DENTIST THE MENACE

Exposé on mercury use shows dentists among largest sources of mercury pollution; American Dental Association obstructs protection efforts

A first-of-its-kind comprehensive report that looks at the environmental impacts of the dental industry's use of mercury was released on June 5th, 2002, by the Mercury Policy Project and Health Care Without Harm. Among the significant findings, the report reveals that dentists are now the third largest users of mercury in the U.S. and are the single largest polluter of mercury to the nation's wastewater treatment plants.
The report - 'Dentist the Menace? The Uncontrolled Release of Dental Mercury' - also charges the American Dental Association with working vigorously to impede regulations that would protect the public.

"Despite substantial scientific evidence that mercury is dangerous to the environment and human health, the American Dental Association is actively working against safety measures that would require dentists to trap and recycle this toxic metal," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can affect the brain, spinal cord, kidneys and liver. One in ten reproductive-age American women already carry so much mercury in their blood to pose a threat of neurological damage to the foetus if they got pregnant, according to a 2001 Centres for Disease Control & Prevention study.

"While many other industries, including hospitals, are phasing out the use of mercury products, dentists continue to use large amounts of mercury and dispose of it improperly. We call on ADA, and on dentists everywhere, to pledge to stop polluting our environment and endangering our health," Bender said.

In the process of restoring teeth with so-called 'silver' fillings - which are actually 50% mercury - dentists use approximately 40 metric tons of mercury each year, most of which is eventually released into the environment.

Fortunately, alternative filling materials are available, and there are cost effective devices to properly manage waste dental mercury. "For about $50 a month, slightly less than the cost of a single filling, dentists could stop mercury from going down the drain," Bender said.

Yet only a small percentage of dentists nationwide are taking steps to collect and recycle mercury waste, including installing amalgam separation filters necessary to reduce mercury discharges.

The report is available at www.noharm.org/library/docs/Dentist_the_Menace.pdf

CTM COMMENT: The book, Toxic Bite, by dentist Bill Kellner-Read is an excellent resource to advise the public about the hazards of dentistry and what you and your dentist can do to help move the public towards sensible, preventative measures and sterling good health (www.credence.org). The vast majority of today's dentistry is completely avoidable if a few simple measures are taken to preserve dental health. It is because the public is prepared to continue its old destructive lifestyles that dentistry, with all the best intentions, thrives and pollutes the patients it seeks to help, which in turn propels the sick into the arms of conventional, drug-based medicine. Once again, we see the endless, destructive, health-sapping cycle, which must be broken in each of us with a return to plain, old-fashioned common sense.