ADA's Initiative To Reduce Dental Mercury Pollution Is Toothless, Say Health & Environmental Groups

ARCHIVED 2002–2016: Originally distributed via the eWire press wire service. Preserved as historical record.

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE |

Conservation & Wildlife

Corporate Responsibility

Science & Technology

Syndication Partners

**************************************************************************

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

**************************************************************************

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADA's Initiative To Reduce Dental Mercury Pollution Is Toothless, Say Health & Environmental Groups

"Hired Gun" Report Backing up ADA National Initiative Is Fundamentally Flawed;

Based on Erroneous Assumptions and "Fuzzy Science"

ILLINOIS, CHICAGO, Dec. 2 -/E-Wire/-- The American Dental Association's "National Advocacy Initiative" to reduce dental amalgam in wastewater launched today at EPA's Binational Toxics Strategy meeting is a step forward, but nearly toothless, say health and environmental groups. They contend that the ADA Initiative and accompanying back up report by their consultant, Environ, is based on flawed assumptions that dental mercury pollution is not a "significant" problem and that installation of amalgam separators by dentists is cost-prohibitive and not necessary.

"The ADA's Initiative represents a step forward in recognizing that dentists must do their 'fair share' to reduce mercury pollution," said Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project. "However, their Initiative lacks the teeth to significantly reduce dental mercury discharges by not recommending--or even mentioning--that dental clinics install amalgam separators. Without such installations, nearly half of the mercury dumped down the drain by dentists will continue to be haphazardly released to the environment."

The ADA report by Environ erroneously assumes that municipal wastewater treatment plants are designed to handle dental mercury. It also fails to recognize all of the disposal routes of dental mercury to the environment. These include dental mercury disposed in medical waste, sludge and municipal incinerators, where the mercury is vaporized and instantly released into the air, rains down on water bodies and is taken up in fish. Over 40 states now warn the public to limit or not consume fish due to high mercury levels and new data from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that 8 percent of women of child-bearing age have mercury levels in their bodies that are unsafe for the developing fetus.

"The ADA Initiative appears to mostly be an effort to stave off the installation of amalgam separators by dental clinics across the Country," said Jamie Harvie, mercury coordinator for Health Care Without Harm. "In return, they are willing to accept soft voluntary measures that reflect what they should have been doing all along."

The ADA's report claims that amalgam separators are cost prohibitive and not effective-- due to their inability to capture dissolved mercury. This is false; there are many cost effective units available in the US today that can capture this fraction.

"There is much 'fuzzy science' and doublespeak in the ADA's 'Initiative'," which should more appropriately be called 'Impediment," said Charles Brown, Esq., of Consumers for Dental Choice. "The upshot is that ADA recommends doing little more than what the law requires."

The Environ report's cost analysis for capturing dental mercury--estimated at between $45,000 to $141,000 per pound--is wildly off-base, compared to real life examples in dental clinics in both the US and Canada, say the groups.

"I am surprised that the ADA would stand behind such wildly erroneous cost estimates for capturing dental mercury, when their own scientists have recently evaluated amalgam separators," said Bender. "Based on the latest government estimates, the average cost for dental clinics to operate amalgam separators is about $60 per month, with a one time upfront cost of between $1,000 to $1500 to purchase an amalgam separator. How that equates to over $40,000 to capture a pound of dental mercury is beyond me."

The US dental sector is the third largest user of mercury in the United States. It's also the single largest contributor of mercury to municipal wastewater treatment plants according to numerous government reports that were compiled together in a report co-released by the Mercury Policy Project and Health Care Without Harm. The report, "Dentist the Menace, The Uncontrolled Release of Dental Mercury," is available on the Mercury Policy Project website, along with an analysis of the revised November 20, 2002 Environ Report, "Evaluation of Mercury in Dental Facility Wastewater/Version 3," prepared for the American Dental Association, Chicago, Illinois.

Mercury Policy Project

Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project, [REDACTED-PHONE]; [REDACTED-PHONE], Jamie Harvie, Health Care Without Harm, [REDACTED-PHONE], Charles Brown, Esq., Consumers for Dental Choice, [REDACTED-PHONE]

http://www.mercurypolicy.org

**************************************************************************

To Transmit Your News Over E-Wire, visit http://www.ewire.com or

call 1-[REDACTED-PHONE]. E-Wire Is Broadcast To Millions Of Readers Worldwide

**************************************************************************