Consumers for Dental Choice: European Union in Final Stages of Banning Mercury Amalgam Fillings in Children, Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- By an historic 663 – 8 vote, the European Parliament banned the use of silver amalgam (mercury) dental fillings in children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. 

This move by the EU represents a sea change in public health policy and environmental protection and will be a major benchmark in the inevitable phase out of all dental mercury worldwide over time.

That's because when the world's largest consumer of dental amalgam – Europe – makes the well-vetted judgement that this proven neurotoxin is a major threat to children, their mothers and our environment, the focus now shifts to the FDA whose policy inexplicably calls for "greater" use of mercury-based fillings, putting America well outside the margins of the current science.

Specifically, the EU action will ban dental amalgam mercury – so called "silver" fillings – in:

• Every child through age 15.
• Pregnant women.
• Nursing mothers.

The EU's move is spurred by an international agreement called the Minamata Convention under which the nations of the world commit to specific measures to lessen the damage caused by mercury – including dental mercury -- to the environment. With the EU vote, Europe also commits to developing a specific plan to reduce its overall use of dental amalgam and to decide if, and when, it will totally phase out the use of dental mercury as EU member nation Sweden did earlier in its own country.

According to Charles Brown, whose organization Consumers for Dental Choice played a major advocacy role in both assuring the Minamata Convention prioritized dental mercury and for the EU's first ever partial ban of amalgam: "Minamata, the groundbreaking EU action and commitments by governments on every continent, have dramatically moved global scientific and policy consensus toward a world without the dangers of dental mercury, especially when it comes to protecting developing children. What this means is that America – because of the FDA's 19^th Century commitment to even greater use of dental mercury – is now swimming upstream and becomes the global outlier."

The use of mercury-based dental fillings are especially pernicious in the US because of a concerted effort by the dental industry and the FDA to hide their true identity behind misleading names like "amalgam" and "silver fillings". A recent national survey conducted by Zogby Analytics on behalf of Consumers for Dental Choice found that a clear majority (57 percent) of Americans – including the parents of young children -- did not know that toxic mercury is the principle component of these fillings.

To send a strong message to the FDA that it's time to follow the EU's lead in banning dental mercury for children and their mothers, Consumers for Dental Choice has set up an official Citizen Petition calling on the agency to catch up with the world scientific consensus by immediately banning dental amalgam for use on children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. 

In Brown's words: "The FDA needs to hear from as many Americans as possible that we demand the same kinds of basic health and environmental protections from dental mercury as EU citizens have. The FDA needs to know that it's longer acceptable to be on the wrong side of history when the lives and futures of America's children and their communities are at stake."

Click HERE to sign the petition. 

For further information: Brian Morris, Morris Communications, 614/226-3292, [email protected]; Charlie Brown, Consumers for Dental Choice, [email protected]   

SOURCE Consumers for Dental Choice

Related Links

http://www.toxicteeth.org