Study finds no link between vaccines, autism.

Byline: Tina Hesman

ST. LOUIS _ Vaccines do not cause autism, a committee from the Institutes of Medicine said in a report issued Tuesday.

In its eighth and final word on the subject, the independent Institute, considered an authority on weighing medical research, rejected the notion that measles, mumps and rubella vaccines or mercury preservatives in vaccines, cause autism. And laboratory and animal experiments don't explain how vaccines could lead to the disorder.

The committee suggested that research dollars are better spent elsewhere in searching for a cause.

But some parents, politicians and researchers say the Institute's report is flawed and fails to take into account scientific evidence supporting a link between autism spectrum disorders and either the MMR vaccine or a mercury-based vaccine preservative called thimerosal.

The incidence of autism appears to have increased dramatically over the past 20 years. What was once thought to be a disorder affecting four in 10,000 people is now said to strike at least one child in every 166. But the rise in the number of…