By Dr. Mercola
Did you know that dentist offices are the largest
source of mercury in wastewater entering publicly-owned
treatment works?
Once there, dental mercury converts to methylmercury, a
highly toxic form of mercury known to be hazardous to brain and
nervous system function, particularly in fetuses and young
children.
Mercury is extremely tenacious once in the air, water, and
soil; levels gradually increase over time, as it accumulates.
It's no wonder then that contaminated fish and other seafood are
the largest dietary source of mercury in the US, courtesy of
polluted waterways.
In 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
announced it would create a rule requiring dentists who use
dental amalgam to conduct best management practices and install
amalgam separators.
An amalgam separator is a wastewater treatment device
installed at the source, in the dental office, that removes
95-99 percent of the mercury in the wastewater. As originally
proposed, EPA said the regulation would be finalized by 2012.1
Such a rule would be a step toward making dentists accountable
for future environmental damage caused by their archaic
pro-amalgam stance.
Amalgam is primitive polluting pre-Civil War product, one
that the invasive process of damaging and removing good tooth
matter. The alternatives are minimally-invasive, requiring no
such draconian process. Plainly, 21st-century dentistry is
mercury-free dentistry.
Why Is the EPA's Mercury Rule at a Stand-Still?
It appeared in 2010 that EPA would move forward to draft a
rule, but in fact the rule continues to suffer from a long
string of delays and excuses for not being brought forth.
At least eleven states—including Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Maine, New Hampshire, Washington, Vermont, New York, Rhode
Island, New Jersey, Oregon, and Michigan—require dentists to use
amalgam separators to reduce mercury discharges. There, the
system works fine; it does not raise the cost of dental care,
but it does lower environmental pollution.
Do pro-mercury dentists in the other 39 states buy
separators? Hardly. If they are putting mercury into children's
mouths, and calling them silver fillings, why would they act
responsibly toward the environment?
That's why we need a ruling by the EPA -- to apply to all
states and territories.
Even the otherwise pro-mercury American Dental Association
(ADA) amended its best management practices (BMPs) in 2007 to
endorse amalgam separators as an effective tool to reduce
mercury discharges in dental offices in November 2013, the US
government became the first country to both sign and accept the
United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury, which covers
dental amalgam. (The ADA actually fought hard to keep amalgam
out of Annex C, the part of the treaty that will be regularly
reviewed and can be easily amended, but they didn't succeed. The
Convention thus has a path to a full amalgam phase-out, a point
well-known to both sides)
Internal documents now reveal that EPA will announce it has
no intention of ever proposing its amalgam rule. This
abandonment of the public trust has ADA footprints all over
it... Thus:
- You, and other members of the public, will not have the
chance to comment on the EPA's mercury rule
- Dentists will not be held accountable for their mercury
dumping
- Our children will suffer the consequences
Tell EPA to Release Its Mercury Amalgam Rule!
This is unconscionable. Charlie Brown and Consumers for
Dental Choice have created a petition demanding the EPA
immediately release its mercury amalgam rule for public comment.
I hope you will take a moment to sign this petition right now.
Abandoning the long-promised separator rule is a horrid
decision. It hands American dentists carte blanche to pollute
without accountability, passing the costs onto not only
taxpayers to clean it up, but to families whose children are
affected by dental mercury in the water (and hence fish), air
(via cremation), and soil (and hence, our vegetables).
Furthermore, based on the EPA's promise to act, the
environmental protection community stopped pushing for
individual state mandates, of which there were about a dozen in
the works. By backing off and relying on the EPA to move
forward, years have been wasted waiting for what might never
happen.
Just what kind of message is the US sending to the
international community when, just 90 days after being the first
to accept the Minamata Convention, it tosses in the towel and
reneges on a four-year old promise to address dental mercury
wastewater pollution?
Indiana Department of Environmental Management Calls for Action
Against Polluting Dentists
According to the featured article,2
the Indiana Department of Environmental Management sent a letter
to the city of Elkhart on December 31, 2013, alerting it to
mercury levels in its treatment plant exceeding the allowable
limit of 1.6 nanograms per liter (ng/L). The limit had been
exceeded in June, August, and October that year. The highest
reading measured in at 4.4 ng/L. As reported in the article:
"Laura Kolo, utility services manager for the Elkhart
public Works and Utilities Department, said the city must
act on the violation... and will focus on dentists' offices
because Elkhart doesn't have any industrial operations that
could be behind the mercury. She noted in a response letter
to IDEM that a 2002 report had found dental clinics are the
primary source of mercury emissions at public wastewater
treatment plants."
Kolo estimates the draft for a voluntary amalgam separator
program in Elkhart will be finished by late June. If program
compliance ends up being low, the program could become
mandatory.
Today, dentists make a higher income than physicians. The
cost to them of a separator? About what they make in a single
chair in a single day.
Dental Amalgam Is the Leading Intentional Use of Mercury in US
Dental amalgam, a tooth filling material that is 50 percent
mercury, is the leading intentional use of mercury in the US
(this despite the fact that 52 percent of American dentists have
stopped using amalgams.) Dental offices generate a variety of
amalgam waste3
that gets flushed down the drain, unless dentists implement best
management practices and dentists install and properly maintain
amalgam separators. Such practices will collect:
- Scrap amalgam
- Used, leaking or unusable amalgam capsules
- Amalgam captured in chairside traps and vacuum pump
screens
- "Contact amalgam," including teeth with amalgam
restorations
There's a growing global consensus that dental amalgams is a
considerable source of environmental mercury pollution. Several
studies show that about 50 percent of the mercury entering
municipal wastewater treatment plants can be traced back to
dental amalgam waste.
This mercury waste amounts to about 3.7 TONS
each year! An estimated 90 percent is captured by the
treatment plants generally via sewage sludge.4
-- some of which ends up in landfills, while other portions are
incinerated (thereby pollution the air) or applied as
agricultural fertilizer (polluting your food), or seep into
waterways (polluting fish and wildlife).
Amalgam is far more costly for taxpayers than the alternative
tooth-colored material, when the external costs to the
environment and society are factored in. A recent study details
how society pays for dental mercury through additional pollution
control costs, deterioration of public resources, and the health
effects associated with mercury. It shows that when these costs
are considered, amalgam is more costly than composite as a
filling material, by at least $41 more per filling.5
So EPA inaction means our government is enriching the
dentists who use amalgam in the 39 states that don't require
separators. The polluter does not pay. With costs lower, it is
more profitable to place mercury amalgam -- and amalgam use will
grow, not shrink. More American children, not fewer, will
receive mercury in their mouths because our government takes
sides -- in favor of the polluters.
One would think EPA would look kindly toward dentists who do
not use mercury, who are not creating a toxic
workplace, who are not dumping mercury into the environment, and
most of all are not putting mercury into their patients' teeth.
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A Call to Action
Why should we be forced to pay when irresponsible dentists
who still use mercury could easily and relatively inexpensively
install amalgam separators, which catch most of the mercury
before it goes down the drain? At present, the EPA is
letting them get away with it, and it's high time for that to
change.
I urge you to take a stand with us and tell the EPA not to
let polluting dentists off the hook: It's time to stop
dental mercury dumping.
The mystery here is the position of EPA Administrator, Gina
McCarthy. A few years ago, she was the hard-charging
environmental commissioner in Connecticut, and before that a
deputy in Massachusetts. Back in her days in state government,
she clamped down on dentists, requiring not only separators, but
posted disclosures in dental offices advising parents and
consumers that amalgam is mainly mercury, that it is a health
risk, and that alternatives are available. But now the question
for the new EPA Administrator is, will she do what she believes
it right, based on her experience as a state regular, or will
she succumb to the inside game in Washington? With your help
maybe McCarthy will return to being as tough on dental mercury
-- as she when posted in Hartford and Boston. To learn more
about dental mercury and its risks, as well as keep abreast of
the latest news on the EPA's mercury rule, please see the
following sources:
© Copyright 1997-2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.