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The Townsend Letter, a well-known journal for holistic
medicine practitioners, announced recently in 2008 that mercury has been
banned from all dental fillings in Norway. From the beginning of this year
dentists in Norway have to start using safer alternatives. The ban goes
further than amalgam fillings, covering many other products; including
measuring instruments such as thermometers and sphygmomanometers for
measuring blood pressure.
Norway has always been a leader in banning mercury, one of the worst
neurotoxins known to man. Norway had previously restricted the use of amalgam
fillings, especially in children and pregnant and nursing women, but is the
first in the world to enforce a complete ban.
Announcing the ban, Norway’s Minister of Environment and Development Erik
Solheim said: “Mercury is among the most dangerous environmental toxins.
Satisfactory alternatives to mercury in products are available, and it is
therefore fitting to introduce a ban.”
Norway is concerned that mercury in our teeth and in the environment is
extremely dangerous, and can harm the development of children. Unfortunately
for Norway, most of the mercury in its environment comes from other countries
that take a more relaxed view to one of the most toxic substances known to
man.
It would be wise for many other countries around the world to follow this
excellent prerogative, taken by the Norwegian government to protect its
people. The worrying thing is that there is too much self-interest that may
prevent other countries from following suit in the near future.
WHY ARE MANY AUTHORITIES PLAYING THE OSTRICH GAME?
Despite the overwhelming evidence from scientific research, there are still
many authorities purporting that amalgams do not cause health conditions or
have not been proven. One can only hypothesize why this attitude still
prevails!
For example, the American Dental Association continues to maintain, as it did
in 1984, that "when mercury is combined with the metals used in dental
amalgams, its toxic properties are made harmless." This is the same
position adopted by the British Dental Association. However, up until now
this position has been based upon reverse logic that amalgam fillings are
safe because the evidence that is emerging does not prove irrefutably
otherwise.
In 1993, the US Public Health Service issued a report evaluating the safety
of dental amalgam. Although the report allowed that small amounts of mercury
vapour are released from your fillings and can be absorbed into the body, and
that these could cause small responses in that rare group of allergic
individuals, it concluded that "there is scant evidence that the health
of the vast majority of people with amalgams is compromised, nor that
removing amalgam fillings has a beneficial effect on health" (Journal of
American Medical Association, 1993, 269: 2491). The American Food and Drug
Administration's position continues to be that there is no valid data to
demonstrate clinical harm to patients or that having them removed will
prevent adverse health effects, or reverse the course of existing diseases
(Journal of American Medical Association, 12 June 1991).
WHAT IS THE RESEARCH TO SUPPORT AMALGAM TOXICITY?
Even though Norway and Sweden are putting bans on the use of mercury, and
everyone agrees that it is a ‘dangerous element,’ there are still many
authorities that are not budging on their stance regarding this poisonous
substance. However, there is also much scientific research that suggests that
amalgams and mercury can cause a myriad of health problems. Let’s take a look
at a few!
Research has shown that dentists have double the number of brain tumours
accompanied by high concentrations of body mercury (British Journal of
Industrial Medicine, 1991; 48: 729-34).
Further recent evidence has demonstrated that amalgam in teeth can also cause
subtle brain damage as well. Several years ago, dentists in Singapore were
compared to other dentists who were less exposed to mercury. The amalgam
using dentists performed less well on tests of neurological function, even
though they did just as well on intelligence tests. The higher the exposure
to mercury, the worse the performance on the neurological tests (British
Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1992; 49: 782-90, British Medical Journal,
November 28, 1992).
American dentists were also tested by Dr Diana Echeverria, a
neuro-toxicologist at the University of Washington in America, to see whether
they showed signs of mercury toxicity. She found evidence of central nervous
system disorders - subtle losses of manual dexterity and concentration.
The American Dental Association and the British Dental Association have
stated that mercury in amalgam fillings is inert when mixed with the other
metals and placed in the mouth. However, other researchers have proved that
mercury vapours are continuously released from the fillings every time we
chew – in fact, chewing gum doubles the mercury levels in the blood and
trebles them in the urine.
The World Health Organization has found that the average individual could
absorb as much as 120 micrograms of mercury per day from their amalgam
fillings, which is considered a toxic dose.
Further research has shown a positive correlation between the level of
mercury in mothers' breast milk and the number of dental amalgams in the
mouth. The mean levels of mercury in milk of amalgam-free mothers was less
than 0.2mcg/litre, while milk from mothers with 1-4 amalgam fillings
contained 0.50 mcg/litre, with 5-7 fillings 0.57mcg/litre and with more than
7 fillings 2.11 mcg/litre (Trace Elem Med Biol., 1998, Mar; 12(1): 23-7).
Dr Murray J Vimy, clinical associate professor of the Department of Medicine,
plus numerous other medical researchers from the Departments of Radiology,
Medicine and Medical Physiology at the University of Calgary in Canada, have
spent more than a decade examining the effects of amalgam fillings on sheep,
monkeys and, more recently, humans. Their published evidence conclusively
proves that mercury from amalgam fillings migrates to tissue in the body the
oral cavity, the lungs and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, causing a type of
"timed released poisoning", as Vimy has called it. Vimy's animal studies,
which were met by ridicule within the dental community, have been vindicated
by the work of Professor H Vasken Aposhian, Head of the Molecular and
Cellular Biology Department of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Aposhian
and his team graded the amalgam filling content of human volunteers, from
which they were given an amalgam score.
The study participants were then given a salt of 2, 3-dimercaptopropane
1-sulfonic acid (DMPS), a chelating agent which binds to mercury and removes
it from the body through urine. An analysis of the results showed a positive
correlation between the amount of amalgam in the teeth and the amount of
amalgam in the body. Aposhian's team was also able to show that two thirds of
the mercury excreted in the urine of those study participants with dental
amalgams came from their fillings (FASEB Journal, 1992; 6: 2472-6; Clinical
Toxicology, 1992; 30 (4): 505-28). New evidence on humans shows that mercury
fillings in pregnant women may also affect the growing foetus. In 1989 the
University of Calgary Medical School published evidence that within three
days of placing amalgam fillings in pregnant sheep, mercury showed up in the
blood, pituitary glands, liver, kidney and placenta of their lambs. By 33
days (around the time of birth), most foetal tissue had higher levels of
mercury than that of the mothers. During nursing, the mother sheep were found
to have eight times more mercury in their milk as in their blood (American J
Physiology, 1990; 258: R939-945).
More recently, Professor Gustav Drasch, a forensic toxicologist and his
colleagues at the Institut fur Rechtsmedicine in Munich, examined the brains,
liver and kidneys of dead human babies and foetuses which had aborted for
medical reasons. They found these levels correlated significantly with the
number of amalgam fillings in their mothers. Furthermore, children
accumulated mercury in their kidneys apparently from the mothers' amalgams,
to a similar extent as adults do from their own fillings. As most of the
children weren't breastfed or fed for only a short period, the researchers
concluded that the mercury must have crossed the placenta (European Journal
of Pediatrics, 1994; 153: 607-10).
Current research suggests that mercury vapour from fillings may be one of the
predominant underlying causes of a broad spectrum of conditions, ranging from
gum disease, migraine, headaches, poor memory, depression, anxiety, mental
lethargy, chronic fatigue, growth, allergies such as eczema and asthma, and
sensitivity reactions to food and inhalants, to rheumatism, arthritis,
backache, kidney disease, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple
sclerosis and other neurological disorders.
Watch this fascinating video made by the University of Calgary, Faculty of
Medicine, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, entitled How Mercury
Causes Brain Neuron Degeneration as well as the Smoking Tooth video of
mercury vapour escaping from an extracted amalgam tooth under various
conditions.
Another interesting video shows the effects of amalgams, with good references
and scientific experiments. Also worth watching is a video entitled
"Quecksilber: The Strange Story of Mercury Amalgam."
Dr. George J Georgiou, Ph.D.,DSc (AM).,N.D.,MSc.,BSc
Inventor and Worldwide Patent Holder of HMD
http://www.detoxmetals.com
drgeorge@detoxmetals.com
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