Forget gun control, video games and career-oriented parents - those are all red herrings. The real problem here is mental health.

There have never been so many cases of autistic, schizophrenic, sociopathic, and downright apathetic children as there are today. Congress has only just begun to look into the causes for this - and when all is said and done, I am afraid the culprit may be too much mercury in childrens' vaccines. Something the drug companies will have to answer to - hopefully soon.

Here is a link to a Congressional hearing that every concerned citizen should listen to with great care.

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Lawmakers-Look-into-Federal-Res ponse-to-Rising-Rates-of-Autism/10737436113/

As a teacher, I see that type of child more and more every year.

Rick,

Take a look at that video from the Congressional hearing on autism. There is a very scary presentation that shows what the element mercury does to brain cells and their ability to process information in very young children.

Bill - be aware that just because an advocacy group with an agenda put a quite-possibly-slanted video before congress, doesn't make it necessarily true. There's been several studies into a possible link between Thimerosal-based mercury and developmental damage in children, and every one thus far has come to the same conclusion as any other attempt to discern a potential connection between vaccines and autism: to people's best knowledge (this next part taken from the CDC website), there's no convincing evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site. However, in July 1999, the Public Health Service agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure.

More on a recent (2012) study at this link, here:

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Thimerosal/QA_Pedi atrics-thimerosal-autism.html

While I'd concede that it's not impossible for something in certain vaccines being a possible health risk, I'll repeat the point from earlier: Autism Spectrum-based conditions are neurological. In other words, it's a measure of how far from 'normal' one is in terms of their neural patterns. This could easily be genetic, in which case, a vaccine is going to do precisely jack-squat to affect a child's chances of 'developing' Autism - since it's not really a case of 'developing' it, as it is simply becoming more apparent as the child grows.



Also, it's worth making clear: the amount of mercury contained in Thimerosal is very small, and considering that Thimerosal itself isn't a massive amount in any vaccine, we're talking a tiny dose of mercury. Give a kid a tuna sandwich, and they're getting more mercury from that then from several vaccinations combined (all of which would have to contain mercury, obviously).