This week, we
celebrate our annual Mercury Awareness week, during which we ask for
your continued financial support to put an end to the use of dental
mercury worldwide
Mercola.com will match your donations, dollar for dollar, up to $150,000, given by August 31, 2019
In this
interview, Charlie Brown shows how Consumers for Dental Choice is
blazing four routes to victory for mercury-free dentistry: (1) the
Chicago Declaration and its heated challenge to FDA; (2) the state
rulemaking to require amalgam-using dentists to show proof they tell
patients about amalgam’s mercury, its risks and its alternatives; (3)
the phase-out amalgam campaign in Europe that is now spreading across
Africa and Asia; and (4) the upcoming Amalgam phase-out amendment battle
at the Minamata Convention on Mercury
To make amalgam
a business loser, consumers should patronize mercury-free dentists
only. Many dentists have seen the light and abandoned amalgam; it’s time
for the others to feel the heat
Dr. Mercola raises his match by 20% this year. He asks both health professionals and consumers to consider doing the same!
In this interview, Charlie Brown, former
state attorney general of West Virginia and executive director of
Consumers for Dental Choice, provides us with an update to the global
mercury-free dentistry campaign you’ve so generously helped us support
through the past nine years.
We are now incredibly close to the ultimate finish line, thanks to
Brown’s persistent and dedicated efforts and your unrelenting financial
support. I want to extend a personal thank you to all who have
contributed to this mission in the past, and are considering doing so
now.
Brown has made it his life’s mission to remove mercury from
dentistry across the world, which will also put an end to a large
portion of mercury outflow into our environment. This week, we celebrate
our annual Mercury Awareness week, during which we ask for your
continued financial support to put an end to the use of this pernicious
neurotoxin.
“The campaign for mercury-free dentistry has real wins, thanks to the grassroots help of Mercola.com readers,” Brown says. “We
are toe-to-toe with the American Dental Association (ADA) and its
million-dollar lobbyists across the country and around the world. We
are advancing, and the ADA is retreating. Together, we will throw
dental mercury into the hazardous waste bins of history.”
Pressure on US Food and Drug Administration is paying off
Over the past year, Consumers for Dental Choice has made
advancements on multiple fronts by implementing a number of landmark
strategies. In the U.S., Consumers for Dental Choice has applied
pressure on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the likes of which
the agency reportedly has never seen before.
In all, 50 groups, including the Sierra Club, the Organic Consumers
Association (OCA) and Greenpeace, signed the Chicago Declaration for
Mercury-free Dentistry for America. “That really got FDA’s attention,”
Brown says.
When the FDA invited public comment on how it’s doing on its medical
devices, 80% of responses — four times that of all other devices
combined — were about amalgam.
“People are sick and tired and they made it clear that the No. 1 public interest on medical device regulation is amalgam,” Brown says. “They’re sick and tired of FDA coddling up to the ADA, as it’s done this entire century.
Coming along too is the medical community … the National Medical
Association (NMA) and the African-American physicians. They have
gotten real interested in this. Their journal published a commentary
about how amalgam is unfair to the children of color and other
low-income children in this country.
Finally, the trade press is really biting at the heels of FDA.
They’re really wanting to know why FDA is still not acting on amalgam.
We now have information that FDA is going to move [on this issue].”
While it’s still too early for Brown to give specifics on what the
FDA is planning to do, when available, I will bring him back for an
update. As for the Consumers for Dental Choice petition to the FDA
urging the agency to follow in Europe’s footsteps and eliminate dental mercury for pregnant women and children, more than 48,000 signatures have been received and delivered.
“The European Union, more than a year ago, ended amalgam for
children under 15, and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. They
required each member state — and there are 28 countries in the EU as of
right now — to come up with a plan to go further.
We are saying to FDA, ‘Why are you lagging so far behind Europe?
Why won’t you pay attention to the very treaty that the United States
not only signed but was the first country in the world to ratify?’
As I said, the heat is building. We think we’re going to move,
but they still have been way too close to the pro-mercury dentists.
There’s no question. That’s the ADA. The ADA, however, doesn’t have the
same clout they used to have because its own members are walking away.
Its own members are saying, ‘Why should I use amalgam just
because you want me to? I don’t want to. My patients don’t want to. I
don’t want to get people in my office sick.’”
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Making amalgam a business loser is a winning strategy
This is undoubtedly a direct response to people following the advice
given by Consumers for Dental Choice — the advice to not frequent any
dentist who still uses mercury amalgam on ANY of his or her patients,
even if it’s not you. By patients abandoning mercury-based dentists,
more and more have recognized the folly of sticking with the ADA’s
recommendation to keep using it.
“Basically, we are making amalgam into a business loser,” Brown
says. We still have a way to go though, to get government-based
dentists to follow suit and to get all insurance plans to cover mercury-free dentistry across the board, and not just in some instances.
Fortunately, as the dental amalgam market continues to shrink,
amalgam manufacturers are also starting to follow the money and
transition into making alternative filling materials instead.
“By making amalgam a business loser for the dentist and a
business loser for the manufacturers, we are pursuing a success
route,” Brown says. “We want FDA to change. But if FDA doesn’t change, we have a way to win regardless.”
Battleground Maine
In the U.S., Consumers for Dental Choice is also taking on Maine’s
Dental Board. After filing a complaint, the board has agreed to create
legislation requiring dentists to have informed consent before they can
use mercury amalgam on a patient. Brown explains:
“Maine is our battleground state now … I’m in my element. I’ve
been challenging dental boards for a long time. Years ago, we got rid
of the gag rule. We won factsheet laws. We won disclosures. The Maine
Dental Board is ignoring its duty to enforce the law on disclosure.
We have filed our petition, our protest, to the Maine Dental
Board. They, in turn, have agreed to write a regulation, which will
require the pro-mercury dentists to provide proof that they told the
patients amalgam has problems … If they don’t do it, there’s going to be
a discipline action against the amalgam-using dentists.”
In short, dentists using amalgam in Maine will be required to
present patients with a factsheet detailing in clear language the adverse health effects of amalgam, and information on available alternatives.
Once given this information, patients are unlikely to choose
amalgam, given the choice. It will undoubtedly also encourage more
dentists to go mercury-free, as they have to admit, with documentation,
that they’re putting toxic material into your mouth.
“When I started in this, the dental boards were prosecuting
mercury-free dentists. Now we’ve turned the tables and said, ‘You’ve
got to prosecute the pro-mercury dentists because they’re not following
the law.’ We think with this success in Maine, we’re on the way.
They’re writing a rule. We’ve got a battle ahead this fall in
2019. It will be a prototype for other states. We’re going to prepare a
kit for other states. If you want to get active in your state, you,
the consumer, you, the dentist, you, the health professional, write me
at Charlie@ToxicTeeth.org.
Write me, and I will work with you to get you the material so
that in your state, you can parallel what we’re accomplishing in the
state of Maine, our model state …
The good news is that the director of health, who wrote and
approved that factsheet, her sister is now the governor of Maine. So,
we think we’ve got support all the way to the top in Maine to get this
thing done.”
Global progress
In addition to the success in the EU, Consumers for Dental Choice is
also making great progress in the effort to eliminate dental mercury
in Nigeria, Mauritius, Tanzania, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India.
“[The U.S.] Pentagon says they can’t afford the switch. They’re
giving mercury fillings. The richest agency in the world — I’m sure —
is not giving mercury-free dentistry to its soldiers and sailors, but
Bangladesh is. India is.
India has the third biggest army in the world. Bangladesh is one
of the poorer countries in the world. Yet no one in the Bangladesh
Armed Forces gets amalgam. No one in their family gets it. They’ve gone
completely mercury-free. Well, if Bangladesh can end using amalgam in
their armed forces, so can the Pentagon,” Brown says.
Consumers for Dental Choice and its international allies were also
instrumental in getting dental amalgam included in the Minamata
Convention, which calls for significant reductions in mercury pollution
from multiple sources.
“Things come to a head this November 2019,” Brown says.
“During the last week of November, the governments from every country
in the world will again convene. There are well over 140 countries to
sign this Convention. Over 100 have ratified it. The United States was
the first to ratify.
We will bring a team of people from the Americas, from the
island states, from Africa, Asia and Europe — our dentists, engineers,
lawyers, journalists and environmental leaders …
The governments, starting in Africa with the country of Gabon,
and then a number of other countries, have proposed an amendment to the
Minamata Convention: the amalgam amendment. It would phase out amalgam
for children in two years, and phase it out for everybody else on a
date that people would agree on.
That will be debated this November. We are mounting a
full-fledged campaign. We’ve been asked by the African governments to
lead civil society — lead the organizing from the outside while they
work the inside and work the government.”
Much at stake in November
In the summer of 2019, four EU nations — Czech Republic, Finland,
Ireland and Slovakia — followed in Sweden’s footsteps and phased out
amalgam for all patients as of a specific date. During the November
debate, Consumers for Dental Choice will fight to get all nations to
agree to a complete phase-out.
“That’s going to be what they call the Third Conference of the
Parties. This again has come, Dr. Mercola, because you dug in with us
way back in 2011. You helped us put together this worldwide
organization. You matched funds. You’re matching them again.
You’re matching them more than you ever have: $150,000. We hope
to raise $150,000 dollars, which we’ll double with your funds to
$300,000. We use it effectively. We use it efficiently …
Our staff size is the same as it was in 2011, when we started.
Our money goes to the field. It went to the [creation of the] Chicago
Declaration. It went to the Maine team that we organized to get front
and center in our model state. It goes to some of the best environmental
leaders I can imagine in Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America. We
have founded centers and intermediaries.
There’s the Latin-American Center for Environmental Health in
Montevideo, the Asian Center for Environmental Health in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, the African Center for Environmental Health in Abidjan,
Ivory Coast …
The European Center for Environmental Medicine in Berlin … These
are headed by talented people. They run the campaigns for us … We’re
pretty darn good at organizing. If people choose to donate funds to us,
I think our track record is pretty clear. We get things done …
One of the priorities this November is bringing our team to
Geneva and winning at the table and getting the countries to agree,
yes, it’s time to set an end date for this plague, this horrible mistake
of putting mercury in the mouth. Now, here comes the world’s chance to
correct that mistake.”
Please consider making a donation to Consumers for Dental Choice
right now, and I will match your gift dollar for dollar, up to
$150,000. Mercury is difficult to get rid of once it’s in your body.
Clearly, preventing exposure is the best strategy, and dental amalgams is one of the biggest contributors to mercury toxicity.
By donating to this cause, you can help prevent the poisoning of
literally billions of people around the world. You’ll also help protect
our global environment from mercury pollution, a significant source of
which is mercury-based dentists. As noted by Brown:
“The symbol of the Minamata Convention was the fish, because we
all agreed we don’t want mercury in the fish that children eat. It
causes permanent brain damage to them. That mercury came from many
sources. One of the major sources was amalgam.
You can’t tell where that mercury came from, but everybody
agreed we’ve got to work on all major sources. That’s how we got
amalgam [included] as an environmental issue. It was the right strategy
to start the beginning of the end of amalgam.”
Future projections
June 3, 2020, the European Commission will decide whether to
recommend the phasing out of amalgam for all. Brown believes they will.
After all, several European countries have already done it. Other
nations are down to between 1% and 4% use. Similarly, Zambia has
expressed willingness to phase out amalgam by 2021.
“We’re seeing that in one country after another that I visit,” Brown says.
“For the Minamata Convention itself, we have the phase-down
requirement. We are trying to shift that to phase-out. We will make a
huge effort at that. This November, we hope to succeed.
If we don’t succeed, they will meet again in two years. Our
chance to get the victory is 2019. Failing that, we’ll take another
turn at that in 2021. By then, I believe we will win … We are very near
the finish line. Again, I urge people to stay with us, because we can
put this mercury into the hazardous waste bins of history.”
If you’re watching this, I encourage you to participate in this
annual donation drive, and make a donation — large or small — to this
worthy cause. Remember, I will match donation dollar for dollar, so
it’s a win-win for everyone.
I raised my match 20% this year, from $125,000 to $150,000. Please
consider doing the same, and raising your gift, at whatever level you
give, by 20% too.
As I said before, Brown runs a really lean, mean organization. He
doesn’t waste a cent. Your donations — as history has proven — will be
used wisely, judiciously, frugally yet effectively, to end the use of
mercury through legislative capacity within the next couple of years in
several nations, and the entire world within 10. It’s a great goal, and
I hope you will decide to play a part in this historical effort.
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