Toxic Teeth

The
People's Coalition For Justice
&
Humanity

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Toxic Teeth-Are Mercury Fillings Harming Your Health?

by C.R Wiliams

PNO Staff Writer

Freya Koss, a local woman, is not happy about The American Dental Association’s "Give A Kid A Smile Day." Koss has particular reason to be alarmed. In 1998 she developed double vision. She was then diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus and Myasthenia Gravis. Amazingly, six years later, as a result of having her amalgam dental fillings removed she has regained her health. She is now offering guidance to others as well as being an advocate for mercury free dentistry.

Freya Koss after having fillings removed.
Inset-before showing devasting impact of mercury fillings

Koss, who is the Director of Development for Consumers for Dental Choice survived and recovered from dental amalgam mercury poisoning, but she is not certain that the many children participating in the ADA’s program will. The program is meant to provide the necessary dental care that underserved children living in the city so desperately need. Generated by the Surgeon General’s office, the program is an outgrowth of concern related to an acknowledged epidemic of oral disease among disadvantaged children (2-12 years of age).

Koss reported that on February 6th as a part of the ADA’s 2nd Annual "Give A Kid A Smile Day" project, approximately 200 children were bused to the University of Pennsylvania’s Dental School Clinic for free dental evaluations and "treatment." The ADA program uses state-subsidized clinics as well as private dental offices .

"All the children I observed were African Americans," Koss said. "Their parents told me that their children received ‘silver’ fillings, but those fillings aren’t silver, they are mercury based."

Consumers For Dental Choice reports that the mercury fillings are "deceptively called ‘silver’ fillings by the ADA and Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA), but these fillings are actually 50% MERCURY, the second most toxic non-radioactive element, next to plutonium, on the face of this earth." The World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991 reported that the primary source for mercury exposure in the general population is derived from dental amalgam fillings.

The Toxicological Profile for Mercury by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) indicated that children may have a "greater exposure and greater risks from mercury." Despite these reports, advocates for mercury free dentistry say that the ADA maintains that mercury amalgams are safe and continue to support the use of this dangerous substance in human beings based on the fact that they have been in use for over a 150 years.

Consumers For Dental Choice strongly believes that in light of hundreds of reports and peer reviewed studies substantiating the extreme health hazards of mercury in dental amalgam fillings, it is incomprehensible that the ADA and other dental organizations continue to advocate it’s use. Charles Brown, national counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice says: "at greatest risk is the vulnerable population of children, and even more so, the poor who get filled and drilled with mercury fillings, as compared to other socio-economic groups who may have choice".

Kids Smile a dental clinic on Island Avenue with a patient clientele of 90% African American children. Koss said that Cheryl Jansen, the executive director at the facility which participated in the ADA program, admitted that mercury fillings are used in these children’s teeth. A dentist advocating for the use of mercury fillings said, "it’s the best bang for the buck."

"Although the ADA claims that the amount of mercury leaching from these fillings is minute, it's risky business treating children with a material deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a poison before use and a hazardous waste when discarded. Mercury, being eliminated from thermometers, vaccines, food, car switches and blood pressure machines due to its extreme toxic effect on the environment cannot be considered safe in the mouth," Koss said.

Koss went on to say that mercury amalgams have never been classified or tested for safety or efficacy by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). On February 20, 2002 The FDA’s Consumer Report stated that they had "inadvertently" forgotten to classify the pre-encapsulated form of amalgam in use for more than 20 years. Due to public concern and pressure from consumers and advocate organizations, the FDA and the National Institute of Health are now overseeing a new scientific review analyzing the possible health hazards of mercury dental amalgam fillings. This review is based on scientific data submitted by consumers and scientists.

Mercury exposure to the fetus and mercury found in breast milk are also of significant concern. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new study recently reporting that the number of newborns at risk for health problems because of unsafe mercury levels in their bloodstream has nearly doubled. The agency reported that from 1999-2000 there were 630,000 newborns in the US with unsafe levels of mercury in their systems. "We have long known that the effects of methyl mercury on the fetal nervous system are more serious than on adults", said Kathryn Mahaffey, a biochemist and top scientist in EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances….."But we did not routinely measure [umbilical] cord blood. We had thought that the mother and the fetus had the same level." Mahaffey began developing her new estimates of the number of infants at risk by studying researched information, which helped her revise the formula used to extract data from the 1999-2000 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and on mercury levels in pregnant women's blood.

Jane Houlihan, a vice president of the Environmental Working Group, noted that the study "for the first time calculated the number based on children's blood levels, not mothers'. The EPA analysis is showing that even if even if the mother is below the danger zone, she can give birth to a baby that's over the limit." Mercury, a heavy metal, is a highly toxic substance that can seriously damage neurological tissue. Poisoning can lead to learning disabilities, lower intelligence and overall sluggishness. Fetuses, infants and young children are especially vulnerable. Recent advisories from EPA and the FDA have cautioned pregnant women about the dangers of mercury poisoning.

Acknowledging the significant health impact on the African American community, the national NAACP passed a resolution adopted in 2001 supporting the "Mercury in Dental Fillings Act (US Congressional Bill HR 4163). The bill is to provide immediate protection for "at risk" populations from mercury amalgam fillings. Re-introduced in 2003 as HR 1680 by Congresswoman Diane Watson and Congressman Dan Burton, it calls for full disclosure and protection for children and pregnant women, choice and insurance coverage for third party payments. Also supporting the bill, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators on November 20, 2001, passed a similar resolution endorsing mercury dental warnings, particularly for "children, pregnant women and nursing mothers as well as coverage for alternative dental fillings under Medicaid and insurance plans.

Assemblyman Jerome E. Horton (a member of the CA Black Caucus) became a leading force in that state’s legislature in 2003, by introducing and achieving passage of AB-100 a bill that provides choice of non-mercury fillings for the poor.

Bombarding the poor with mercury fillings without making the risks clear to the recipients is in direct contrast to the intention of the Pennsylvania Dental Patient Bill of Rights (PDA). Adopted by the PDA in 1998, the bill prohibits the "dollars and cents approach" that the majority of the dental community promotes. The bill also provides patients with the right to ask about treatment options, regardless of cost, ability to pay or insurance coverage, and to be informed of the advantages and disadvantages of recommended treatment in a language that they understand.

Mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal that can seriously damage neurological tissue, particularly the vulnerable brains of the fetus, infant and young children. Researchers have found that the impact of mercury poisoning can lead to learning disabilities, lower intelligence and cause overall sluggishness. "I just want to warn people so that they don’t have to go through what I did," Koss said. "Especially the children! It is of great concern that minority children have no choice, and as a result African American youngsters are at great health risk due to amalgam dental treatment. People need to know so that they can protect themselves and their children."

To learn more and find out how you can help to to spread to the word in your community and ban the use of mercury in dentistry, log onto the Consumers for Dental Choice's website at www.toxicteeth.org.

Printed courtesy of the Philadelphia New Observer Newspaper (PNO)

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