In August of 2017, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Minamata Convention on Mercury entered into force. The Minamata Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury, and it includes sections on dental amalgam. The IAOMT is an accredited member of member of UNEP’s Global [...]
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated their dental effluent guidelines in 2017. Amalgam separators are now required pretreatment standards to reduce discharges of mercury from dental offices into publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). EPA expects compliance with this final rule will annually reduce the discharge of mercury by 5.1 tons as well as 5.3 [...]
Final Opinion on Environmental risks and indirect health effects of mercury from dental amalgam (update 2014) The European Commission and its non-food Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) published the final opinion on Environmental risks and indirect health effects of mercury from dental amalgam, of which the aim was to update the [...]
By Michael D. Fleming, DDS This article was published in the February 2013 edition of "DentalTown" Magazine There is a no greater challenge in dentistry these days than accurately predicting the future of dental amalgam use and FDA regulation. Given the more restrictive trends in federal and international regulatory policy with respect to mercury in [...]
The following is the Position Statement on Dental Amalgam from the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology submitted in response to the "Call for Information" extended by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified health Risks (SCENIHR). Read More »
This 2012 report confirms that “amalgam is by no means the least expensive filling material when the external costs are taken into account.” It was co-released by the IAOMT and Concorde East/West Sprl, the European Environmental Bureau, the Mercury Policy Project, the International Academy of Oral, Clean Water Action and Consumers for Dental Choice. Click [...]
In January 2012, the FDA had actually prepared a "Safety Communication" that recommended reducing the use of mercury amalgam in the general population, and avoiding it in susceptible sub-populations: pregnant and nursing women children under six years of age people with allergy to mercury or other components people with neurological disease people with [...]
This paper, written by engineer Robert Cartland, who testified about his own experiences with mercury toxicity at the December, 2010, FDA hearings, is a very thorough, deeply researched look at the issues under debate concerning dental amalgam. View Article: Cartland -US Dental Amalgam Debate 2010 FDA Meeting 2012-11-18
On December 14 and 15, 2010, the FDA convened a scientific panel to re-examine the issue of mercury exposure from amalgam dental fillings. Two private foundations, assisted by IAOMT, commissioned G. Mark Richardson, PhD, of SNC Lavallin, Ottawa, Canada, formerly of Health Canada, to provide the scientific panel and FDA regulators with a formal risk [...]
The 2009 IAOMT prepared the attached petition for a group of citizens as part of an effort to use all available legal means to overturn the FDA's classification of dental amalgam as a Class II device. The thrust of the petition is found in this quote: "We have no doubt that the FDA has the [...]
