The European Environmental Bureau, in cooperation with the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and the Zero Mercury Working Group, held a Conference on “Dental Sector as a Source of Mercury Contamination” in Brussels on Friday 25th May 2007.

 Read the NGO joint press release "A real mouthful: Why mercury fillings should be banned"

On this occasion, HEAL and HCWH launched the last fact sheet of the “Stay Healthy Stop Mercury” campaign on “Mercury and Dental Amalgams”. HEAL and HCWH advocate restrictions on the use and marketing of dental amalgams containing mercury, ie the second largest use of mercury in Europe, and the promotion of safer substitutes.

Mercury is highly toxic, causing damage to the nervous system and is particularly harmful to the development of unborn children. It accumulates in the bodies of humans and wildlife, and can become more concentrated as it moves up the food chain, especially in certain types of fish. Mercury travels long distances through the atmosphere, and has contaminated the global food supplies at levels posing a significant risk to human health.

The EU Strategy adopted in January 2005 identified dental amalgam as an area for concern and requested an opinion from the EU Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks to consider whether additional regulatory measures are appropriate.

The European Commission consequently prepared questions - on the environmental impact (DG Environment) and on the health impacts of the mercury dental amalgam and their alternatives (DG Enterprise). Both sets of questions were then sent to DG SANCO (Health and consumer protection) which referred them to two of the Scientific Committees under its mandate to provide opinions: the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENHR). These two committees will work in parallel over the next months and publish their assessment in December 2007.

In March 2006, the European Parliament called on the Commission to bring forward a proposal to restrict the use of mercury in dental amalgam by the end of 2007.

Given these developments in scientific assessments and policy demands on the widespread use of mercury used in dental amalgam, the EEB, together with HEAL and the Zero Mercury Working Group, organised this conference as a contribution to engaging more stakeholders in this important debate.

The programme of the conference included a

  Presentation from European Commission on the action on Dental amalgam

Invited speakers included: the European Commission, the Danish Environment Protection Agency, the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI), the Council of European Dentists (CED), the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Occupational health experts, Researchers, Patients ‘ groups and NGO representatives.

The agenda, registration form for NGOs and other details can be found at the Zero Mercury website and below.