Look for the author of the report. He wrote a book. I haven't found any huge missdoing in his report, and all the claims against, to me, seem fabricated. Now, the reality is that today, in the USA, 1 out of 96 child have Autism (or 110 if you ask CDC). This is a huge number. It's 1% of all children born. The author claimed that all the chemicals, including vaccines, that we take for harmless, add up, and that brings all kind of problems, one of which is finding ourselves with 1% of all children in the country, with Autism. I made my comment more casually, and wanted it to be broader: we don't know what is causing so much allergies, cancer, autism and all the other illnesses. But certainly, injecting Mercury compounds when alternatives are available, isn't our best choice.
The problem today is that we want to detect the individual contribution of each thing to something very narrow. And we find everything is safe. And then, well, something is wrong and nobody knows what causes it. Yet, 1 out of every 96 of all Children have to fight really hard to live a normal life, and most fail (Autism).
There are other studies that show in animals that this Mercury compound seriously affects the brain. There are studies that state that while the half life may be relatively short, the compound isn't 100% stable and tends to change to not so safe forms. There are more things we don't know, than the things we know. Also, people point out that fish has more mercury. This makes the case stronger: if there are more ways to get it, then reduce the number of sources to a minimum. That argument, to me, is like saying that it's ok for interior lamps to have a lot of UV...the sun is already producing vasts amounts. No, that's not a good reason. Protect while in the sun, and don't make it even worst by creating artificial sources for trouble. Especially in vaccines.
But anyway....I should have made my comment more general. Mercury compounds aren't needed, and I personally would avoid it if I have kids. I don't see a reason not to use the other preservatives - in my case.