A couple of years ago, I wrote a post or two about the controversy over mercury in vaccines, and whether those vaccines caused autism. The Artist Formerly Known as the Slithery D (and my co-blogger Fitz) accused me of being part of the conspiracy crowd. Dylan’s exact words were that I was “an anti-vaccine radical.” My response was that nothing could be further from the truth: I am in favor of vaccinations; I noted more than once that any link between vaccines and autism wasn’t proven; and my main point was basically that maybe we shouldn’t be pumping kids full of mercury, regardless of whether it causes autism.
Anyway, I swore off the subject because I didn’t want to get embroiled in it and accused of going Grassy Knoll on autism. Well, I decided to wade back in because today was an important day for autism research.
First, scientists at Vanderbilt University announced that they have found a gene mutation that increases the risk of developing autism. And, a team of scientists from Cornell Univerisity and Indiana University-Purdue University announced that early childhood television viewing shows a statistically significant correlation with autism: the more tv kids watched before age three, the higher their rates of autism. At Slate, Gregg Easterbrook calls this finding a “potential bombshell in the autism debate.”
The important disclaimers apply here, too. The genetic mutation doesn’t seem to cause autism; it merely increases the risk of developing it. And the other study doesn’t prove that tv-watching causes autism; it merely suggests it might be one factor. So I’m going to be the last one to declare the autism riddle solved. (And, as a belated mea culpa, just in case I ever appeared to give credence to the vaccine theory, I’m sorry. That theory is wrong.)
Still, these are important developments, and I thought they were worth noting, my promises to avoid the debate notwithstanding. I suppose the next stage is millions of lawsuits against the television industry, so all you lawyers better get in on the ground floor — this could provide more billable hours than asbestos!
UPDATE: Freakonomist Steven Levitt is skeptical of a tv/autism link. Okay. I’m not going to have kids, so I’m not going to worry about it anymore. And besides, there’s some tv I need to go watch.