Rates of autism have sky-rocketed in recent history, but the cause is unclear. Eric Gladen unexpectedly developed the disease in adulthood after vaccine treatment and set out on a mission to find answers. Trace Amounts is the result of nearly a decade of travel and research. It tells Eric's harrowing tale of physical and mental anguish, and asks some difficult questions. Are childhood vaccines containing mercury to blame for the epidemic?

At a closed meeting of public health officials, Dr Johnson voted that the urgency of a link between autism and Thimerosal was a low 'level 1' out of 6, despite worrying evidence of a strong correlation between the two. Halfway through, he received a call: his first grandson had been born. Returning to the meeting, he admitted, "I do not want that grandson to get a vaccine containing Thimerosal."

Before the 1980s, autism was almost unheard of. But by 2014, 1 in 68 US children had the condition. The connection between Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in childhood vaccines, and autism is one that has been seriously contested in recent decades. Publicly, government doctors have attributed this to higher reporting now than before. But, as one woman asks, "Where were all the children with autism throughout this time?" In other words, why is this happening now?

"I have great shame now when I meet families with kids with autism", says Bill Thompson, a senior scientist at the American Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC privately has their own concerns about the drug, with multiple members afraid of the legal ramifications, but dubious relationships with the drug industry and senior government run rife. In spite of their efforts to downplay the causal link to autism, as the title of internal emails between CDC scientists says, 'It just won't go away'.

Thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines, but it still exists in other jabs. Flu shots, untested on pregnant women, are given every year, making pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars. As Dan Burton, the Congressman in charge of the government investigation into Thimerosal, concludes: "Giving a mercury-laden flu shot to a pregnant mother, when they're telling them not to eat fish that have mercury in them - it's crazy! It's just crazy."

Using his own distressing experience to guide him, Gladen slowly builds his argument to make a persuasive ​ ​ case against ​ vaccines containing a mercury-based preservative. ​What also emerges is ​ a shocking ​ story of ​ p​ ublic institutions that ​ have ​ failed to protect their people against the ​ risks​ , allowing greed and conflicted interests to ​ reign instead.