Mercury and dental amalgam

 Dangers of Dental Amalgam

ESDO is a member of the World Alliance for Mercury Free Dentistry (WAMFD) and is campaigning for a ban on dental amalgam in Bangladesh.  Dental amalgam, commonly used in dental fillings in Bangladesh is made out of 50% mercury.  Mercury has a toxic effect on health and the environment, including, recent research has found:

• Female dentists and dental assistants who used dental amalgam are more likely to have miscarriages and fertility problems, due to mercury exposure.
• Mercury exposure has been identified as a cause of memory problems and brain degeneration diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Tests done at a dental collage in Turkey, which used dental amalgam, revealed that all staff and lecturers had high levels of mercury in their blood due to spills and poor clean up procedures.
• Much of the mercury used in dental amalgam in Bangladesh ends up in the rivers, where is has a toxic effect on the environment.

Petition to phase out Dental Amalgam

On Saturday, 20 April 2013 Environmental and Society Development Organisation (ESDO) formally launched their campaign for mercury free dentistry in Bangladesh in Chittagong.  Staff collected over 200 signatures from members of the general public in support of dentistry that is free from toxic mercury.

This campaign is critical for the health and environment of Bangladesh, as dental amalgam is the largest single source of mercury exposure and contains 50% mercury. Dentist and their patients are exposed to the toxic effects of mercury when undertaking fillings using dental amalgam.

World Alliance for Mercury Free Dentistry

The campaign is also running online, with an online petition, see:  this link and on ESDO’s Facebook page.  ESDO also is providing a range of awareness campaign materials, including stickers, bookmarks and posters in both English and Bangla to raise awareness of the risks on dental amalgam.

Posted by admin on Jun 2 2013. Filed under News Worldwide, No Mercury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry