Nowadays, there exist a lot of urban myths, for example the one which is dealing with the fall of the Roman empire. This myth says that the Romans were poisoned by lead from their pipes and cooking vessels, and that is the reason why the empire has fallen. As a matter of fact, the Romans knew about the dangers of lead poisoning, and this is not the fact that brought the decline of the Roman empire. The decline of the Roman empire came because of a complex interplay of forces within the limits of the empire and outside of it; significant and not immediately detectable changes on Roman society and culture were brought by the growth of slavery.

It was seen that people are more attracted by extravagant and sensational news, for example, for everyone the story that the Roman empire fall because of the lead poisoning is more interesting than the true fact that a complex interplay of forces lead to the decline of the empire.

In the same way, there appeared some stories that said autism is being caused by a vaccine or has some environmental causes. Others say that the prevalence of autism is now 1 in 150, and there were also voices that said New Jersey has the worse rate of autism among all states tested, and here one to every 94 children has autism. Of course, a story like this brings quite a terror, people panic, there are demands for more resources to study and find a treatment for autism.

This facts can bring up a public health crisis. There were stories and stories about New Jersey. People got frightened when they heard the rate of autism in New Jersey is so high. There was also said that New Jersey is much more knowledgeable about autism than other states because here are professionals in the educational system who are much more aware of autism than professionals in other states.

It was also said that one reason for New Jersey's higher rates is an aggressive system of assessment and treatment for children with autism, and other stories mention the fact that in New Jersey there is an interaction of environmental factors on genes that are predisposed to the disorder.

However, there can be stories and stories more or less true, the certain thing that we must know is that autism has long been with us, and due to a number of forces acting in concert we have only begun to notice it.