Safety of Mercury in Dental Fillings Questioned
As reported in a
series of news outlets, a US federal advisory panel rejected the US Food
and Drug Administration's (FDA) conclusion that mercury in dental fillings
poses little or no health risk to patients. A September 7, 2006 USA
Today story reported that by a "13-7 vote Thursday, the advisers said the
federal report didn't objectively and clearly present the current state of
knowledge about the fillings." Basically the federal advisory panel
stated that they do not believe the FDA has yet proved that mercury in
dental fillings is safe.
Michael Aschner, a
professor of pediatrics and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University and a
panel consultant was one of the experts who cast a "no" vote. He
commented, "There are too many things we don't know, too many things that
were excluded."
An
opponent to mercury fillings, Michael Burke, blames mercury fillings for
the early onset Alzheimer's disease diagnosed in his wife, Phyllis, in
2004. He stated, "Do the right, decent, honorable and God-loving thing:
There needs to be an immediate embargo on mercury fillings for everyone,
or at least pregnant women and children, because they are our future."
The typical dental
fillings in question are Amalgam. These fillings are made up of
about 50% mercury, joined with silver, copper and tin. It is the
mercury that has caused the most concern as mercury poisoning in other
applications has been well proven.
The USA Today
article notes that scientists have found that mercury levels in the blood,
urine and body tissues rise in conjunction with mercury fillings.
The more fillings the more mercury found. However, they note that
these levels of mercury fall below the FDA recommended safety levels and
therefore, according to the rejected FDA report, should not cause harm.
An article on this
same subject on WebMD also on September 7th warned that, "Prolonged or
excessive mercury exposure can cause neurodevelopmental deficits in
children, such as lower IQs or nerve problems, as well as neurologic
problems in adults." One of the points that the WebMD article noted
is that researchers for the FDA had not determined whether mercury
fillings are more dangerous for pregnant women and their newborns than for
adults. |