Finally, some truth in autism research! The report calls for studies of “metals", which would include Thimerosal and aluminum in vaccines, and “infectious agents”, which would include the live virus MMR and Varicella (Chicken Pox) vaccines.

And there are many other environmental factors to address, such as pesticides (Women in CA’s Central Valley who live near crops are far more likely to have children with autism) and mercury from coal burning plants in China carried across the Pacific (California, Oregon and Washington are in the direct path ofthe mercury plume and have huge autism populations),

The time has finally come to reject the ridiculous claims of “better diagnosis” to explain away an epidemic. Autism's dramatic rise cannot possibly be attributed to that tired mantra we still hear from far too many public health officials: It's due to better diagnosing and counting. Something has made our children gravely ill and we need to find out what it is, NOW!

The autism epidemic is REAL, and it is not caused by genes alone. You cannot have a genetic epidemic. It really is time that we, as a society, accept that cold, hard truth.

We must still continue to look for the susceptibility genes that clearly make some kids more vulnerable to environmental triggers, most likely through a diminished capacity to detoxify themselves.

But the sooner our best minds in science and medicine come to grips with the fact that our children have been exposed to the wrong environmental toxins and/or infectious agents at the wrong time, the sooner we can find out how to best treat what really ails them.