Headed by health advocate Florian Schulze, Gesellschaft für Schwermetall-Toxikologie (GST) is pushing for the phase out of dental amalgam in the European Union – and urging Germany to take the lead.  Schulze was recently featured in an interview in the FreiePresse.

The German government already recommends against amalgam use in children and pregnant women.  Now it is time for Germany to support ending amalgam use in all children and pregnant women in the European Union en route to a complete amalgam phase out no later than 31 December 2022.

We’ve reached another landmark in the march toward mercury-free dentistry for Europe.  Just hours ago, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted overwhelmingly to phase out all amalgam use by December 31, 2022.
Of course, this development did not happen overnight.  Our strong European allies have been putting the building blocks in place for years: Continue reading →

Two dozen NGOs urged European Member States to phase out amalgam use in the European Union.  Their 26 May 2016 letter is reprinted below:

Dear Environment Attaches and Member State experts on mercury,

After long delays, the European Commission proposed its revised EU mercury regulation on 2 February 2016, positioning the EU to finally ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The proposed regulation updates existing EU law to conform to the Convention, but falls short in several key areas, including a new proposal that would essentially perpetuate mercury use in EU dentistry. This proposal is clearly out of step with both the spirit and intent of the treaty. Continue reading →

For the first time, the European Commission’s scientific committee on health is recommending the use of mercury-free dental fillings instead of amalgam for children’s baby teeth and in pregnant patients.

The European Union government asked the general public to comment on how to fulfill the EU’s obligations under the Minamata Convention. The European Commission launched an online public consultation that asked EU citizens: Should we phase down amalgam use…or should we phase out amalgam use? Now the results are in!  And the people of the European Union voted to….phase out amalgam use!

This was no close vote.  In fact, 88% of respondents voted to phase out amalgam. (That’s 3162 out of 3586 voters, which is a lot of participation for a public consultation in the EU!)  Of all the amalgam phase down measures listed in the Minamata Convention, promoting the use of mercury-free alternatives received the most support.  Merely restricting amalgam to its encapsulated form received the least public support.