The cause of the skyrocketing rates of these disorders, like the rise in autism, has mystified the experts. Many thoughtful and informed people believe that medical overexuberance has resulted in an unintended trade-off: Vaccination against acute diseases such as measles and rubella has increased susceptibility to chronic disorders such as autism, asthma, arthritis and ADHD.

Am I overstating the case? I don't think so. We learned in the latter half of the 20th century that one must be careful in tinkering with Mother Nature. Those marvelous pesticides, herbicides, gasoline additives and other miracles of modern chemistry have a downside. While we now know that toxic pollution of the environment is bad news, we are just beginning to learn that pumping toxins--viruses, bacteria, mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde, for example--into the body in the form of vaccinations for immediate gain may prove to be costly in the long term. Those who share my view do not oppose vaccines. What we oppose is over-vaccination and unsafe vaccines.

Most people are shocked to learn that in recent years, the number of vaccine doses a child receives before entering school has risen to 33. There are more than 200 other vaccines--expensive and profitable--under development. In 1965, parents began telling me that their children became autistic upon getting the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) shot--a triple vaccine.

When another triple vaccine, MMR, (measles, mumps, rubella) was introduced in the 1980s, the alarming reports from parents and the prevalence figures for autism rose sharply. Corroborating evidence is plentiful. In his testimony before the House Government Reform Committee, Paul Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia--who acknowledged at the hearing that he also is paid by the Merck Co. to educate doctors about vaccines--attacked the "notion" that giving three vaccines at once is unsafe: "The newborn has billions of immunologic cells that are capable of responding to millions of different microorganisms. By quickly making an immune response . . . babies keep those bacteria from . . . causing serious disease. Therefore, the combination of the three vaccines contained in the MMR or even the 10 vaccines given in the first 2 years of life, is literally a raindrop in the ocean of what infants successfully encounter in their environment every day."

That is an absurd argument. If every child has such a marvelously effective immune system, why should we vaccinate them at all? Especially, why should we use vaccines containing levels of mercury that vastly exceed the upper limit of safety? Even minute amounts of mercury are highly toxic to nerve and immune system tissue. Don't just tell us vaccines are safe. Where are the scientific data? There are none. It is no secret that the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is not enforced and that doctors report only 1% to 10% of the adverse reactions they learn about.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), in his defense of vaccines, cites the American Medical Assn., the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control as asserting that vaccines are safe. These organizations have much credibility to lose by acknowledging how weak and how sparse are the data on vaccine safety. Congress made a major mistake in enacting the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act in the 1980s. It transferred liability for unsafe vaccines from the manufacturer to families through a surcharge on each vaccination. Why would the drug companies pay for vaccine safety testing if the public will pick up the tab for the damage their vaccines cause? Would Ford or General Motors do research on product safety such as faulty gas tanks if they were automatically indemnified by consumers? We cannot afford to deny, dismiss or sidestep the issue of vaccine safety. Research on this critical problem must be undertaken as the highest priority.

Bernard Rimland Is Director of the Autism Research Institute, Based in San Diego; Editor of the Autism Research Review International; Founder of the Autism Society of America, and Father of a 44-year-old Autistic Son