Reduce mercury for health, environment
Reduce mercury for health, environment
Published: Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Dental offices are among the last frontiers in the move to reduce mercury pollution in Vermont.
Probably half the mercury in use in the state can be found in people’s mouths. According to the state’s Advisory Committee on Mercury Pollution, it doesn’t have to be that way.
The advisory committee, which was created in 1998 to advise the Legislature, the governor and the public about mercury pollution, says mercury-containing dental amalgams cause needless public health and environmental concerns when there are viable nonmercury alternatives.
Exposure to mercury, a neurotoxin, is largely through consumption of contaminated fish. But since dental amalgams contain about 50 percent mercury, there is “worldwide concern about potential effects on health and the environment,” the advisory committee said in its annual report.
Last year, Gov. Jim Douglas signed into law a bill that bans the sale of mercury thermometers, thermostats, switches, relays, and measuring devices starting in 2007. Button cell batteries weren’t included in the ban, but earlier this month, the U.S. battery industry announced it would eliminate mercury from the batteries by 2011. Vermont’s legislation also required dental offices to install mercury amalgam separators to properly dispose of mercury waste from tooth fillings, and dentists were to follow “best management practices” to reduce mercury pollution.
Friday, the Department of Environmental Conservation takes final comments on establishing these best management practices. The mercury advisory committee is urging two key provisions be included in the practices: that dentists use mercury-free dental fillings when appropriate, and they provide patients more information about mercury amalgams and mercury-free fillings so consumers can make informed choices.
In 1998, the state passed a landmark mercury labeling law and signed onto a “mercury action plan” with other New England states and the eastern Canadian provinces to clean up their own back yards before demanding the same of the coal-fired power plants of the Midwest and other polluters from outside the region, where more than half of the mercury in Vermont’s environment originates.
Vermont has come a long way in reducing mercury pollution. Next stop: the dentist’s office.
To learn more Go to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Web site at www.mercvt.org .