Environmental Concerns

Earth is our home. It represents our larger body. Whatever we do to the Earth will always come back to us. So many people are understanding this basic truth today that there is an explosion of interest of knowledge about our environment.

Mercury is being used by miners in the Amazon basin to extract gold from the river banks. Mercury is attracted to gold, and is used to draw out gold for the river banks. The gold-mercury combination is then heated to vaporize off the mercury, leaving the gold. Some of the mercury goes into the atmosphere, and some washes into the river beds.

From 1932 to 1968, the Chisso factory in Japan dumped an estimated 200-600 tons of mercury compounds into the Minamata Bay. People living on the bay ate fish from the contaminated water. Babies were born with many birth defects. Birds and animals went mad and died. It took 24 years of pollution before the cause of the tragedy was discovered. It took 12 more years for the mercury dumping to be stopped.

 
 

Iraq experienced large-scale mercury poisoning in 1956, 1960 and 1972. Over 300 people were poisoned after eating seeds treated with a fungicide containing an organic mercury compound in 1956 and 1960.

In 1972, 6,530 Iraqis were poisoned after eating bread made from grain treated with a mercury fungicide.

In 1961, Pakistan and Guatemala reported a similar poisoning from mercury fungicide that was found in wheat seeds. Victims died at a rate of 44%. In 1966, Sweden banned seed fungicides containing mercury.

The U.S. banned mercury in pesticides and interior paint, but not in fillings or children's vaccines. The level of mercury exposure from dental amalgams is far greater than that from latex paint in an enclosed room.

  		 

 
Mercury from dental amalgam contaminates wastewater coming from dental offices. Yet, there are no standard limits for mercury content in wastewater and no routine testing of wastewater to determine mercury sources or levels.

There are no EPA mercury emission limits for crematories. Pollution caused by mercury fillings doesn't stop after one dies.

Environmental awareness is becoming more commonly included in one's personal our philosophy for healthy living. More people understand that we live because the Earth lives. Because of the threat mercury poses to our health and the health of our Earth, it clearly has no place in our mouths or in the future of dentistry.

Help make our planet a better place for us and our children. Our sons and daughters are the caretakers of tomorrow. We owe them our best.