In June 2007, the U.S. Federal Claims Court will begin hearings on 4,800 claims filed by parents of children with autism spectrum disorder who maintain that the government’s vaccine program caused their children’s disorders.

Writer and journalist Arthur Allen was one of the first to report on the controversy surrounding thimerosal and its effect on autism. Allen’s in-depth report was published June 25, 2005, in New York Times Magazine. Since then, countless commentaries have appeared in a variety of magazines and newspapers including Rolling Stone and Salon.com.

David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, A Medical Controversy, is among the activists who maintain that government scientists and their academic colleagues have concealed evidence of a causal link between thimerosal and autism. Some others, however, describe Mr. Kirby as “an author subtly influenced by the vaccine paranoia people” and caution readers to “beware of books like these because they lead with fear and not knowledge.”

Notable among the anti-mercury activists is Robert Kennedy, Jr., author of the 2005 Rolling Stone article titled Deadly Immunity. It was Kennedy’s article that prompted Arthur Allen to state, “Aside from a New York Times article that discussed the parallel realities of parents and scientists studying thimerosal, there has been little mainstream media response. Considering that about 9,000 lawsuits of claims have been filed against thimerosal and have the potential to wreck the pharmaceutical industry, the debate has high stakes.”

The recent court decision suggests that the stakes are about to get higher. According to Allen, “Study after study has shown no link between thimerosal and autism. The rates of autism continue to grow in cohorts of children who received no thimerosal-containing vaccines.”

It appears court is in session.

For a comprehensive discussion of autism and the controversy surrounding the use of thimerosal, access the Feeding Times.