2001 is simply the date vaccine manufacturers started making mercury-free vaccines. The existing vaccines containing the full 25 micrograms of mercury remained in use until their expiration dates, some time after 2003. At the same time, the federal government started recommending flu vaccines, which to this day still contain 25 mcg mercury, for pregnant women and infants.

25 micrograms of mercury. Please keep that number in mind. Because it's an extremely small number. (1000 micrograms = 1 milligram)

Adults probably ingest that much mercury every time they eat a few cans of tuna.

Also, dental fillings used to be made of a mercury amalgam.

That said, even by your estimates, seven years have passed since mercury containing vaccines were in widespread use in the U.S.

So why is the incidence of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) still rising?

I think part of the answer is overdiagnosis.

Every time a child shows the slightest variation from the textbook version of normal development, some pediatrician will diagnose the child with "developmental delay," which virtually guartantees a diagnosis of "autism spectrum disorder."

They may as well rename autism 'developmental disorder not otherwise specified.' The two terms are equally useless.

For the record, I do not deny that many diagnoses of autism are accurate.

That said, I think the recent trend of lumping conditions like Asperger's under the umbrella term 'Autism Spectrum Disorder' is counter productive.