Study 'debunks... myth' of link between infant vaccines, autism

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Infants expel the mercury contained in a common vaccine preservative too quickly for toxicity to build up, US researchers said Wednesday, saying their findings should allay fears that child vaccines can cause autism.

A study conducted at the University of Rochester in New York and due to be published on Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics showed that infants "expel thimerosal mercury much faster than originally thought, thereby leaving little chance for a progressive building up of the toxic metal."

"This debunks the great myth, believed by both parents and some pediatricians, that the gauntlet of thimerosal-containing shots many infants received in the 1990s, when the average number of vaccines kids received increased sharply, had put them...