From 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 250?!

Is it better screening, a revised definition, or a alarming increase in autism rates? This article discusses autism research but seems curiously indifferent to the numbers it cites? If the answer to my first question is the alarming increase, I'd hope researchers are looking at what's different about our water, air, and the food we eat. When people say they don't give a crap about BGH, allowable mercury levels, regulating polluters, all that tree-hugging environmental stuff it's so easy to dismiss, this is the stuff I hope they consider could be a result of starving government regulatory agencies of the funds needed to fulfill their mandates and weakening the regulations themselves.