1) Do children get vaccines with Thiomersal?
Current international vaccines that include Thiomersal:
diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (DT), tetanus toxoid (TT), hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and influenza.
Thiomersal is still used commonly outside of the US in the vaccinations listed above. In the US, most of Thiomersal (not all) was removed 1999, but what does that mean? That means everyone on TFP (born before December of 1989) who was immunized is at risk, and that many outside of the US is still being injected with mercury. As TFP is an international forum, it hardly seems prudent to only discuss the US.
2) Can mercury cause autism?
Mercury introduced into humans is very damaging to many systems, especially the nervous system. It is especially dangerous to a fetus or young child (4-5x more sensitive than adults). Mercury is known and proven to kill neurons in the visual cortex, cerebellum, and dorsal root ganglia. Pathophysiology describes autism's mechanism as being an alteration of brain development after conception in that abnormalities in purkinjo cells in the cerebellum are found. (wiki)
3) The "correlation" evidence:
US
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Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.
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Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines (.pdf)
According to this now famous study by the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, childhood Autism and other childhood neurological disorders dropped off 35% since Thiomersal was basically removed from children's vaccines
UK
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Since 1970, British health authorities have recommended vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines. Even so, nearly 15 percent of British children were not vaccinated between 1970 and 1980; only one autistic child has been found in this unvaccinated group, in contrast with an epidemic of autism among vaccinated children.
I'm hardly suggesting that all autism is caused by mercury, and I'm not suggesting that if you get a shot you're getting autism, but the facts above should be hard to ignore.