Congressman claims use is dangerous

By Tom Wilmoth
Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:17 AM EST

Congresswoman Diane E. Watson (D-Calif.) sees the ruling by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel that did not accept a paper that claimed the use of mercury in amalgam fillings was safe as "the beginning of the end" of mercury fillings.

"The panelists said that the federal report did not objectively present data on the impact of silver fillings that contain 50 percent mercury," Watson said following the hearings. "The FDA's rejection of the staff report signals the beginning of the end of the use of mercury fillings in dentistry. The FDA has already banned mercury in disinfectants and thermometers, warned against mercury in certain foods, and prohibited the use of mercury in all veterinary products...The logical next step is to completely ban mercury, one of the most potent neruotoxins known to man, from use in the mouth, literally inches away from the brain."

Watson has reintroduced a bill to prohibit the use of mercury in dental fillings. She was among those testifying at the September hearings on the issue.

The bill she's introduced, H.R. 4011, known as "The Mercury in Dental Fillings Disclosure and Prevention Act" would prohibit, after 2008, the introduction into interstate commerce of mercury intended for use in dental fillings.

"Mercury is the most toxic naturally occurring element on the earth," stated Watson on the bill. "Many Americans are still not aware that the vast majority of dental filling used by dentists - referred to as a silver filling - contains more than 50 percent mercury."

In addition to phasing out the use of dental amalgam by Jan. 1, 2009, the bill calls for the immediate ban of its use for pregnant women and children.

Watson has her own experience where she had health issues she believed were a result of amalgam fillings in her mouth, her communications director Bert Hammond said this week. She had them removed by a doctor specializing in that area and her health improved immensely, he said.

She questions the logic of using the mercury-based fillings in people's mouths, when other alternatives can be used.

"It's past time for American dentistry to revamp this pre-Civil War practice and acknowledge the serious health risks associated with mercury dental amalgams," Watson said back in November.

In testimony before the FDA panel, Watson pointed to two mercury contamination events in Washington D.C. public schools as an illustration of the toxicity of mercury. "Even a small amount of mercury exposure and contamination can have catastrophic consequences and require massive and expensive clean-up efforts," she said. "Despite growing awareness among school administrators, medical experts, scientists, government officials around the world, and the general public of the dangers of human exposure to very small amounts of mercury, the U.S. federal government continues to allow the unregulated use of mercury silver fillings in dentistry."

She said that use continues though people are not told that mercury vapor is released during the entire life of the dental filling.

"It's time for the FDA to do its job," she said, "to treat mercury amalgam as it has treated many other mercury-containing products."

She testified that the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005, called amalgam a source of "major exposure" to mercury. She said a majority of Americans don't know that dental amalgam contains 50 percent mercury.

"It's clear that the dental profession is failing to disclose a fact that would be of extreme importance to most consumers if they were only made aware of it," she said. "When the private sector fails to disclose a salient fact, then it is the duty of the FDA to act, to inform the American public."

She also said it should be a concern to the FDA that children and low-income pregnant women are more often exposed to mercury amalgams than other groups.

"We cannot afford the luxury of allowing dental amalgam to succumb to a slow death; its toxicity to humans and the environment requires us to act immediately," she said.

She noted that Canada, a decade ago, directed its dentists to stop placing amalgam fillings in the teeth of children, pregnant women and those with kidney disease, mercury hypersensitivity or braces. She said one problem is that the FDA has never conducted its own definitive study on the issue.

"It is well past the time for the FDA to take this sensible and important step to ensure the health and welfare of our nation," she concluded.