Amalgam to be Banned In Europe

April 8, 2024

https://groups.electricembers.net/lists/arc/dams-america/2024-04/

Amalgam to be banned across Europe

April, 2023

This article by Ann-Marie Lidmark was translated from Swedish to English by Marta Sonnenblick, a DAMS coordinator in California

Our note: This ban of amalgam mercury fillings applies across the European Union (EU). On January 31, 2020 the United Kingdom officially exited the EU; recall that the UK includes Scotland and Northern Ireland. So, the amalgam ban throughout the EU, as described in the article below, does not include the UK.

Beginning January 1st, 2025, all use of amalgam dental fillings is prohibited in Europe.

Amalgam consists of 50 percent mercury and mercury vapor is released throughout the life of the amalgam filling. That leak can make sensitive people very ill. The environment also takes a beating.

The European amalgam ban has been worked on by the [Swedish] Dental Health Association for several decades. The ban is clearly a great victory for this organization and its sister organizations in the rest of Europe. And, not the least, it is a victory for everyone who has been poisoned by their amalgam fillings.

It is also interesting that Europe has phased out amalgam fillings for both health and environmental reasons. The Swedish ban [of 2009] unfortunately focused solely on the environment, which led to neither dentists nor the Social Security Administration taking the risks of mercury use in dentistry seriously.

Mercury

The authorities talk about 0.6 grams of mercury on average per filling, but that is not true. Most amalgam fillings contain significantly more. A normal amalgam filling can contain from one to three grams of mercury.

A little mercury vapor always leaks from the fillings when chewing, consuming hot drinks, salty food, etc. Of the vapor that you inhale, 80 percent is taken up by the small blood vessels of the lungs and is then transported with the blood to the various organs of the body. Mercury disturbs the body’s biochemistry to the highest degree.

Extensive health risk

Amalgam’s mercury content carries major risks for health, but also for the environment. For health reasons, the EU had already banned amalgam for sensitive groups in 2018. That partial ban covered children under 15, pregnant and breastfeeding women. Since then, work has been going on for a total ban. The Swedish government, its authorities and the [Swedish] Dental Health Association have been strongly pushing for it.

“The decision means big gains for health,” says Florian Schulze, head of the European Network for Environmental Medicine, which helped us and our sister organizations in Europe push the issue towards parliamentarians in the EU.

Charlie Brown and Florian Schulze have been driving the effort to bring about an amalgam ban in Europe together with an El parliamentarian.

However, there are a few exceptions to the total amalgam ban and that includes both the Czech Republic and Slovenia; both of those countries will have another year and a half to complete the decommissioning of amalgams. That provision was a compromise that was forced in order to get the decision through.

The export of mercury amalgams from Europe is also banned

All countries in Europe are covered by the amalgam export ban, which also applies from January 1, 2025. The issue of an export ban has been urgent to pursue as mercury from amalgam can be used in small-scale gold mining, which creates very serious health problems for the workers. Other less toxic alternatives exist.

Article by Ann-Marie Lidmark, who is the former chairman of the [Swedish non-profit] Tandhalsoforbundet (which means Dental Health Association)

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Category:

Activism, Dentistry, Uncategorized

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