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U.S. Calls For ‘Phase Down’ of Dental Mercury
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
Consumer groups applaud
WASHINGTON, April 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — An amalgam of consumer groups today applauded a move by the U.S. government to support the ‘phase down’ of dental mercury tooth fillings.
In a significant strengthening of a previous Food & Drug Administration position, the new U.S. position was submitted to the “Mercury International Negotiation Committee.” It calls for a “phase down, with the goal of eventual phase out by all Parties, of mercury amalgam.” (1)
In 2009, with U.S. leadership, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Program, agreed to develop a global legally binding treaty on mercury (2). The goal is to complete negotiations before the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in 2013.
The State Department submission, for the upcoming third round of negotiations, also called for:
- “educating patients and parents (about amalgam) in order to protect children and fetuses,” and
- “training of dental professionals on the environmental impacts of mercury in dental amalgams.”
Consumer groups applauded the USG position.
“Globally, the U.S. continues to demonstrate leadership on mercury with its support for an amalgam phase down,” said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project. ”This is consistent with the direction several nations have taken to phase out amalgam.”
“The U.S. position marks the beginning of the end of amalgam globally,” said Charlie Brown, national counsel of Consumers for Dental Choice. ”Through its leadership, the U.S. chooses children’s health, patients’ rights, and the environment over amalgam industry profits.”
“The puzzling outlier,” Brown says, “is FDA, which still allows amalgam to be placed in pregnant women and small children – even though its own scientific advisory panel advised against it last December (3). Instead, FDA aids and abets the ‘silver fillings’ deception by not even educating parents and patients that these fillings are half (50%) mercury, a neurotoxin. FDA’s silence is deafening.”
Bender also urged the State Department to resist calls for FDA to assume a leading role on amalgam in the negotiations (4).
“Clearly, EPA—and not FDA—has the expertise to guide the State Department on reducing global mercury releases,” Bender said. “Recently, EPA proposed effluent guidelines to regulate dental mercury releases.” (5)
For more information:
www.toxicteeth.org
www.mercurypolicy.org
(1) http://tinyurl.com/6y3de67
(2) http://tinyurl.com/5so7s5h
(3) http://tinyurl.com/6y2j2g4
(4) http://tinyurl.com/6zhdbtk
(5) http://tinyurl.com/62ls7oq
SOURCE Mercury Policy Project
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-calls-for-phase-down-of-dental-mercury-120295539.html
Michael Bender
Mercury Policy Project/
Zero Mercury Working Group
1420 North St.
Montpelier, VT USA 05602
www.mercurypolicy.org
+802.223.9000
5
U.S. government calls for the phase-out of amalgam!
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
In an extraordinary development that will change the global debate about amalgam, the United States government has announced that it supports a “phase down, with the goal of eventual phase out by all Parties, of mercury amalgam.” This statement – a radical reversal of its former position that “any change toward the use of dental amalgam is likely to result in positive public health outcomes” – is part of the U.S. government’s submission for the upcoming third round of negotiations for the world mercury treaty.*
While couched in diplomatic hedging – remember it is still early in the negotiations – this new U.S. position makes three significant breakthroughs for the mercury-free dentistry movement:
- The U.S. calls for the phase-out of amalgam ultimately and recommends actions to “phase down” its use immediately. Incredibly, the government adopted three actions that the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry and Consumers for Dental Choice proposed at the negotiating session in Chiba, Japan. Our key ally, The Mercury Policy Project, laid the groundwork for this success at a World Health Organization meeting in 2009!
- The U.S. speaks up for protecting children and the unborn from amalgam, recommending that the nations “educat[e] patients and parents in order to protect children and fetuses.”
- The U.S. stands up for the human right of every patient and parent to make educated decisions about amalgam.
What does this mean? Our position – advocating the phase-out of amalgam – is now the mainstream because the U.S. government supports it. Who is the outlier now? It’s the pro-mercury faction, represented by the World Dental Federation and the American Dental Association. With the U.S. continuing its leadership role in this treaty, we will broadcast the U.S. position to other governments around the world, encouraging them to support amalgam “phase downs” leading to phase-outs not only globally, but within each of their countries.
We applaud the U.S. government. But tough work lies ahead. For example, we must demonstrate to the world that the available alternatives – such as composites and the adhesive materials used in atraumatic restorative treatment (“ART”) – can cost less than amalgam and will increase access to dental care particularly in developing countries.
For now though, let’s mark this watershed in the mercury-free dentistry movement: the debate has shifted from “whether to end amalgam” to “how to end amalgam.”
– Charlie
Charles G. Brown
National Counsel, Consumers for Dental Choice
President, World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry
5 April 2011
* The full text of the U.S. submission is available at http://www.unep.org/hazardoussubstances/Portals/9/Mercury/Documents/INC3/United%20States.pdf
Here is the excerpt on amalgam:
“We are aware that several delegations at INC-2 suggested mercury amalgam should not be included in Annex C, noting a number of difficulties and complexities related to this issue. The United States supports further consideration of dental amalgam by the INC such that the agreement is able to achieve the phase down, with the goal of eventual phase out by all Parties, of mercury amalgam upon the development and availability of affordable, viable alternatives. To the extent that Annex C is not structured to accomplish such a goal, the United States believes that a number of obligations could be considered within an appropriate operative paragraph of the agreement itself. Such a paragraph could commit Parties to phase down the use of mercury amalgam or address mercury releases through conducting and promoting further research on alternatives, mandating the use of separators in dental offices, promoting and incentivizing prevention strategies, educating patients and parents in order to protect children and fetuses, and training of dental professionals on the environmental impacts of mercury in dental amalgams, and to report on their progress in doing so to inform the Conference of the Parties on the progress being made to phase down amalgam use.”
27
FDA’S Warnings on Mercury Fillings Insufficient to Protect Public
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
A BAN IS DEMANDED
Champions Gate, FL, December 22, 2010—At an unprecedented two-day public meeting last week in Gaithersburg, MD, a Dental Products Panel recommended that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issue public warnings about the health risks of mercury fillings. The conclusions refuted the FDA’s infamous “no risk” classification of amalgam in July 2009 and were similar to a 2006 Joint Panel rejection of the FDA’s White Paper, which had claimed that mercury fillings were safe.
“Warnings are not enough,” said Matthew Young, President of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT). Referring to overwhelming scientific evidence of harm, Young stated with conviction, “Just as toxic mercury has been removed from thermometers, paint and other products, mercury doesn’t belong in the mouth.”
In a demand letter sent this week to Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, Director of Devices at FDA, IAOMT provided additional scientific and legal evidence supporting the need for FDA to immediately reclassify mercury amalgam fillings as a Class III device. Dr. Boyd Haley, chairman of the IAOMT Scientific Advisory Board declared that such an action would effectively be a ban, “Class III requires pre-market approval showing proof of safety, which the manufacturers of mercury fillings cannot accomplish.”
Commentary during the recent FDA hearings further indicated that several of the panelists were well-aware of the dangers of mercury in fillings. Dr. Suresh Kotagal, a pediatric neurologist at the Mayo Clinic even cautioned, “There really is no place for mercury in children.”
Following discussions about mercury exposure to children, the Panel indicated that mercury fillings should not be used in the vulnerable populations of children under 12, pregnant women and in an “unidentifiable sensitive subpopulation” of adults who are genetically unable to excrete mercury.
The existence and significance of a sizable percentage of the population that is unable to tolerate mercury was of particular concern to the Panel. Dr. Amid Ismail, Dean of the Kornberg School of Dentistry said, “We have to recognize that some patients should not have amalgam.”
Dr. David Kennedy, a retired dentist who practiced mercury-free dentistry for more than thirty years explained the issue further: “As dentists, we are not trained in systemic health problems, and therefore, dentists generally are not aware of various confounding factors, such as genetic predisposition, that can complicate each individual’s reaction to the toxic mercury vapors coming off the fillings.”
-MORE-
The Panel also heard from approximately 50 injured consumers and dentists, including KaTina Minney, a registered nurse from Oklahoma and mother of six whose husband suffered from debilitating symptoms following the placement of amalgam fillings. Minney was outraged that neither she nor her husband had been informed that mercury is the main ingredient in “silver,” or amalgam, fillings. “I feel a moral and ethical obligation to do all I can to keep other people from going through what we have been through,” Minney said of her decision to speak publicly against mercury fillings.
Karen Palmer, a former dental assistant from Bethlehem, PA, has been on disability due to neurological damage caused by both the mercury fillings in her own mouth and workplace exposure. Palmer, who had been very ill with a variety of serious symptoms until she understood what was causing them, told the Panel, “I realized that I was slowly poisoned over time from a profession that I gave the best years of my life.”
The Dental Products Panel advised the FDA to revisit the accepted reference exposure levels for mercury, a point that was well-argued at the hearings by both scientists and James Love, lead attorney for the Petition for Reconsideration to the FDA.
Members of the Panel also outlined suggestions for a new list of mercury filling labeling warnings and expressed support for more stringent rules regarding patient informed consent.
Dr. Mark Richardson, co-author of a new risk assessment presented to the Panel, indicated that as many as 122.3 million Americans have an excessive body burden of mercury from their fillings.
Last Wednesday, the American Dental Association released a statement in support of the Panel’s recommendations to the FDA. However, the press release actually referred to a 2009 FDA decision which disputed claims of mercury filling safety rather than the current 2010 decision. In this regard, Jim Dickinson, editor of FDA Webview, wrote in 2009, “This is the most flawed example of FDA rulemaking I have witnessed in 33 years of reporting this once-great agency.”
Dangers associated with dental amalgam have been publicly proclaimed for over a decade by a grassroots campaign of concerned citizens. Over the years, groups such as IAOMT, Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS), and Consumers for Dental Choice have allied dentists, scientists, lawyers and consumers with the common goal of raising awareness that mercury fillings are hazardous to human health.
22
Up To Date Risk Assessment for Amalgam
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
In order to provide FDA regulators with the latest information about mercury exposure from dental amalgam, the IAOMT commissioned G. Mark Richardson, PhD, of SNC Lavallin, Ottowa, Canada, formerly of Health Canada, to produce a formal risk assessment, according to the latest standards formulated by the National Research Council. Previously published risk assessments dated from the 1990′s. Meanwhile, newer studies have uncovered more toxicity produced by lower levels of mercury exposure, and various government agencies have been reducing their allowed exposure levels.
The final work is posted on the IAOMT.org website, under Featured Articles.
Part 1 is titled UPDATING EXPOSURE, REEXAMINING REFERENCE EXPOSURE LEVELS, AND CRITICALLY EVALUATING RECENT STUDIES. “…it was determined that some 67.2 million Americans would exceed the Hg dose associated with the REL of 0.3 ug/m3 established by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1995, whereas 122.3 million Americans would exceed the dose associated with the REL of 0.03 ug/m3 established by the California Environmental Protection Agency in 2008.”
Part 2 is titled CUMULATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT AND JOINT TOXICITY: MERCURY VAPOR, METHYL MERCURY AND LEAD. “Concurrent exposure to Pb, MeHg and Hg0 does occur in the US population. A large proportion – 1/3rd – of the US population is concurrently exposed to Hg0, methyl Hg and Pb on a daily basis.”
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Mercury Hazard from Amalgam Greater than Thought: 2 Studies
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
Barely a month before it has elected to officially hear critics of its 2009 final rule finding dental amalgam safe and effective, the agency is confronted by two new studies condemning the health damage caused by amalgam’s principal ingredient, Mercury. One, prepared for a 12/15-16 special FDA advisory committee meeting on dental amalgam risks and delivered last week, examines U.S. public exposure to mercury and suggests that amalgam fillings expose 122.3 million Americans to quantities of mercury in excess of the safe dose level established by the California Environmental Protection Agency in 2008. This reference exposure level is accepted by other government agencies for public protection. The other study, published in the 11/15 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, directly links mercury in amalgam causatively to that disease.
Both studies effectively contradict an assertion made at a 7/28/09 press conference on the new amalgam rule by CDRH Dental Device Division acting director Susan Runner: “The best available scientific evidence supports the conclusion that patients with dental amalgam fillings are not at risk for mercury-associated adverse health effects.”
The first study is also critical of FDA’s failure to consider the additive effect of non-dental sources of mercury and the compounding effects of similar neurotoxins such as lead and methyl mercury. “Neurological effects, particularly in the nervous system of the developing fetus/neonate/child, represent the most sensitive endpoint for exposures to” these neurotoxic substances, says the study report, commissioned by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), which is among petitioners presenting at next month’s FDA meeting.
Noting recent literature on the combined, interactive and additive neurological effects of the three heavy metals in humans, the 11/11 study by Ottawa, Canada-based SNC-Lavalin’s G. Mark Richardson et al., says potential neurological effects of lead and mercury on the developing brain of the fetus are likely to accumulate via the placenta and breast milk. The study report’s Discussion/Conclusions section estimates that more than 121 million Americans have an exposure level from the combined three heavy metals that exceeds the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey safety standard. It reached this conclusion, it says, based on criteria set out in guidance issued by both the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“All of these substances,” it says, “share the following characteristics:
All are absorbed in large proportion into systemic circulation;
All cross the blood-brain and placental barriers;
All cause neurological toxicity;
Exposure to all of these substances currently exceed individual reference exposure levels for many in the U.S. population.”
The report also notes that, although not part of the study, high fructose corn syrups have recently been found to contain high levels of inorganic mercury, with average daily intakes in the U.S. at 50 grams per person “due to its widespread use in numerous commercial prepared foods and sweetened beverages.”
In the second study, Northeastern University neuropharmacology professor Richard Deth co-authored with Germany’s Joachim Mutter a meta-analysis of 106 case-control or comparative cohort studies to associate mercury as a causative factor in that disease. Noting that the main source of mercury in the human body is dental amalgam, the authors say the mercury “evaporates at a slow rate, but is released at a higher rate, when the fillings are put in place or removed. From this source, and other, less common ones, 1.2 to 27.0 ng of Hgo [elemental or metallic mercury] are taken up per day, and 1.0 to 22.0 ng of Hgo are retained. Other variable factors of mercury release include the number, age, and size of the fillings, the presence of dental alloys, individual chewing habits and drinking hot liquids, as well as bruxism.”
A news release issued by the authors quoted Viadrina European University and Samueli Institute Fellow Harald Walach as saying: “The situation is similar to the early 1970’s regarding smoking: enough experimental evidence existed, but human studies were inconclusive at the time and were under attack by groups with a vested interest. To wait until irrefutable evidence has accumulated is not the best option in view of what we already know about the toxicity of mercury. The removal of inorganic mercury from ecological cycles might prove to be the easiest and most effective public health measure to contribute to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Petitioner IAOMT issued a news release hailing the Mutter-Deth study and urging NIH to fund “realistic research” on the mercury-Alzheimer’s link and quoted California first lady Maria Shriver as expressing concern that Alzheimer’s Disease “will bankrupt every family in this country.”
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PODCAST-Dr. Steven Lind Talks About Mercury Toxicity
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
17
Mercury Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease
1 Comment | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
Article Written in BUSINESS WIRE
“The Disease Destined to Bankrupt this Nation”
SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
Mercury likely plays a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to a review of relevant scientific literature published this month in The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Joachim Mutter of Germany, Dr. Richard Deth of the United States, and other esteemed researchers collaborated on the groundbreaking article Does Inorganic Mercury Play a Role in Alzheimer’s Disease? A Systematic Review and an Integrated Molecular Mechanism, which clarifies the need for continuing research to understand the cause of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The authors of the review use numerous peer-reviewed studies to suggest that a genetic predisposition and exposure to a neurotoxin such as mercury have to co-exist for Alzheimer’s disease to manifest itself. Dr. Richard Deth, co-author and professor of neuro-pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston, explains: “Since the brain is more vulnerable to oxidative stress than any other organ, it is not surprising that mercury, which promotes oxidative stress, is an important risk factor for brain disorders.” Dr. Deth’s motto: “Mercury is bad for the brain.”
The research of the former chair of the University of Kentucky’s Chemistry Department, Dr. Boyd Haley, is congruent with Drs. Deth and Mutter’s findings. Dr. Haley, who has done research on the relationship between mercury and Alzheimer’s disease for more than twenty years, states: “Earlier research on the biochemical abnormalities of the Alzheimer’s Diseased (AD) brain showed that mercury, and only mercury, at very low levels induced the same biochemical abnormalities when added to normal human brain homogenates or in the brains of rats exposed to mercury vapor.”
Insofar as the genetic component, Haley contends: “The structure of the genetic risk protein for Alzheimer’s disease, called APO-E4, shows it has lost the ability to bind and remove mercury from the cerebrospinal fluid, the fluid that bathes the brain, when compared to the other forms of APO-E protein.”
Mercury has been the subject of controversy in various public health issues over the years, including its use in vaccines and dental amalgam fillings.
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark officially banned the use of mercury in dental fillings based on the Precautionary Principal, a protective doctrine requiring proof of safety — a doctrine rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Prior to these bans, the World Health Organization reported in 1991 that mercury fillings, routinely described as silver fillings to the public, are by far the greatest contribution to mercury in the human body.
This December, the FDA is expected to review scientific literature pertaining to the harmful effects of placing mercury fillings into the body. Scientists and experts in the field will present testimony regarding the relationship between mercury toxicity and neurological diseases, with a special focus on vulnerable populations including children and the unborn. Dr. Haley will be among the scientists presenting.
Lamenting that Alzheimer’s has reached epidemic proportions, California’s first lady Maria Shriver, in a recent interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, vehemently expressed the need to find the cause of AD, expressing concern that AD “will bankrupt every family in this country.” The Alzheimer’s Association estimates 172 billion dollars in annual costs to maintain AD patients, which makes it imperative for the cause of AD to be found.
Mutter and Deth’s research sheds strong light on the possible root of the sixth leading cause of death in America.
Dr. Matt Young, President of International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), an academy of dental, medical, and research professionals dedicated to safety in health care, which has held a continued focus on mercury’s effects, said, “Mercury must seriously be considered as a causal agent of Alzheimer’s. It is imperative that the National Institute of Health fund realistic research regarding the mercury Alzheimer’s connection, which heretofore has for the most part been ignored.”
Note:
Mutter-Deth published article available by request.
Interviews with quoted scientists can be arranged.
Contacts
On behalf of the International Academy of Oral Medicine
and Toxicology (www.IAOMT.org)
Freya Koss, Publicist
610-649-2606
frekoss@aol.com
or
David Kennedy, DDS
619-222-8177
davidkennedy-dds@cox.net
16
California City Says Stop Dental Amalgam Immediately
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
Costa Mesa, California has become the first city in the United States to call for an immediate end to dental amalgam, the controversial filling material that is 50% mercury. Voting 5-0 on 19 October 2010, the Costa Mesa City Council adopted the resolution* sponsored by Councilman Gary Monahan that (1) calls on federal and state agencies to eliminate amalgam, (2) asks dentists in Costa Mesa to cease using mercury and switch to non-toxic alternatives, and (3) requests that the other 33 cities in Orange County join Costa Mesa in opposing dental mercury. While as a resolution, it does not actually ban amalgam, it is an important step toward ending this health and environmental scourage.
“There are so many alternatives and I can’t understand why we’re putting this in our mouth,” explained Councilman Monahan. “[I]t’s incredibly dangerous to people getting them and to the environment.”
The watershed Monahan Resolution is the first success for Californians for Green Dentistry, a new project of Consumers for Dental Choice. Californians for Green Dentistry has a trio of dedicated leaders: Director Anita Vazquez Tibau spearheaded the strategy leading to this resolution along with dental hygienist Marisa Russo and naturopath Kristy Mills.
Since July, our hardworking California volunteers distributed handouts alerting the public to the problem of dental amalgam, gained the support of numerous local health professionals and businesses, and collected hundreds of signatures on petitions to city council. In response, the Costa Mesa City Council granted us the hearing to address dental mercury. At the city council hearing, our talented team – including dentists, health professionals, injured consumers, scientists, advocates, and even former Californian Dental Board member Dr. Chet Yokoyama – offered poignant testimony calling for a ban on dental mercury.
Our story is told by video that can be viewed by clicking here, and dentist Dr. Jim Rota’s compelling testimony can be viewed in full by clicking here.** We also made the front page of the local news, which can be read online.***
It’s time to take this primitive and polluting mercury product off the market, and we can start in the trend-setting state of California! If you are a Californian and want to join the Californians for Green Dentistry team in the fight against dental mercury, please write Anita and me at announcements@toxicteeth.org. Let us know your name, home county, and home city.
No matter where you are from, please thank Costa Mesa Councilman Gary Monahan for standing up to protect our communities, and especially our children, from dental mercury. He can be reached by email at gmonahan@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us
Congratulations Costa Mesa, California!
– Charlie
Charles G. Brown, National Counsel
Consumers for Dental Choice
316 F St. NE, Suite 210
Washington, DC 20002
202-544-6333
22
With World Questioning Mercury Fillings, FDA Backs Down
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
Dear Friends,
After months of preparation and an overwhelming response from you when we asked for help to get our movement to the world mercury treaty negotiations, we had an enormous impact at the first negotiating session in Stockholm, Sweden (to view photos click here*). We had our first opportunity to address a hundred nations at once about our cause during our opening speech to the governmental delegates (to watch speech click here**). Our highly talented and energetic international team of advocates and mercury-free dentists from seven nations ran an information booth, distributed literature, gave presentations, networked with like-minded organizations, educated delegates, and convinced the world that it must find a solution to the dental mercury problem:
— The United Nations Environmental Programme officials observed that dental amalgam drew more interest than any other single issue during the session. As a result, substantial attention will be devoted to dental mercury between now and the next session in January.
— The Scandinavian nations pointedly asked the world’s nations to join them in phasing out amalgam.
— Leaders from four developing nations asked us to assist them in organizing pilot programs for phasing out amalgam, a critical step according to the UN.
— Diplomats from the U.S. State Department and top officials from the U.S. EPA were engaged in our message and requesting more information.
— The leaders of the World Health Organization shifted from defending amalgam use to outlining the steps it endorses to reduce its use.
I can’t say enough about the team we assembled in Stockholm. We were tutored by Elisabet Carlsson, the advocate whose work led to the Swedish ban on amalgam. Dentist Graeme Munro-Hall of Great Britain, co-author with his wife Lilian of ToxicDentistry Exposed, eloquently explained the science supporting mercury-free dentistry. We joined forces with the dedicated leaders of our movement in other major countries, such as Servando Pérez-Dominguez of Spain, Marie Grosman of France, and Angela Kilmartin of Great Britain. The multi-lingual talents of Anita Vazquez Tibau of California and Kathy Huddlestone of France allowed us to reach out to even more delegates. And so many other outstanding folks stepped in to help out.
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed up at the Stockholm session to protect mercury fillings, our international team was right there to expose the flaws in the agency’s amalgam defense. Back in the United States, FDA was already facing a grassroots outcry from the American people and three separate petitions filed by Jim Turner, by Bob Reeves and Jim Love, and by emeritus University of Virginia professor Dr. Richard Edlich. With the Scandinavians announcing that “dental treatment without mercury is becoming the norm” and other health departments at least putting limits on amalgam use, FDA realized that it is the pariah on the dental mercury issue (countries such as Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands have phased out amalgam; Germany and Canada direct dentists not to use it in vulnerable populations; Japan uses it in less than 4% of fillings; etc.). In an attempt to save face the day before the negotiating session ended, FDA announced that it will hold hearings in December before the next UN session to consider whether American children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable populations should be protected from dental mercury exposure.
We could not have come this far without all our grassroots activists and supporters, both national and now international. In the words of FDA Webview, your efforts have been “unprecedented”: “No final rule in FDA’s modern history, or perhaps ever, has attracted this kind of organized opposition.” Thanks to all of you, our movement has made FDA realize that the mercury fillings issue is not going away.
– Charlie
Charles G. Brown, National Counsel
Consumers for Dental Choice
316 F St., N.E., Suite 210, Washington, DC 20002
Ph. 202.544-6333; fax 202.544-6331
19
Amalgam use declines 46% . . . We are halfway there
0 Comments | Posted by Salem Dental Studio in Mercury/Amalgam News
The Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse reports that amalgam use declined 46% in just a three-year period, 2004-2007 (the last years for which authoritative data are available). By contrast, there was virtually no decline (just 1%) in the period 2001-2004. This clearinghouse — a consortium of states which require reporting by all the big manufacturers — suggests amalgam is continuing to decline after 2007 as awareness of amalgam’s mercury grows.
The great news is that millions of individuals are no longer subjected to mercury fillings.
The bad news is that not everyone is benefiting equally from this momentous step forward: The pro-mercury forces are working hard to shove this neurotoxin into the bodies of children with disabilities, working families, and uninformed people who do not know that amalgam is mercury. The Pennsylvania Dental Association has singled out children with disabilities as meriting mercury exposure, going so far as to endorse denying all treatment to these children unless their parents “consent” to amalgam. The American Dental Association and the World Dental Federation advocate using mercury on low-income consumers — even the pregnant women and children who are most vulnerable to its neurotoxic effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has decided that non-elite populations are not even worthy of labeling to inform them that amalgam contains mercury.
As we continue fighting these injustices — boycotting top amalgam seller Henry Schein Inc., challenging government officials, approaching insurance companies that give primacy to amalgam, preparing for the upcoming mercury treaty negotiations, etc. — we can take heart that our efforts so far have contributed to substantial progress since 2004. Halfway to our goal of no mercury in dentistry, we are winning!
Charlie Brown
19 April 2010
Charles G. Brown, National Counsel
Consumers for Dental Choice
316 F St., N.E., Suite 210, Washington, DC 20002
Ph. 202.544-6333; fax 202.544-6331
charlie@toxicteeth.org
www.toxicteeth.org
Working for Mercury-Free Dentistry
