Mercury: The Silent Epidemic is Killing American Dental Professionals, Part II
by Aaron Turpen, citizen journalist
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(NaturalNews) One thing that has certainly been proven over and over again on NaturalNews is that the U.S. government is extremely good at insider dealing and very inept at actually protecting the people. From sellouts in the Food and Drug Administration, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to the Environmental Protection Agency and more, it’s all been documented here. So it should come as no surprise that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is no different.
When it comes to dental office safety, OSHA hasn’t just dropped the ball; they never showed up to the game. OSHA has clear rules regarding how mercury is to be handled when in inorganic form (such as amalgams).1 David Kennedy, DDS, has more than thirty years experience in dental practice and sums those rules up in what he calls the “7 steps to employee protection.”2
- Inform the employee and, at a minimum, review the MSDS sheets as required by the Right to Know Act of 1987
- Provide training in how to protect yourself
- Provide all the protective equipment
- Institute engineering controls like fans and vacuums
- Employ work practices to minimize exposures such as how you drill
- Monitor both their facility when exposure is likely and medically test their employees for mercury
- Record all of the above and keep these records available for immediate inspection upon OSHA enforcement request for a minimum of 30 years
Despite their own rules, OSHA does not enforce this in most dental offices in the country, says Dr. Kennedy.
Most people are aware of the news stories that created laughter last year when the Environmental Protection Agency issued cleanup procedures in the event of a broken compact fluorescent light bulb. What most don’t know is that dental offices are subject to the Clean Water Act, under the EPA, which requires municipal water sources to enforce mercury disposal mitigation at its source (in this case the dental office).3 This is rarely done.
Studies have shown the danger of mercury from dental amalgams (silver fillings) to humans. According to one study done for the World Health Organization (WHO), the largest single source is dental amalgams at more than seven times the amount from eating seafood.4
Exposures to mercury are clearly not just limited to dentists and dental assistants (see the previous entry in this article series), but are also affecting patients. A study by the University of Iowa showed a clear correlation between the number of silver fillings (amalgams) and the amount of mercury in a person’s blood.5
Yet despite all of the evidence regarding mercury dangers and poisonings to both people and nature, the American Dental Association, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration all do nothing to inform the public or stop its continued spread.
“If you include [only] the costs of… repeated dental care, amalgams are terribly costly,” says Dr. Kennedy. That, of course, is only one aspect of the huge cost of mercury fillings to the population as a whole, which we’ll be exploring throughout this article series on silver fillings.
He has a solution, however.
“Now if we could just fire all the OSHA enforcement people who aren’t doing their jobs and hire some who would, the problem would simply go away. Since you cannot legally open the amalgam mixing capsule with a civilian (patient) present, they wouldn’t have to ban amalgam. They simply couldn’t use it because of existing laws.”
In our next segment, we’ll explore how dental mercury poisons the public water supply.
Resources:
1 – OSHA Standards: Mercury from OSHA.gov
2 – Interview with Dr. David Kennedy, DDS, June 21, 2010 by Aaron Turpen, link to full text.
3 – EPA.gov Hg [mercury] Regulations
4 – International Programme on Chemical Safety, Environmental Health Criteria 118, Inorganic Mercury by Dr. L. Friberg for WHO, 1991.
5 – The contribution of dental amalgam to mercury in blood by K.R. Snapp, et al, University of Iowa
Special thanks to NaturalNews readers Karen Palmer and Robert Reeves as well as the IAOMT for research assistance and support for this article series on mercury poisoning.
About the author
Aaron Turpen is a professional writer living in Wyoming in the USA. He is also the Director of Gateway’s Needy Animals, a local animal shelter and rescue in the eastern Wyoming area. His blog covers organic/sustainable living and environmental considerations at AaronsEnvironMental.com.
Mercury: The Silent Epidemic is Killing American Dental Professionals, Part III
by Aaron Turpen, citizen journalist
See all articles by this author
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(NaturalNews) In part 2 of this series, it was suggested that mercury fillings (“silver fillings,” properly called amalgams) are a primary contributor to mercury contamination in our drinking water. There are two primary reasons for this: improper dental office amalgam removal/disposal and the mercury leach from fillings into a person’s blood stream and its eventual excretion.
Every agency involved, from the American Dental Association (ADA) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), admit that the removal of dental mercury emits mercury vapor and particles and that removed amalgams are often flushed without separation into the sewer system.1 These are often dumped directly into the waste-water system and end up in the public water supply.
Three agencies in particular, the ADA, the EPA, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), have all given guidelines and rules for dental practices to follow in the proper disposal of mercury fillings. Few, if any, of these suggestions and requirements are enforced and rarely are dentists even informed of the recommendations.2
According to David Kennedy, DDS, a dentist with over 30 years experience in practice, San Francisco, California instituted an EPA-based requirement for all dental practices in the SF Regional Water Quality Control District to use mercury separators in their offices. While the mandate met with a large outcry from the dental community, the result was that 90% of the mercury traveling “downstream” from the sewer system to the treatment plant was cut off at the source. The other 10% was mainly believed to be from excrement from dental patients laden with mercury from their amalgam fillings.2
That second source is another grave concern because it points to two distinct problems. First, it’s a hazard to the water supply. Secondly, it is obviously a health hazard to the people who have silver fillings that are emitting mercury into their bodies. For those who work in the dental profession, as dentists, assistants, and hygienists, this is an even graver concern.
Former dental assistant Rebecca Dutton, whose newborn daughter was diagnosed with scoliosis – which Dutton is convinced was due to her own high exposure to mercury – says that “Mercury is the third most toxic substance on the planet and we are still putting it in people’s mouths – yet the only place dental amalgam is not regarded as toxic waste is in a living mouth!”3
Despite the overwhelming evidence that mercury fillings are unsafe for both dental professionals and their patients, the ADA continues to recommend them and the FDA declares them “safe.”4
That may be changing as new hearings at the Food and Drug Administration this winter will open to bring that question to bear, once again. Dr. Kennedy is hopeful that at least a partial ban will be in the offing, overturning the recent reversal, but says that with the way Washington works, anything more is unlikely.
“I find the machinations of Washington, D.C., where money speaks far louder than words, that they would make such as a determination prior to any testimony except, of course, from the ADA lobbyists.”
Perhaps he is right, but as we saw in the last segment, a round-about ban could be achieved if OSHA or the EPA were to decide to actually do their jobs in regards to mercury contamination.
Given the lackluster performance of governmental agencies in the past and the current near-moratorium on health-conscious, mercury-free dentists by the ADA’s licensing arm, it’s unlikely we’ll see change anytime soon unless the American People stand up and demand it loudly, on their own behalf.
Resources:
1 – Safe Removal of Amalgam Fillings, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
2 – Interview with Dr. David Kennedy, DDS, June 21, 2010 by Aaron Turpen, link to full text.
3 – Rebecca’s Story – Mercury, Babies, and Suffering
4 – Mercury Dental Fillings: What the FDA and the ADA are not Telling You by Aaron Turpen, NaturalNews
Special thanks to NaturalNews readers Karen Palmer and Robert Reeves as well as the IAOMT for research assistance and support for this article series on mercury poisoning.
About the author
Aaron Turpen is a professional writer living in Wyoming in the USA. He is also the Director of Gateway’s Needy Animals, a local animal shelter and rescue in the eastern Wyoming area. His blog covers organic/sustainable living and environmental considerations at AaronsEnvironMental.com.
