Congresswoman Pushes for Banning Mercury Use in Dentistry
A couple of weeks back, I wrote a post about the historic rejection of the FDA’s dental mercury filling safety report by its panel of outside experts. Rep. Diane Watson, who has pushed for legislation banning mercury use in dentistry, wrote an excellent article on where things currently stand:
The FDA has already taken numerous steps to limit human and animal exposure to mercury. To date, it has banned mercury in disinfectants and thermometers, warned against mercury in certain foods, and prohibited the presence of mercury in all veterinary products.
Many governments around the world, however, have gone a step further by either limiting the use of or banning mercury fillings. The UK, for example, prohibits pregnant and lactating women from receiving amalgam fillings, and Scandinavian countries are phasing out the product. Canada has also restricted its use.
Despite growing scientific evidence and public awareness of the dangers of exposure to even small amounts of mercury, the FDA, the federal agency charged with regulating dental amalgam, still permits the sale of a dental product that has not been proven safe and classified as the law requires and is used inches from the brain. It continues to sanction commerce in silver fillings without disclosing to the American people that they contain a significant amount of mercury and emit mercury vapor during the entire life of the filling.
The FDA’s past silence on mercury amalgam is all the more curious given the fact that both the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005, identified amalgam as a source of “major exposure” to mercury, and the U.S. Public Health Service warned, in 1999, that mercury amalgam is one of the two greatest sources of mercury exposure to humans.
And what remains to be done:
(1) Disclosure: The FDA must immediately take the simple step of requiring dentists to inform their patients that amalgam is 50% mercury, it constitutes exposure to a neuro-toxin, and alternative fillings are available.
(2) Environmental Impact: The FDA has the legal duty to conduct an environmental impact study of dental amalgam, which it has never done, before properly classifying the material.
(3) Proof of Safety: Manufacturers of amalgam should have the burden of proving its safety. To date, they have never sought nor been given pre-market approval for their product. The FDA must hold amalgam manufacturers accountable.
(4) Children and Pregnant Women: Ten years ago, Health Canada directed its dentists to cease placing mercury fillings in the teeth of children, pregnant women, and persons with kidney disease, mercury hypersensitivity, or braces. The FDA should implement a similar ban in the U.S.
Hopefully last week’s changes in Congress will help to make such changes and legislation a reality.
