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Despite protests from the American Dental Association,
any country that seriously discusses doing away with mercury thermometers
because of their potential impact on health cannot be long from
restricting the use of mercury dental fillings.
Congress will soon work on the question while Maine reviews LD 1409,
a concept bill that seeks to examine the long-term effects of these
fillings and the steps the state should take to protect residents
and the environment. For one expert who testified last week, the
answers are clear. Dr. Boyd Haley, chairman of the Department of
Chemistry at the University of Kentucky, concludes that normal body
loads of mercury in older adults produce two diagnostic hallmarks
for Alzheimer's disease.
Further, he says, in a test for mercury in the blood
and urine of more than 1,000 soldiers, the vast majority, more than
87 percent, was traced to dental amalgams. Further still, the primary
source of mercury in wastewater treatment plants came through feces
and urine of people with these fillings. That is, he and other reputable
scientists are identifying dental amalgams as a major source of
this toxin in humans and in the environment.
The ADA will have none of this. It says 150 years
of dentistry show that the amalgams are not a problem, as evidenced
by the dentists themselves who spend a career around these products.
Individual dentists in Maine, however, sometimes tell a different
story. They note that the alternatives to the mercury amalgams are
more expensive but that they are safer for their patients, themselves
and their staff, and for the environment.
The legislature's job in this case is not to start an argument among
dentists but to look at the relative risk of mercury to the public
and the level of importance of dental amalgams in contributing to
that risk. Mercury can be toxic to the nervous system. U.S. dentists,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey, annually use a total of
between 40 and 60 metric tons of mercury in their practices but
other sources have attracted the attention of regulators.
Bills in Congress would more tightly regulate mercury
emissions from power plants and incinerators, would reduce mercury
in light bulbs and eliminate it in thermometers, switches and other
household products. Rep. Tom Allen, who has followed the mercury
issue closely, will reintroduce a mercury-reduction bill after the
congressional break that for the first time encourages states, communities,
dentists and dental associations to work toward eliminating the
mercury filling.
The potential for environmental damage alone would make mercury
from dental offices endangered. A fair review of the studies of
its human health effects by the Bureau of Health would take only
several months. If the work by the bureau turns out as scientists
like Dr. Haley suspect it will, lawmakers should begin a reduction
and phase-out of this type of dental fillings.
Read about the Dangers
of Fluoride
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