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Dr. David Kennedy, past president of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) and 30-year veteran of mercury-free dentistry, will address health-related risks of mercury fillings. Kennedy states: “In many cases, after amalgam fillings were safely removed, my patients’ health dramatically improved, including those with mercury-related conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and infertility.”
Public Demands FDA Take Immediate Action on Mercury Fillings
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — At an FDA Town Meeting Thursday, injured consumers, dentists, and healthcare professionals will challenge the Food and Drug Administration to protect the public from “silver” dental amalgam fillings containing 45-55% mercury. Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), will host the meeting September 22, from 8 a.m.-noon at the Embassy Suites Hotel, San Francisco Airport.
At Thursday’s meeting, concerned citizens will join Birgit Calhoun, a Stanford University librarian who has waited years to confront FDA for their blatant failure to warn the public about the harmful effects of dental mercury. Two of Calhoun’s sons were permanently harmed due to mercury exposure during her pregnancies. One was also poisoned from thirty fillings placed as a toddler. Motivated to understand the toxic effects of mercury, she translated German scientist Alfred Stock’s “The Dangerousness of Mercury Vapor” wherein he concluded in 1926 that mercury fillings are “a nasty sin against humanity.”
Heated debate about dentistry’s use of mercury, a known neurotoxin, dates back to the 1800s, but recently, the issue has re-emerged as worldwide governmental agencies acknowledge the dangers mercury inflicts upon the humans and the environment.
The Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is currently negotiating the regulation of amalgam fillings as part of a 2013 global treaty on mercury. Earlier this year the U.S. State Department announced support of the phase-down and eventual phase-out of dental amalgam, as well as “educating patients and parents [about mercury fillings] in order to protect children and fetuses.”
President Obama confirmed his administration’s position in his September 8 speech: “I reject the argument that says for the economy to grow, we have to roll back…rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury.” In contrast FDA has done nothing.
In May the European Council issued a proclamation calling for restrictions and prohibitions of mercury fillings, which are banned in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.