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Thursday 31 August 2017

Dental Amalgam. What can we learn from the EU ban?

Anyone going to a dentist who is found to have a cavity, caused by tooth decay, has the tooth drilled, and the resulting hole filled with dental amalgam, a liquid mercury and metal alloy mixture. Mercury, which makes up about 50% of dental amalgam, is one of the most poisonous substances known. In addition, amalgam consists of silver, tin, copper and other trace metals. And our dentists have been putting this in our mouths now for over 150 years.

The European Union (EU) is now proposing to ban dental amalgam for children, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers on 1st July 2018.

The Dental Tribune says this about the ban. "A new study, conducted on behalf of the European Commission, recommends phasing out dental amalgam use over the next few years owing to mercury’s negative impact on the environment. According to the recently published study results, the ban should be combined with improved enforcement of the EU waste legislation regarding dental amalgam."

The ban itself raises important questions. Do the restrictions mean that dental amalgam is safe for adults? Are we less susceptible to harm than children and pregnant mothers? Is amalgam really being banned because of its 'negative impact on the environment' rather than its negative impact on our health? And does the delay in implementing the ban mean that dental amalgam is safe to use up to the date it becomes effective?

The answer to all three questions has to be "NO". And important lessons should be learnt about how conventional medicine operates from the hopeless tardiness of this ban, namely:

  • the pretence that the disposal of amalgam damages the environment, but does not damage us!
  • the absence of the 'precautionary principle' when conventional medicine damages our health.
  • the time that dangerous conventional medical practices are allowed to harm patients without action being taken.
  • the ongoing denial that conventional medical treatments are dangerous to our health.
  • the failure of the mainstream media to inform the public about these harmful and dangerous practices.

The pretence that the disposal of amalgam damages the environment, but does not damage us!
It is quite likely that the disposal of the metals is a problem for the environment. But if this is so, for conventional medicine to then pretend that the same metals do not damage patients is quite absurd! Remember where dental amalgam is put - in our mouths - in a moist environment - what what do metals do in moist environment? They leach, and the metals, including the mercury, leaches into our bodies.

The absence of the 'precautionary principle' when conventional medicine damages our health.
As I have written before, the precautionary principle is not applied to conventional medicine. In any other walk of life, when a product or a procedure is thought to be potentially harmful (even if it has not been proven beyond doubt) that product or procedure is suspended until such time that the evidence is clear, one way or the other. However, as far as health is concerned, conventional medical products and procedures are never suspended until evidence of harm is overwhelming.

The time that dangerous conventional medical practices are allowed to harm patients without action being taken.
There has been evidence that dental amalgam is dangerous for decades. I did some research and found the BBC were reporting on these over 20 years ago. In 1999 the published an article on the fears about mercury poisoning. Five years earlier, in 1994, 23 years ago, a BBC Panorama programme was broadcast on 'The Hazards of Mercury Fillings'. This shortened version of the programme can be found here, and I urge you to watch it. Observe the evidence about mercury that was available to us then, and the denials that were being made by the representatives of the conventional medical establishment at the time. Note, in particular, that at one point, evidence of the link between mercury and Alzheimer's disease was mentioned, and (of course) routinely denied!

Conventional medicine has always had a love affair with mercury, for reason quite unknown to me! Drugs like Calomel and Protiodide were both widely used in the 19th century, and gradually (tardily) withdrawn because of their toxicity. Did they learn the lesson - that mercury is toxic? No, new mercury based drugs were marketed, which harmed patients, and were eventually (tardily) withdrawn. Go to this link to read more about conventional medicine's ongoing dalliance with dangerous drugs that were eventually banned.

Today, many of the vaccines doctors inject into our bloodstreams, and into our children, contain mercury - in the form of thimerosal. For instance, the flu vaccine still contains thimerosal, and perhaps unsurprisingly it has been linked to Alzheimer's disease - although always routinely denied by the conventional medical establishment!

The ongoing denial that conventional medical treatments are dangerous to our health.
If, in the past, the conventional medical establishment has routinely denied the dangers of products and procedures they use with their patients, how can patients be sure that the treatment they receive today are any safer. In short, they cannot know this! The best predictor of future performance in past performance! This is one of the main reasons for this blog - to warn people not only about harmful and dangerous pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines - but to make it clear that doctors throughout the ages have been in denial about their dangers. They still are! Nothing has changed, and the banning of amalgam fillings in just one more proof of this.

In the 1970's I regularly visited my dentist. My mum always told me that I should! Regularly I was told that I had a cavity. Regularly dental amalgam was put in my mouth. Then I discovered dentists were paid for doing so! About five years ago I had all my amalgam fillings removed. About two years ago I asked my dentist whether he still used dental amalgam. He said yes. I asked him why, given that it has already been banned in some countries. He said that he knew nothing about this, and he told me that amalgam was perfectly safe. Norway banned it in 2008! For over 5 years Sweden, Denmark and Germany have either banned or restricted the use of mercury fillings. But my dentist 'was not aware'!

The failure of the mainstream media to inform the public about these harmful and dangerous practices.
The BBC Panorama film, referred to above, comes from a time when our public broadcaster pursued health issues openly and honestly, in recognition of the principle that people needed to know about such important issues. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. The news has  not been covered in the mainstream media, including the BBC, even though the proposed EU ban on dental amalgam has been known since the end of July 2017.

So, one month later, there has been no mention of this by the BBC, either on television, radio, or on their health news website! How things have change in the last 15 years. But let's be absolutely clear what this means to us, as patients.

  • The mainstream news media will certainly know about the proposed ban, and have omitted to publish anything about it. I presume they do not think it is newsworthy!
  • Amalgam has been put into our mouths for over 150 years, harming us, and our media does not think this is newsworthy!
  • The conventional medical establishment has been covering up the dangers of mercury-based treatment again, and our media does not think this is newsworthy!
  • Between the announcement of the ban, a month ago, and the implementation of the ban over the next two or three years, many dentists will presumably continue putting amalgam fillings into the mouths of their patients. And our media does not think that warning us about this is sufficient newsworthy!

The mainstream media is always quiet about the harm conventional medicine is doing to us with their drugs and vaccines - and the amalgam fillings they put in our mouths. They are little more than an echo chamber for the pharmaceutical companies! They are slavishly compliant to the needs and agendas of the conventional medical establishment. They no longer investigate beyond what they are told. They believe what they are told. They do not believe anything that suggests conventional medicine is not a bonus to our health. So all we know is the ‘good’ (which is not always good)! We know nothing the bad!

So when we become ill, as a direct result of conventional medical treatment, we are not aware of the cause. We continue to take the 'wonder' drugs and vaccinations in the belief that they are beneficial. We are ignorant of the harm they cause. We must begin to ask if a large part of the responsibility for this iatrogenic lllness rests with the mainstream media.