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"I cannot walk away from the millions of people who are suffering worldwide from the toxicity of their mercury amalgam fillings... the economic impact from diseases related to amalgam fillings will be dramatic in years to come on the world." |
FDA ISSUES FINAL REGULATION ON DENTAL AMALGAMNew FDA guidelines fail to protect pregnant women and children from the threat of “silver” dental fillings.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final regulation classifying dental amalgam on the 28th July 2009 by making it a Class II (moderate risk) device. June 2008, a court settlement filed by the US Consumers for Dental Choice required the FDA to withdraw claims of mercury amalgam’s safety from its Web site and issue advisory indicating: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxin effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetuses.”“FDA remains alone in the world in failing to protect children and pregnant women from mercury fillings. Since 1996, Canadian dentists have been told not to put mercury amalgam in children or pregnant women. Since 1998, British dentists have been told the same for pregnant women. Norway and Sweden have banned amalgam altogether. Regrettably, this rule should have meant the end of two-tiered dentistry: mercury for the poor and choice for the rest. Instead the FDA has failed to carry out its mission of protecting the public health”, concluded Charles G Brown, National Counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice, who brought the lawsuit compelling this action. He has vowed they will see the FDA back in court. The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), a group of dental, medical, and research professionals dedicated to raising the standards of biocompatibility in dental practice, completely rejects the FDA’s action also. They have been obviously influenced more by outside pressure than by the scientific standards that have produced other mercury warnings-about mercury in thermometers, or from excess consumption of fish-sources that clearly provide a lower risk of exposure in the general population than mercury dental fillings. The IAOMT will continue to fight this unwise policy by all legal means. Anti-dental amalgam campaigner Juliet Pratt, Speaker/Financial Adviser,
from Auckland, has submitted to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee
in February this year a petition of 1300 signatures calling on the Government
to immediately prohibit the use of mercury amalgam dental fillings for children
and pregnant women and phase it out entirely by the end of 2013. Juliet went public last year after suffering chronic fatigue syndrome for 9 years, which she attributes to the amalgam fillings she had. “I became overwhelmed with public support;
so many people nationwide contacted me, who had also suffered, from illnesses
related to their amalgam filling. For more information go to: Contact: Juliet Pratt 09 359 9911, 0275 309 319 |
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