EVIDENCE of Harm by David Kirby

Mercury in vaccines and the autism epidemic a medical controversy.

In the 1990s reported autism cases among American children began spiking, from about 1 in 10,000 in 1987 to a shocking 1 in 166 today.

This trend coincided with the addition of several new shots to the nation's already crowded vaccination schedule, grouped together and given soon after birth or in the early months of infancy.

Most of these shots contained a little known preservative called thimerosal, which includes a quantity of the toxin mercury.

Evidence of Harm explores the heated controversy over what many parents, physicians, public officials and educators have called an "epidemic" of afflicted children.

David Kirby traces their struggle to answer how and why their once healthy kids rapidly descended into silence or disturbed behavior, often accompanied by severe physical illness.

Alarmed by the levels of mercury in the vaccine schedule, these families sought answers from their doctors, from science, from pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines, and finally from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration...to no avail.