Take Action
That American dentistry became mired in mercury is a story of profits first, people last. Amalgam is a primitive, pre-Civil War, pollution product that is half mercury. The 50% of North American dentists still using amalgam do so for the quick and easy profits – while handing us the bill for the health effects and environmental disaster.
We are celebrating the first Mercury-Free Dentistry Week, September 5-10, 2011. Now is the time for those dentists still using amalgam to switch – join their brother and sister dentists who practice mercury-free dentistry. Now is the time for you to decide that henceforth you will not allow mercury in your mouth or your child’s mouth – no matter what a pro-mercury dentist might say. Now is the time for you to tell your neighbor, cousin, or best friend: Don’t get a mercury filling. And what is a mercury filling? It is what the mainstream press calls “silver fillings.”
Consumers for Dental Choice
What can you do ?
Leading the charge against mercury fillings is Consumers for Dental Choice, a nonprofit group that merits your support. With its worldwide Campaign for Mercury-Free Dentistry, we get closer – year-by-year, and day-by-day – to ending this abominable 150-year historical mistake.
But to win, we need action in communities across the nation and around the world. Here’s what you can do right in your community or your workplace:
- If your dentist has not switched to mercury-free dentistry, this is the week for him or her to do so. Call your dentist and ask. If they use mercury and insist on sticking with it, re-consider your choice of dentists.
- If you work for a company that covers dental filling, ask if they will cover composites or ART or other alternatives to amalgam. Consider the stellar example of the Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corporation, which fully covers composite but does not pay for amalgam! Parker-Hannifin employees and their families are getting non-toxic dental fillings.
- If you know your Mayor or a member of your City or Town Council, consider asking if they will do what is happening in some California cities: pass a resolution calling for an end to amalgam and a request that dentists in your town stop using amalgam.
Charlie Brown, who runs Consumers for Dental Choice, is headed to Nairobi in October to lead a worldwide delegation participating in the world mercury treaty negotiations. With him will be a team of dentists, consumers, attorneys, and scientists fighting to get amalgam into that treaty. With the world deciding whether we continue allowing mercury in children’s mouths, much is at stake. Here’s what you can do in your nation or state:
Americans: Our #1 problem is the Food and Drug Administration, which has partnered with the American Dental Association to cover up the mercury, to make you think you are getting silver instead of mercury in your mouth. The FDA intentionally conceals the warnings about amalgam deep in its regulation — so parents will never see them. On its website, the FDA gives dentists the green light to continue to deceive consumers with the term “silver fillings”
“Americans are ready for the end of amalgam.” This was the theme of the testimony to the U.S. Department of State on August 18 by former West Virginia state Senator Charlotte Pritt. Yes, Americans are ready. But FDA is not. So let’s send them a message.
Nine months ago, FDA scientists advised the agency to disclose the mercury to all patients and parents, and to stop amalgam for children and pregnant women. Yet FDA sits – sits actually in the pocket of the American Dental Association – ignoring its own scientists.
Please write the Director of FDA’s Center for Devices, Jeff Shuren, jeff.shuren@fda.hhs.gov Ask Dr Shuren why FDA continues to ignore the scientists and covers up the mercury from American parents and consumers. Ask when FDA is going to get in step with the world on mercury.
Dr. Jeff Shuren, Director
Center for Devices, U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
10903 New Hampshire Ave.
WO66-5431, Room 5442
Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002
Telephone 301-796-5900
Californians : Dr. Shuren is coming to San Francisco for a “town meeting” on September 22. We urge Northern Californians to attend. It will go from 8 am to 12 noon, at the Embassy Suites Hotel, San Francisco Airport (telephone 650.589.3400)
In Southern California, Consumers for Dental Choice is organizing a city-by-city attack on amalgam — and needs volunteers. If you wish to help with the grassroots work of organizing for city council hearings, gathering petitions, and telephoning, volunteer by writing announcements@toxicteeth.org
Australians: Your government, Aussies, is now in last place on the mercury treaty, asking the world to throw in the towel instead of working to phase out dental mercury. A great new group has started, Australians for Mercury-Free Dentistry, led by dentist Lisa Matriste and consumer activist Anna Priest. We urge you to go to its website and join: http://www.mercuryfreedentistry.com.au/
Folks worldwide: If you aren’t on that list, there’s plenty to do – for example, Dominique Bally, an outstanding young advocate from the Ivory Coast, runs the Amalgam-Free Africa Campaign. If you want to help somewhere, anywhere, and there’s nothing on the list above for you, write Charlie Brown, charlie@toxicteeth.org
But here’s what you can do now: contribute to Consumers for Dental Choice. The Natural Health Research Foundation, which I founded, will double match whatever you give this week. I believe that strongly in the mission, the commitment, and the quality of work of Consumers for Dental Choice and its Campaign for Mercury-Free Dentistry.
Donations can be made online. Or checks can be mailed to:
Consumers for Dental Choice
316 F St., N.E., Suite 210
Washington DC 20002
Consumers for Dental Choice, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advocating mercury-free dentistry. Contributions are tax-deductible in the U.S. Thank you for supporting mercury-free dentistry!
