Author: World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry

Civil Society Urges Amalgam Phase-Out in the European Union

World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry Europe

The World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry’s German partners just launched the Bonn Declaration to End Dental Amalgam, a resolution calling on their federal government to phase out amalgam use by 2025 and ensure that insurance fully covers mercury-free alternatives to amalgam.

More than 50 German organizations and researchers signed on. The nation’s leading newspaper, the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, ran a great story headlined with the words “Amalgam Aus” (Amalgam Out)! The Bonn Declaration was modeled after the Chicago Declaration to End Dental Industry Mercury Use and the Abuja (Nigeria) Declaration for Mercury-Free Dentistry for Africa an Amalgam-Free Africa.  The World Alliance will be working to make sure the Bonn Declaration has just as much impact in Germany, the European Union, and worldwide.

Italy announces an amalgam phase-out

World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry Europe

The World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry’s campaign to phase out amalgam use now reaches into the G7 – the world’s seven major economies. In response to the European Union regulation requiring Member States to submit a national amalgam plans, the government of Italy has announced that it will phase out amalgam use by 31 December 2024!

Italy will be the first Mediterranean nation to phase out amalgam. It joins a long list of European countries to end amalgam use or announce a specific phase-out date, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Moldova.

FDA doubles down with new amalgam infographics

World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry Americas

Showing its interest in the public learning about its recommendation against amalgam use in children, young women, and people with kidney and neurological disease (plus others), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released two infographics to reinforce its point.  These infographics are also available in Spanish.

You can help make sure FDA’s infographics get into the hands of every patient, family member, friend, neighbor, and colleague in your network by…

  • Printing and distributing FDA’s infographics. You can post them on community bulletin boards or if you are a health professional you can display them in your office.
  • Sharing FDA’s infographics on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Try using this hashtag: #mercuryfree
  • Incorporating FDA’s infographics into your website or e-newsletter.

Circulating FDA’s new infographics is an important step toward protecting vulnerable populations from amalgam – and a first step toward ending all amalgam use for everybody!

New FDA safety communication recommends against amalgam use for millions of Americans

World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry Americas

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a safety communication recommending against amalgam use in people who are at higher risk from the adverse effects of mercury exposure, including…

  • Pregnant women and their developing babies
  • Women who are planning to become pregnant
  • Nursing women and their newborns and infants
  • Children, especially those younger than six years of age
  • People with pre-existing neurological disease
  • People with impaired kidney function
  • People with known heightened sensitivity (allergy) to mercury or other components of dental amalgam.

Continue reading →

The European Commission to propose amalgam phase-out

World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry Europe

The European Union has taken a gigantic leap toward a decision to ban dental amalgam!
 
The 2017 EU amalgam regulation required the European Commission (the staff arm of the European Union that works under guidance from the European Council and the European Parliament) to issue a report on the feasibility of phasing out the use of dental amalgam in all EU countries. So when the European Commission held a by-invitation-only amalgam workshop in Brussels last winter, we assembled a strong team of experts from Germany, Romania, Greece, and Sweden. I was honored to testify alongside them in support of the urgent need to ban amalgam.
 
The European Commission has now released its report, which concludes “The review undertaken makes clear that the phase out of the largest remaining use of mercury in the EU – dental amalgam – is technically and economically feasible….Therefore, the Commission will present to the European Parliament and the Council in 2022 a legislative proposal to phase out the use of dental amalgam.”

The development has the potential to bring mercury-free dentistry to a vast area of 27 nations with a bigger population than the U.S. and Canada combined!