With his River Keepers - moms of autistic kids who believed the mercury in vaccines & teeth at that time might be contributing to their kids autism started contacting him and wanted him to look into the mercury in vaccines. In 2007, the World Mercury Party was started to address concerns- that Party turned e intoChildrens Health Defense and soon was mostly made up of moms of kids with severe autism - He was chairman of CHD for 8 yrs. CHD has millions of moms of autistic kids as members which is how Kennedy was able to get 10% in many states while running in the primary. CHD moms put out many podcasts on social media and have a bus that travels the US talking with moms of autistic kids all over the US.
He said some of his kids have bad allergies and that kids allergies are also increasing. He said he never really knew much about autism - but because of his work cleaning up mercury in rivers - the moms came to his door and said they would not leave until he agreed to look into mercury in their kids.