You should read the article rather than the out of context quote...
...published by someone who thinks that all bad things come from California [well, there's Tom and me, so he's at least partly right].
It's a good and interesting discussion of an alarming trend of increasing rates of autism in CA.
And yes I know that it could be diagnoses that are up and not true instances of the disease. Researchers are looking very hard at what is going on, as the article states. The topic deserves study, not dismissal.