Major new review finds no direct link between vaccines containing aluminium and health conditions including autism, diabetes and asthma

Another major study has found no link between childhood vaccines and lifelong health conditions – including autism.

The new research, carried out by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), found that jabs containing aluminium  do not increase the likelihood of being diagnosed with the lifelong developmental disorder.

Aluminium salts such as aluminium hydroxide and aluminium phosphate  – known scientifically aluminium adjuvants – are a common ingredient in the vaccines given to babies. 

They’ve been in use for over 90 years because their presence boosts the body’s immune system and make the protective effects of the vaccine last for longer. 

They also allow vaccines to be given in smaller and fewer doses. 

Vaccines commonly enhanced with the metal are used to protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis, HPV, and meningitis.

But some critics, dubbed anti-vaxxers, claim that the presence of aluminium leads to patients developing autism, diabetes and asthma.

However, after analysing data from 59 studies, the PHAC found no increased risk or no association between aluminium-adjuvanted vaccines and health outcomes including autism, type 1 diabetes, asthma, and muscle pain.

The study authors said: ‘Current evidence does not support causal associations between aluminium-adjuvanted vaccines and serious or long term health outcomes. 

‘These findings are consistent with the broader post-licensure safety evidence base, which supports continued use of aluminium-adjuvanted vaccines in immunisation programmes.

‘Taken together, the convergent findings of higher quality studies provide a meaningful evidence base to inform public health decision making on aluminium adjuvanted vaccines.’

The findings come as vaccine hesitancy has soared.

Currently just 83.9 per cent of children have received both doses of the MMR vaccine by age five in England, with uptake in some London areas as low as 60 per cent.

The figure is also below the 95 per cent jab uptake experts say is key to preventing major outbreaks of incredibly contagious conditions.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said vaccine hesitancy is one of the 10 biggest global threats to health.

For decades parents have feared a potential link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

The disproven claim rose to prominence through disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield, who alleged the MMR jab caused autism in a paper published in The Lancet.

The research was later discredited – and Wakefield struck off from the medical register – after it emerged he had falsified results and had financial conflicts of interest.

Vaccine scepticism has grown again in recent years thanks to the views of high profile figures in America, including the Secretary of State for Health Robert F Kennedy Jr. 

In April 2025 he declared that he was determined to find out what had caused a spike in cases of neurodivergence. 

He said: ‘We’re going to look at vaccines, but we’re going to look at everything. 

‘Everything is on the table, our food system, our water, our air, different ways of parenting, all the kind of changes that may have triggered this epidemic.’ 

This led to the American health board, the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, to update their autism guidance to say: ‘The statement “Vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim.’

Pointedly, it added: ‘Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.’

It was a move that was largely condemned by experts from across the world.

Over the past 20 years, however, the number of people living with autism has surged by almost 800 per cent, according to research in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

It is now thought that about one in every 100 people has the condition – equating to roughly 670,000 Britons and more than 3.3 million Americans.