[2015] Trace Amounts (film) Ethyl vs. Methyl
Take Another Look : An Interview with ‘Trace Amounts’ co-director Shiloh Levine
Shiloh Levine, is one of the filmmakers behind the important documentary Trace Amounts. Trace Amounts tells the true story of Eric Gladen (the film’s director) who became ill after getting a tetanus shot that he believes contained the controversial additive Thimerosal.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, Thimerosal is “a mercury-containing organic compound widely used for nearly a century in many biological products including many vaccines as a preservative.” Because of concerns regarding its toxicity, the FDA has vowed “to reduce or eliminate” it from vaccines. In fact, addressing this very concern on the FDA’s website it is stated:
“Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine.”
I found the documentary Trace Amounts to be very informative while at the same time troubling. There is so much we don’t know, and as a society, we place far too much trust in medical professionals. I recommend all those who have ever questioned what is contained in those small vaccine vials to watch the documentary with those you love, then discuss it.
There are many who are concerned about vaccines and their possible links to autism. There are also many involved in a serious fight to resist mandatory vaccination legislation spreading nationwide.
I spent some time discussing these important topics with Shiloh recently in Los Angeles, California.
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Shiloh Levine, co-director of the documentary ‘Trace Amounts’
Ashahed M. Muhammad (AMM:) As one of the directors of the documentary “Trace Amounts,” tell us why you thought it was important to shine light on such an important topic?
Shiloh Levine (SL:) Well, when I found out about this topic I was teaching children with autism. I had started to see the connection between Mercury and the things I was reading on Autism and Thimerosal which is an ingredient in some of the vaccines. I met Eric (Gladen) because he put an ad in the paper and I—autism is very devastating; it breaks up families, it’s devastating to the children, financially, emotionally, spiritually—it’s a tough thing, so if there was a way to stop this from occurring I was certainly going to be a part of that. So when I met Eric, he told me that there was mercury in the vaccines, and I was like: ‘What are you talking about? That’s crazy!’ So I didn’t even have to think about it. I just was on board with helping make this film and getting the information out to people because the mainstream media is not putting it out there, and so that’s why all these documentaries are popping up, because the people are saying ‘I want to get this information to the general public, so I’m going to put the information in a documentary and get it out.’
(AMM:) Did you learn anything during your time directing it that you didn’t know before.
(SL:) Oh I learned tons of things about the subject! Absolutely! We interviewed scientists, chemists, toxicologists, and government people, all over this country. I learned that Ethylmercury is not the “safe mercury,” which a lot of people like to spout in the media. It is actually more dangerous than Methylmercury, which is the type of mercury found in fish. And it gets trapped in the brain twice as much as Methylmercury and that’s where the neurological problems are.
(AMM:) In the rest of the organs also right?
(SL:) Yes, it gets trapped in tissues and fat cells, but in the brain is where it’s going to do that neurological harm. So that’s one of the things that I learned, but I learned a ton of things. Two parts per billion is the amount of allowable mercury in our drinking water. Two hundred parts per billion is considered toxic waste. Fifty-thousand parts per billion is the amount of mercury in Thimerosal at twenty-five micrograms. In a flu shot, that amount is fifty thousand parts per billion, which is twenty-five thousand times more than the allowable amount in drinking water. You’re injecting toxic waste into babies and pregnant mothers, and that’s not okay.
(AMM:) What is your next step as it relates to—of course we know you are giving everyone the information about the movie and trying to show the documentary to as many people as possible, but what is your next step?
(SL:) Just getting the information out there. We’re also as a group the “Trace Amounts” team created #MandateTheTruth which is to help fight these bills that are mandating vaccines because the CDC is in no position responsibly to make those decisions about what’s safe, because they’re not properly exposing the findings that they are finding in their epidemiological studies. We’re not in a position as a society to say ‘let’s mandate vaccines.’ We feel that people should have the choice of whether or not they vaccinate.
(AMM:) So it would be a misnomer as the mainstream media likes to mischaracterize many people as “anti-vaxxers.”
(SL:) Right! They’re saying all of these people are “anti-vaxxers” when actually a lot of them are just people who want to slow down the amount of vaccines or maybe not get the Hepatatis B vaccines. There’s forty-nine vaccines that these children have to get and they want to do it one at a time. They don’t want to go in and get seven in one day. They want to do it on a schedule working with a doctor that they feel in their gut is safer. So they’re not anti-vaccines but they’re being portrayed as that because that’s how you demonize those people.
(AMM:) Demonization. A reliable tactic. Thank you very much.
(SL:) Thank you!