Finish This System of Alternative for the Wealthy and Mercury for the Poor — Help Mercury-Free Dentistry!

• The reality behind silver fillings — Nicely, I’m right here to inform you that “silver” filling is definitely a mercury filling. Mercury is just not solely poisonous, however essentially the most vaporous of heavy metals. So, which means mercury can attain the mind, the kidneys, the placenta, and the breast milk.

• The established order is enforced — The ADA’s callous and irresponsible promotion of mercury-based dentistry — when the options are technically higher now and way more tooth pleasant — continues to have extreme well being, office, and environmental penalties.

• Vote together with your pockets — Trendy dentists by no means use dental amalgam. In case your dentist nonetheless locations amalgam in any dental affected person, it’s time to take what you are promoting elsewhere.

• Main victories have been gained — With tenacity, Charlie constructed a worldwide nonprofit powerhouse — and with strategic brilliance, discovered the trail to dismantle the pro-amalgam machine. Amalgam is now banned throughout Europe, and in a number of African and Asian nations.

Each the FDA and the WHO switched from amalgam advocates to amalgam opponents. Readers, convincing both the FDA or WHO to change from help to opposition of a product is extraordinarily uncommon; altering each of those impenetrable colossi is, effectively, unprecedented in my expertise.

• Numerous lives have been saved from mercury — Tens of millions and tens of millions of American customers — and billions worldwide — have been spared from the well being danger of mercury-based fillings. Three a long time in the past, the late mercury-free dental pioneer Dr. Hal Huggins requested Charlie to assist a billion folks — it now seems he has completed so.

• There are nonetheless battles to be fought — However as I clarify beneath, we wouldn’t have mercury-free dentistry for all. We have to hold the momentum going to banish use of this primitive, pre-Civil Battle pollutant from our planet.

• The selection nonetheless isn’t given to all — Many customers are powerless to decide on. Troopers and sailors, institutionalized people, folks caught in authorities packages just like the Indian Well being Service (IHS), and folks saddled with cut-rate insurance coverage that favor mercury.

• Victims of fraudulent campaigning — The talked about customers and their kids are generally victims of pro-mercury dentists who falsely inform sufferers amalgam is “silver.” These are victims of callous authorities chief dental officers who couldn’t care much less that the FDA warns towards amalgam use in kids and different high-risk populations, victims of dental insurance coverage corporations that squeeze each greenback from customers with out regard to security.

• Authorities lastly gathered and listened — After years of pounding on doorways, Shoppers for Dental Alternative lastly obtained the federal government to the desk for a whole day final 12 months in Washington, DC to speak about ending amalgam.

Assembled have been authorities officers representing the FDA, the Environmental Safety Company (EPA), the State Division, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), and the IHS who met with a broad vary of environmental, medical, dental, science, and client leaders.

• New packages have been created — Now, we see outcomes. Shoppers for Dental Alternative satisfied the IHS to publish its “Plan to Part Down the Use of Dental Amalgam amongst American Indians/Alaska Natives 2010 – 2030 (or till dental amalgam is phased out within the U.S.).”

It consists of such efficient measures as “Present steering to IHS, tribal, and concrete dental packages to stop using dental amalgam on deciduous (major) tooth,” “Conduct a nationwide webinar for IHS dental suppliers concerning the 2020 FDA Security Communication and this phase-down plan,” and “Develop insurance policies that scale back the quantity of dental amalgam bought by IHS service models.”

• The ultimate push is on the horizon — Now, Shoppers for Dental Alternative calls on Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to go additional. Certainly, Charlie wrote a visitor column within the Tampa Bay Occasions urging Secretary Kennedy to finish amalgam use in federal packages with the “stroke of a pen” — that’s, ban purchases of mercury-based dental fillings by federal well being companies.

Then, 150 dental professionals signed onto a letter calling on Secretary Kennedy to finish dental amalgam in authorities packages.

• Florida — Assembling 4 nationwide organizations, Shoppers for Dental Alternative filed a petition to Tallahassee to finish amalgam use in Florida Medicaid. They’d a Zoom assembly with my pal, famend Florida Surgeon Normal Joseph Ladapo. Greater than a dozen Florida dentists signed a letter asking for motion.

• Rhode Island — Shoppers for Dental Alternative is constructing a grassroots motion within the Ocean State, discovering actual curiosity amongst environmental teams, racial justice advocates, and dental professionals.

• California — Shoppers for Dental Alternative is working with the Alameda County (Oakland) Shopper Affairs Fee to empower client selection.

• Reducing off amalgam provide — Shoppers for Dental Alternative already pushed main U.S. dental merchandise makers Dentsply and Envista (Kerr) out of the amalgam enterprise. At the moment, the foremost American corporations make solely mercury-free fillings.

• Reducing off amalgam demand — As Shoppers for Dental Alternative wins bans and restrictions on amalgam, the demand for this mercury product continues to drop. Nations banning amalgam sweep throughout Asia, notably the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon have additionally banned amalgam, in addition to within the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis).

• Reducing off the amalgam commerce — The current European Union (EU) legislation not solely bans amalgam use, but in addition bans amalgam imports and exports, slicing off dental mercury peddlers — each within the EU and overseas — from many markets.

• Europe was the most important consumer of amalgam on this planet — Governmental officers learn from speaking factors equipped by the pro-mercury Council of European Dentists (CED). Charlie assembled a staff from the 27 member nations. His staff returned repeatedly to the federal capital, Brussels, went to the nationwide capitals, and arranged a response to a European Fee ballot demonstrating that 88% of Europeans need mercury-free dentistry.

• Arduous work and perseverance repay — To run the marketing campaign in Europe, Charlie appointed Florian Schulze, chief of an thrilling new non-governmental group (NGO) in Berlin, the European Community for Environmental Drugs. Florian and his NGO engineered the breakthrough our trigger wanted — a legislation in 2017 banning amalgam for youngsters, pregnant girls, and nursing moms.

The purpose, then, upshifted to mercury-free dentistry for all — a path requiring a Biblical seven extra years of grueling challenges. The end in 2024 — a vote to ban amalgam was 27 nations for, zero nations towards. What began with two international locations in help in 2011 morphed into unanimity in 2024. The European Parliament supported the ban 98% to 2% — think about such a near-unanimity from a legislative physique!

• Governments world wide are following — Along with the rising variety of international locations banning all amalgam, many international locations — from Vietnam to Mauritius to Tunisia — have banned amalgam use for high-risk populations like kids.

Now, one other main nation, China, has joined them. China issued a brand new regulation in 2024 that in translation says, “Dental amalgam is prohibited to be used in dental therapy of deciduous tooth, sufferers underneath 15 years of age, and pregnant and lactating girls, except the dentist deems it needed primarily based on the wants of the affected person.”

• Making ready for the faceoff — In 2022, the Events adopted the Youngsters’s Modification addressing an finish date for amalgam for youngsters and for pregnant and breastfeeding girls. In 2023 the Events adopted a section out of dental amalgam as a worldwide purpose.

In November 2025, the Minamata Conference on Mercury reconvenes — on the high of the agenda is whether or not to shift treaty language from section out amalgam as a purpose to section out of amalgam as a authorized mandate. Each the Africa continent, by unanimity, and the European Union have already known as for help of this modification — and help is rising throughout the globe.

• The struggle to ban amalgam involves a head — Charlie will lead a civil society delegation from 13 nations on the upcoming convention of the events, coming 3 to 7 November in Geneva. The voice of mercury-free dentistry will probably be well-represented.