Diagnoses of autism has increased from 1:10,000 in 1988 to 1:166 people today. Some estimates are as high as 1 in 150 people <ref>http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/faq_prevalence.htm</ref>, and it has been rising. Among boys, 1 in 94 has the disorder. In New Jersey, which has the highest rate in the nation, 1 in every 60 boys has autism and 1 in every 94 children is affected.
Increasingly, it is being shown that a[[mercury]] preservative used in [[vaccines]], thimerosal, is the cause of injury in many recipients, including a cause of increase in autism rates.<ref>[http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:952MmAWeCOsJ:www.jpands.org/vol8no1/geier.pdf+jpands&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a Thimerosal in Childhood Vaccines,
Neurodevelopment Disorders, and Heart Disease in the United States]</ref> Thimerosal is a inorganic form of mercury that was widely used as a preservative, but since FDA and CDC action in 1999 and 2000 thimerosal usage in vaccines has been either removed or lessened to around 0.01% in [[vaccines]] that still use it, including influenza and DT vaccines. This translates to around 25 [[micrograms]] per a 0.5mL dose. Vaccine proponents suggest that this small amount is not toxic, but they do not account for the accumulation of mercury in an infant and often use toxicity measures based on full grown adults.