Dental amalgam – a tooth filling material that is 50% mercury – is the leading intentional use of mercury in the United States.  Half of the mercury in wastewater comes from dentistry.  From there, microorganisms can convert dental mercury into even more toxic methylmercury that contaminates fish and harms children’s developing neurological systems even before they are born. 

Dentists around the world – including virtually all dentists in Nordic nations, many European Union countries, and Japan – have stopped using amalgam, yet over half of U.S. dentists still place more than 15 tons of mercury into the mouths of Americans each year.  Many dentists who use mercury refuse to even install amalgam separators – a filter designed to catch most dental mercury before it goes down the drain to wastewater treatment plants.  And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is letting these polluters get away with it! 

In 2010, EPA announced that it would write a rule by 2012 requiring dentists to at least use best management practices, including installing and properly maintaining amalgam separators.  Now after four years of excuses, secrecy, and delays, it appears that EPA Headquarters is ready to throw the brakes on the rule-making process. 

What happened?  The draft EPA dental mercury rule was written more than two years ago, then it was leaked, and apparently someone (guess who?) objected.  Now some in EPA Headquarters are dragging their feet, even though their own staff is clamoring for the dental mercury rule to move forward. 

If naysayers have their way, there will be no opportunity for public comment on the EPA dental mercury rule…no restrictions on dentists who dump mercury into our communities…and no protection at all for the many children who are subjected to dental mercury exposure twice – once from their own amalgam fillings and again from dental mercury pollution.

Please sign the petition below and tell EPA not to let polluting dentists off the hook:  It’s time to stop dental mercury dumping.

For more information:

Midnight Deal on Dental Mercury at http://mercurypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dentalmercurymidnightdealreportforweb.pdf

Consumers for Dental Choice at www.mercury-free.org

Join the discussion on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MercuryFreeDentistry?ref=hl