Last week a number of media outlets reported that EU had brought in a law that outlawed the use of Dental Amalgam for fillings for children under 15 and pregnant or breast feeding women. The law is from 2017 already, but it came into effect only on 01 July.
So what is Amalgam? Amalgam is compound for tooth fillings that contains Mercury. Mercury is highly toxic but for some odd reason it is allegedly harmless when in your mouth.
The Irish Times wrote in an article “Mercury is the only liquid metal and, while safe when used in dentistry, has been associated with incidents of poisoning, as in the Bay of Minamata in Japan where, in the 1950s and 1960s, a disfiguring disease was identified to be associated with industrial-scale mercury poisoning.”
So it’s safe, but causes poisoning!? How does that make sense?
The Irish Times continued and claimed that the change was part of the Government’s adherence to the Minamata Convention, a United Nations agreement dating from 2013, which aims to protect human health and the environment by reducing, or eliminating altogether, the use of the chemical element mercury.
But it might not surprise you that the Irish Government delayed the change until the very last moment and that it only did so because of a EU law change.
Interestingly Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany have banned or restricted use of amalgam already in 2011. But the Irish Government thought it was appropriate to allow the use for another 7 years! SEVEN!
Now why is this change happening? After all the Health Service Executive in Ireland said that the Amalgam compound was “a safe, reliable and durable filling material, and has been used successfully for over 100 years”. So something safe and perfect will be banned? Isn’t that odd? Bans are normally reserved for dangerous things, no?
Well, interestingly if you are older than 15 or not pregnant, you can currently still get Amalgam fillings DESPITE the fact that many other countries saw the need to ban it.
So is it dangerous or not? Dentists and Health Service Executive tell us that it is safe, but how could they not do that. It would imply that they were lying all along. The ban for children and pregnant women is a clear admission that it is NOT safe.
DON’T use it and tell your dentist that you do NOT want any Amalgam fillings added!
