a genetic pre-disposition to autism is also thought to be part of the equation. The results of these studies -- whatever they show -- will of be of little consequence to new parents. Thimerosal was used in vaccines for seven decades, but now is only found in some adult formulations of the flu vaccine.

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