Renewed debate over autism/vaccine link

I saw this first on my autism email group; there are warnings out about the proper disposal of CFL's (compact fluorescent lights; those spiral-shaped bulbs), since they contain mercury. There's even a list of how to dispose of a broken bulb at the EPA site:
http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index.htm#flourescent

The clean-up process is pretty detailed, and certainly highlights the fact that mercury is dangerous...and yet we're injecting in into our kids, sometimes with multiple vaccines at one time?? Yea, right...

I don't think mercury necessarily causesautism (although when you compare the symptoms of mercury poisoning with the symtoms of autism, they're almost identical) ...but I do think it's one of the many triggers of autism, which is why some kids can get all those vaccines and not be bothered and others are affected greatly. Connor's prematurity triggered his, IMO, since he never developed appropriately and then regressed. But I do think that there are many kids who were genetically predisposed to autism, and the vaccines triggered it, either through the overload of mercury or the overload to their immune system. As Drew said, we split up our kids' vaccines, even when the doctors would warn us about the extra co-pays (it's a shame that many kids' vaccines are given in huge groups out of convenience...), and we'd ask and ask again if thimerosal was in the batch. I'm all for vaccines, but IMO they give too many at once, and there's some that I don't think are necessary.

FWIW, here's some information from CHOP:

In the early 1950s, there were four vaccines: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and smallpox. Because three of these vaccines were combined into a single shot (DTP), children received five shots by the time they were 2 years old and not more than one shot at a single visit.

By the mid-1980s, there were seven vaccines: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella and polio. Because six of these vaccines were combined into two shots (DTP and MMR), and one, the polio vaccine, was given by mouth, children still received five shots by the time they were 2 years old and not more than one shot at a single visit.

Since the mid-1980s, many vaccines have been added to the schedule. Hib vaccine was added in the late-1980s. In the 1990s, hepatitis B and varicella vaccines were added and the polio vaccine shot (IPV) replaced the oral polio vaccine (OPV). In the year 2000, the pneumococcal vaccine was added and since 2004 the influenza, hepatitis A and rotavirus vaccines were added. Now, children could receive as many as 24 shots by 2 years of age and five shots in a single visit!

Click to expand...

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=75700

And autism rates continue to increase. Much of the increase is due to better diagnosis, but I have to believe that the amount of mercury in the ever-increasing number of vaccines (prior to thimerosal being removed) has something to do with it. And as I said to begin with, if this mercury in vaccines is "nothing we need to worry about", why are there so many precautions that need to be taken in the simple removal of a broken lightbulb with mercury??

Vaccines are good things...but caution and common sense should rule as well. Yes, we vaccinate our kids. But cautiously and carefully.