Millions of individuals are no longer subjected to mercury fillings. The Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse reports that amalgam use declined 46% in just a three-year period, 2004-2007 (the last years for which authoritative data are available). By contrast, there was virtually no decline (just 1%) in the period 2001-2004. This clearinghouse — a consortium of states which require reporting by all the big manufacturers — suggests amalgam is continuing to decline after 2007 as awareness of amalgam’s mercury grows.
Mercury-amalgam fillings, more commonly known as silver fillings, have been shown to release mercury into your body the entire time they’re in your mouth. Mercury is a dangerous neuro-toxin that can endanger your well-being and your health, which is why mercury has already been banned from thermometers and classrooms in the United States and why mercury amalgam fillings have been banned from use in several European countries.
It is estimated that an amalgam filling will release up to half of its mercury content over a ten year period (50% corrosion rate). – Dr. Robert Gammal
The most common form of exposure to mercury is by inhalation of vapor and there is widespread general agreement that this leads to a slowly developing and insidious poisoning, which at first yield psychic and other general effects that are vague and difficult to diagnose. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991 determined that dental amalgam was the greatest source of mercury contamination to the general population – up to ten times greater than all other sources combined, and that that for mercury vapor, there is no known "no-observable-effect level (NOEL)". In other words all levels of mercury vapor are harmful. Doctors Kingman, Albertini and Brown concur having determined in their research with US military populations that the major contributor to mercury body burdens of Americans comes from dental amalgam.
Do you have any of these serious illnesses: paralysis, Parkinson’s, hyperthyroidism, Lupus, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes? How about impotency or mood swings? Do you suffer from more common conditions like fatigue, skin discoloration (red cheeks, nose, fingers or toes) or headaches? Each of these conditions may be linked to the presence of mercury in your body.
Amalgam dental fillings have been in use for about 180 years originating in England then spreading to the rest of Europe and America. At the time they gained immediate acceptance by dentists as they provided a cheap and reasonably effective alternative to any other filling techniques. Figures released from the Gold Institute in Washington show that America and Japan use proximately 100 metric tons of silver per year for the fabrication of dental material.
The silver fillings in our mouths should more accurately be called mercury fillings as they are made of about 50% mercury and only about 35% silver. Amalgam is a mixture of Silver, Tin, Zinc and Copper which is mixed in the dental surgery with an equal amount of mercury. This would indicate that approximately 140 metric tons of mercury is being placed directly into the mouths of these countries citizens.
Scaled up to figure the world wide use, we can speculate that approximately 1,000 metric tons of mercury, the most poisonous non radioactive element known to mankind, were being placed directly inside of human mouths as recently as the turn of the century, where chewing and bacteria maximize contamination and vapor release, and where the lungs are present to absorb what is released.
When the ADA said that the strongest and most convincing support they have for the safety of dental amalgam is the fact that each year more than 1.1 billion amalgam fillings are placed in the United States, they should be careful not to incriminate themselves and give lawyers the true dimensions of the chemical horror they have perpetuated.
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