Mercury Safety Issues Include Dental Professionals, Flu Vaccine

August 11, 2009 By Jim Du Molin 12 Comments

Last week's "cash for amalgam" article brought in lots of comments.

"Let’s be clear, the classification (Class II) assigned implies increased risk, though the contention is that it is as safe as it has always been believed to be?" asked one commenter.

Indeed, it's a complicated issue. Let's review a few of the big questions surrounding mercury:

Are amalgam fillings bad for patients?
Does amalgam threaten the health of dental professionals?
What about the presence of mercury in vaccines, particularly the H1N1 vaccine?

Allow me to discuss these one at a time.

What about the presence of mercury in vaccines, particularly the H1N1 vaccine?

Frankly, the FDA is in a Catch 22 situation on this issue. I think the logic is that, since H1N1 is likely to kill more of us quicker than mercury fillings, the FDA should say mercury is safe in vaccinations and only marginally unsafe in dental fillings.

"This genocidal reaction of the FDA pertains to vaccination mercury, and their certification of this toxic ingredient in the flu vaccines in particular. They could not outlaw mercury amalgams and at the same time advance and encourage 'fast-tracked' mercury poisoning using thimerosal in the H1N1 and season flu (and other) vaccines."
- Dr. Leonard Horowitz

Are amalgam fillings bad for patients?

I'm an authority on many subjects, but does anyone really think that a dental management consultant is the right person to answer this question?

Does amalgam threaten the health of dental professionals?

Obviously consumer safety is a top concern, but dentists have to also consider if there me be any negative impacts to the health of everyone who works at the practice.

"Dental personnel are being injured. There are case controlled studies of women in dentistry rendered infertile from occupational exposure."
- Dr. David Kennedy

Dr. Tom McGuire, founder of the International Association of Mercury Free Dentists, told me, "I've no doubt that amalgam fillings will be banned in the near future, either by government regulation or by a class action lawsuit. But regardless of whether or not they are banned, or whether or not they are a health hazard, it will still be important for dentists to make their practices mercury safe… and as quickly as possible."

He'll be conducting a seminar about "How to Practice Mercury Safe Dentistry" in San Francisco on September 26th and in Portland on October 10th. "As I tell patients, you have to have the information to be able to make an informed choice. Some dentists have made this so emotional that it is like religion or politics."

Indeed, it is a lot like religion or politics, with people preaching zealously from both sides. Whew!

Filed Under: Dental Editorials Tagged With: amalgam, mercury

About Jim Du Molin

Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet marketing expert for dentists in North America. He has helped hundreds of doctors make more money in their practices using his proven Internet marketing techniques. +Jim Du Molin

http://www.thevisibledentist.com/ The Visible Dentist

Catch 22 sounds about right.

It’s a well-known, accepted fact that mercury is a neurotoxin, yet it’s okay to put this highly poisonous substance in your body? That’s not rational, that’s insanity.

I think it’s also important to understand WHO is behind the push for Swine Flu vaccines, and especially why.

Vaccines : Quite Different From What Public Is Told

John Barremore
Houston, TX
http://www.cent4dent.com Steve Markus

Dear Jim:

I believe you got some great commentary from dentists who are on the cutting edge of understanding the issues here. Len Horowitz is a brilliant dentist and epidemiologist. David Kennedy is one of the founders of the IAOMT. I was a blogger and keynote speaker before the FDA at the mercury safety hearings, and a transcript of what went on is on my blog http://fdamercury-nerotoxicty.blogspot.com/

What happened that caused the FDA to first reverse the adoption of their own white paper extolling mercury safety? A cogent and ordered education of the erudite panel of MD’s who were toxicologists, allergists, neurologists, etc. They then voted 13-7 against adopting the white paper.

The panel then began questioning their own staff member assigned to research and draft the white paper. At first they asked him how it was that this white paper was so one sided, and he sounded like Ralph Cramden after Alice had caught him “hummina hummina hummmina.”

When they finally pinned him down, he turned into Adolph Eichmann, “I vas only following orders.” So, the FDA decision was a major dissapointment to those of us who worked so long and hard to make things change, but the challenge now is to find out whose orders? Follow the money. The manufacturers? The dental insurance industry? The ADA? IMHO, some dastardly individual, a Lex Luthor so-to-speak, has an agenda to continue poisoning Americans with mercury.

No mind you, they talked about people who are allergic to mercury. They confuse sensitivity with allergy. There are some whose systems are so sensitive to mercury (due to an inability to excrete, or the possession of the APO E-4 allele) that they develop toxic reactions to this poison. Their bodies simply can’t handle it. Young chlidren are most prone. The Vimy study has shown how mercury from fillings crosses the placenta, so pregnant women should also refrain from Hg placement.

In my practice, because we use the IAOMT protocol, we see many individuals seeking (in conjunction with an MD) to rid their bodies of Hg. One group are women who’ve had autistic children who are corageously seeking to get pregnant again, and to beat the odds of their having another autistic child.

There was an excellent rant that Horowitz had on the internet, that has mysteriously disappeared about the government conspiracy over the H1N1 vaccine. I would be very wary about it as well.
http://www.cent4dent.com Steve Markus

A win for us … FDA changes website

The first crack in FDA’s armor has appeared, folks. This morning, FDA changed its website, adding this sentence: “High levels of mercury vapor exposure are associated with adverse effects in the brain and the kidneys.” (Go to http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DentalProducts/DentalAmalgam/ucm171094.htm and scroll down to “Potential Risks”). Prior to this, the website did not explain to consumers the damage caused by mercury at all.

Congratulations to all of us in the mercury-free dentistry movement. FDA realizes that its website, like its rule, is a cover-up of the existence and risk of mercury, so its lawyers are trying to ease FDA into a more defensible position (see e-mail below).

But it is still “the Henry Schein Amalgam rule.” It still allows the nation’s #1 distributor of mercury amalgam, Henry Schein Inc. untrammeled rights to market amalgam for everyone, even pregnant women, without even disclosing the mercury to patients. (As you will recall, Schein paid Margaret Hamburg about a million bucks to be its director during her revolving-door time outside of government.)

The website still does not re-instate the language FDA agreed in writing in 2008 to maintain on its website: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses.” In particular the website still fails to inform consumers that young children and unborn children are especially susceptible to the effects of mercury. FDA does not want parents to know about this danger to children even though it admits that this information is true (buried deep in the labeling intended for dentists in the new rule’s special controls, the agency writes that “The developing neurological systems in fetuses and young children may be more sensitive to the neurotoxic effects of mercury vapor”).

Now that you had an impact writing Deputy Commissioner Sharfstein. our next step will be to write your Representative in Congress. My next e-mail will suggest talking points and the route to e-mail and to phone him or her.

FDA is covering up the mercury risks, but doing so a little bit less than yesterday. We move forward; they retreat. In the words of our first naval hero John Paul Jones, “We have not yet begun to fight.”

Charlie

11 August 2009

PS—Breaking news: The Director of FDA’s Center for Devices, an accomplice to FDA’s years of covering up mercury resigned today under pressure. Dr. Dan Schultz had repeatedly rebuffed my efforts to get the Center for Devices to change course on amalgam. His exit on the same day that FDA alters its website is more evidence that FDA is being rocked by this egregious mistake over amalgam. FDA minus Schultz means more momentum for our movement.

Charles G. Brown, National Counsel

Consumers for Dental Choice, ,www.toxicteeth.org

Working for Mercury-Free Dentistry

————————————————

From: xxx.xxxxx@fda.hhs.gov
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 8:57 AM
To: Charlie Brown
Subject: FDA website

Mr. Brown, although we have declined to repost the old website as you requested, the agency has modified the language in the current website regarding the potential risks of dental amalgam. You can read the modified language at: http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DentalProducts/DentalAmalgam/ucm171094.htm

The first full paragraph under the heading “Potential Risks” now states:
“Dental amalgam contains elemental mercury. It releases low levels of mercury vapor that can be inhaled. High levels of mercury vapor exposure are associated with adverse effects in the brain and the kidneys.”

(A lawyer in FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel)
Dorice

It was a great insult to all when Merele Paule PhD the FDA representative at the 2006 hearing on dental amalgam stated “I was simply following orders”. Further, one must consider what this reveals. Disregard for conditions and the truth in deference to ones rank?

To suggest mercury is an allergen is to suggest that a fired bullet is the same. Yes, some people live after being shot, however, all of us are prey to the life threatening exposure of being shot with a bullet. Likewise, mercury exposure threatens life. In fact, since July 28, 2009 the FDA website has been changed.

“High levels of mercury vapor exposure are associated with adverse effects in the brain and the kidneys.” (Go to http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DentalProducts/DentalAmalgam/ucm171094.htm and scroll down to “Potential Risks”)

What are the related health care costs due to mercury exposure? Given the intense debate on health care services in the US, it is a wonder that nobody has undertaken a review of just what are the true costs of mercury use in dentistry. Even following the banality of suggesting that some “hypersensitive” individuals are “allergic” to mercury; would there not be a health care cost involved in treating the “allergic reaction”?

FDA’s latest edit to its web site suggests mercury vapor has adverse effects on the kidneys and brain. Might there be a cost associated with treating the affected individual?

Consider the life-cycle of mercury and environmental costs of the mercury from dental waste entering the waterways, only to be absorbed in the fish that is later eaten.

What is FDA’s guidance on how much mercury one can safely be exposed to in dental amalgam? How many fillings can one have before nearing a toxic threshold? Or what constitutes a hypersensitive individual?

Frankly, I have never been advised by a dentist on how many fillings can safely be placed or asked by a physician how many fillings in my teeth or tested for mercury level.
Birgit Calhoun

Not only is there a cost to treating the signs of toxicity. The failing kidney also has to be treated.

The kidney puts out several hormones: erythropoietin, renin and 1,25 (OH)2 D3, also called calcitriol, i.e. active Vitamin D. Active Vitamin D becomes deficient when your kidney gets damaged sufficiently. Vitamin D is important so that the human body can make glutathione (and bone and healthy cells to prevent cancer or MS etc). Here we have the beginning of a vicious cycle lasting a lifetime. Mercury poisons the body to cause Vitamin D deficiency which in turn causes an inability to naturally chelate mercury with glutathione. Kidney damage also causes mineral imbalances that may lead to heart disease. It could go on. In the end nobody would blame dental amalgam. Nobody would even connect the two. But we would be paying for it one way or another.
http://www.thevisibledentist.com/ The Visible Dentist

I’m of the same mind as Dr. Marcus (above) on the mercury issue, who I might add, is not only a well known and highly regarded dentist in his own right, but also a conscientious dental practioner who first and foremost considers the health and wellness of his patients. I only wish more dentists were made from the same cloth.

John Barremore
Houston, TX
http://dipauladentistry.com Michael DiPaula

What about the growing controversy of the biphenol plastic in our composites.There is growing controversy about its carcogenic factor in plastics , bottles and composite dental restorations. Soon we will run out of material to restore teeth. I guess we can eventually go back to gold foil.
Bob Bowman

Anyone know how to get more information about Dr. McGuire’s seminar on mercury safe dentistry??? Thanks.
http://www.thewealthydentist.com Jim Du Molin

I guess it’s hard to see the hyperlink in there…

Dr. McGuire’s website is New Directions Dentistry: http://www.newdirectionsdentistry.com

There you can find information about his upcoming seminars, as well as lots more about mercury-free dentistry and mercury-safe dentistry.
http://www.cent4dent.com Steve Markus

Contact Dr. McGuire at http://www.dentalwellness4u.com Consider going to an IAOMT meeting (coming up in Sept in Vegas, and get the first dental lecture on mercury in your professional career. I find that issue rather curious.

Thanks to the kudos from Dr. Barramore.
http://www.insightsfordentists.com Dental Marketing Options

Haha true! They say that it’s as safe as it always was, yet they increased the risk. What was the cause for that?
http://www.drontheweb.com DrontheWeb

Great article!