IAOMT Members, Allies, Speak at UN Meeting

IAOMT Members, Allies, Speak at UN Meeting

Dr. Lillian Lasaten Ebuen, President of IAOMT-Phillippines, and frequent IAOMT speaker Dr. Mark Geier both made presentations to the UNEP mercury meeting in Chiba, Japan. The panel is faced with the question of whether to exempt certain mercury containing products from the draft treaty to ban international commerce in mercury. Not surprisingly, the official US delegation wants to exempt dental amalgam and vaccines containing thimerosal.

Dr. Ebuen’s full statement is attached. In regard to the notion that amalgam is necessary for dental restorations in poor rural populations, she said:

APPROPRIATE ALTERNATIVE to AMALGAM for Extreme Rural Areas:

A.R.T. (Atraumatic Restorative Technique) were developed for use in developing countries, where access to conventional dental care is limited, and no electricity or electrical generators are available. The technique involves the use of hand instruments to prepare the carious lesion in primary and adult teeth to remove the caries. The tooth is then restored with a clinically proven self-setting, hand-mixed glass ionomer filling.
A number of trials have demonstrated that ART is an effective technique, comparing ART with a minimal cavity preparation technique (MCP) utilizing slow-speed hand-pieces and steel burs. It measured discomfort felt by the patient as assessed by alteration in patient heart rate and a trained observer using a behavioral assessment scale. The study demonstrated that ART is an appropriate restorative treatment technique.

Dental caries is a significant problem across the world. It results in significant pain and sepsis for an unacceptably high number of children. Unfortunately, this problem is compounded by a lack of restorative care. Governments in developing countries should consider ART as an appropriate technique because it is comparable to restoration with handpieces and it is the only available option.

Dr. Geier and his colleague, Reverend Lisa Sykes, made the following statement:

Today, the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD)‘s team of Rev Lisa Sykes, Dr. Mark Geier, David Geier, and Anne Geier that is in attendence at the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on Mercury (INC2), Chiba, Japan was invited to address the more than 150 member nations of general delegates. CoMeD has been officially accredited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to be a participant at this meeting. Dr. Mark Geier of the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD presented the following testimony:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We are gathered in this hall, kindly provided by the Japanese government and under the able leadership of UNEP, to design a treaty that prevents the continued exposure of the people of the world to mercury, which is one of the most dangerous known poisons.
I am Dr. Mark Geier, from the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs. I hold both an MD and a PhD. My specialties include genetics and epidemiology. As an American physician, I treat 1500 patients who suffer from neurodevelopmental disorders, the result of mercury-containing vaccines. Thimerosal, half mercury by weight, is a form of organic mercury which has been used in vaccines since the 1930?s.
Even though safe and cost effective alternatives, such as 2-Phenoxyethanol, have been in use for nearly 15 years, the madness of mercury continues. Despite false reassurances from industry and others that mercury is out of the drug supply, mercury containing vaccines with as much as 25 micrograms of mercury per dose continue to be manufactured, exported, and injected, particularly into pregnant women and newborn children who are the most vulnerable among us.
If this treaty does not clearly ban the intentional administration of mercury in all forms to humans, then the citizens of the world will face an impossible dilemma. Either they will believe the premise of this treaty: that mercury is too poisonous to be allowed in general use, in which case they will refuse mercury-containing vaccines, thus needlessly exposing themselves and their children to preventable infectious diseases?
Or alternatively, they will believe false assurances that the mercury in their mouths, medicines and vaccines is indeed safe, in which case they will not feel compelled to cooperate with the mandates of this treaty. Both of these scenarios are disasters! For this treaty to be fully effective it must make clear that the intentional exposure of humans, especially pregnant women and young children, to mercury, will not be tolerated.
Furthermore, in the developed world, using Thimerosal even on your skin, has been illegal for years. It defies logic that Thimerosal, which is illegal to put on your skin because it is so toxic, should still be permitted to be injected as part of a vaccine! The US Public Health Service called for the urgent removal of Thimerosal from vaccines in 1999. While millions of doses of vaccine still contain full-dose Thimerosal, finally many vaccines are now available in mercury-free or mercury-reduced formulations in the United States.
Children around the world, no matter their place of birth or their income level, deserve safe mercury-free vaccines. The practice of providing mercury-reduced and mercury-free vaccines to developed countries while insisting that developing nations take mercury-containing ones is wrong. I want all people, and especially all children, to have safe mercury-free vaccines. Mercury is an insidious poison, and the last place on earth it should be is in a shot intended for a child or a pregnant woman.
Thank you Mr. President.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dr. Mark Geier, CoMeD, Inc.

Members of many delegations seemed to be deeply concerned regarding the continued use of Thimerosal in vaccines, and many good contacts were made. In fact, all the members of CoMeD were able to speak with national leaders and even royal family members from developing nations in particular, who sought us out due to their concerns for this critical issue we had raised.

Our only regret is that the alarm expressed by many of these leaders was not in any way echoed, in the remarks offered by the US delegation to the plenary on Wednesday when mercury-added products were discussed. Though many developing nations acknowledge that they are unable to police their own borders from mercury-containing products due to a lack of resources and/or expertise, the developed nations of the world have reiterated their preference for a ‘positive products list’, that regulates only some, not all, of these mercury-containing products rather than a negative list that would ban all products. The Latin American working group offered a strong alternative to the positive list approach, as did many other nations.

Likely, the resolution of this discussion will not happen before the next INC meeting, to be held in Africa.

Hopefully, leadership to make vaccines safer and mercury-free will emerge as this UN process continues, and we wait and watch for the United States to take responsibility for leading this movement, as it is out FDA which continues to assert that Thimerosal is safe for injection. Having been that nation which promulgates the use of Thimerosal, the United States shoulders the moral burden for its continuing use.

For more information about CoMeD and to financially help support CoMeD in its efforts, please visit the CoMeD website at:

www.mercury-freedrugs.org