FDA Declares Mercury Amalgam Fillings Safe for All

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: mercury amalgam fillings, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) His mercury fillings were gray
And he chewed on them every day.
But the stuff reached his brain
And it drove him insane
Now he works for the FDA
- by Mike Adams

Any scientific credibility the FDA might have been clinging to in these last few years has now disintegrated with the agency's recent announcement that after reviewing 200 scientific studies, it has concluded mercury fillings are safe for human health! This ruling, as you'll read below, further demonstrates how the FDA is a rogue federal agency that respects no law and frequently operates in direct violation of the law.

Case in point: Last year Consumers for Dental Choice (www.ToxicTeeth.org) sued the FDA over the issue of mercury fillings. A court settlement required the FDA to remove from its website statements about mercury fillings being "safe" and, instead, to publish this statement: "Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses."

That statement stayed on the FDA's website for several months. But that page has now been removed from the FDA's website (http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Productsan...), returning no results. The FDA also deleted a "question and answer" page from its website that discussed the health risk of mercury fillings.

Instead, the FDA now posts a press release stating that the levels of mercury "released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients." (http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/Press...)

Mercury fillings are indestructible, says the FDA!

What this so-called "scientific" conclusion really says is that mercury fillings don't produce mercury vapor or mercury dust. But any dentist can tell you that drilling on mercury fillings produces mercury dust that's immediately inhaled by the patient (and the dentist). This video from the IAOMT provides direct visual evidence that mercury fillings quite readily produce mercury vapor just by chewing on them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylnQ-T7oiA

The FDA, however, insists mercury fillings are so safe that even infants and babies can have them installed in their mouths. Susan Runner is the head of dental devices at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and she explained earlier this week that mercury fillings are safe for children under six years old because they have smaller mouths and breathe less air than adults, thereby "minimizing" any risks. (Huh?)

This kind of loopy logic has been extended to all groups -- Pregnant women, infants, children and senior citizens -- for which the FDA now insists mercury fillings are perfectly safe.

That's why attorney Charlie Brown of Consumers for Dental Choice says, "FDA remains alone in the world in failing to protect children and pregnant women from mercury fillings. Since 1996, Canadian dentists have been told not to put mercury amalgam in children or pregnant women. Since 1998, British dentists have been told the same for pregnant women. Norway and Sweden have banned amalgam altogether. Regrettably, this rule should have meant the end of two-tiered dentistry: mercury for the poor and choice for the rest. Instead the FDA has failed to carry out its mission of protecting the public health."

FDA breaks the law yet again

What's especially astonishing in all this is how the FDA has blatantly violated its own legal settlement with Consumers for Dental Choice which required it to publicly disclose the health risks of mercury fillings. The FDA, much like a common criminal, simply ignores the courts and reverses itself without justification.

The FDA, you see, believes it is subject to no law. This fact is well pointed out in a book by health freedom attorney Jonathan Emord, entitled The Rise of Tyranny (http://www.vitacost.com/Book-The-Rise-of-Tyr...). In this book, Emord explains how federal agencies like the FDA become rogue, lawless dictatorships that abide by the rulings of no court.

The FDA, in its decision to revoke its mercury warnings, has done so in direct violation of a court settlement. Any individual acting in such a manner would be found in contempt of court and likely be fined or thrown in jail, but the FDA is apparently subject to no law, and it does whatever it wants, regardless of what the law says.

This is the very definition of tyranny: Domineering power combined with a complete lack of respect for the law (and a lack of respect for human health). The FDA, by any reasonable definition, is a dangerous criminal organization that continues to terrorize Americans with its complete disregard for both the law and human safety.

Consider this: Mercury is one of the most biologically toxic elements in the universe. A teaspoon of it can contaminate an entire lake beyond EPA limits for water safety. For years, even the FDA warned consumers about the toxic level of mercury in seafood. Specific warnings were made to expectant mothers. Those warnings have now been reversed by the FDA, which believes pregnant women can eat all the mercury-contaminated fish they want!

Mercury is also a huge threat to the environment. The very use of mercury in dental fillings is a crime against nature because all that mercury eventually ends up in the environment. Over 30,000 pounds (yes, pounds!) of mercury are dumped into the environment each year through dentistry, and this is devastating our ocean ecosystems.

Lots of people today are worried about the mercury emissions of coal-fired power plants. As stated on Wikipedia: Mercury emissions from coal burning are concentrated as they work their way up the food chain and converted into methylmercury, a toxic compound[10] that harms people who consume freshwater fish. In New York State, winds bring mercury from the coal-fired power plants of the Midwest, contaminating the waters of the Catskill Mountains. The mercury is consumed by worms, who are eaten by fish, and then by birds, including bald eagles. As of 2008, mercury contamination of bald eagles in the Catskills had reached new heights. Ocean fish account for the majority of human exposure to methylmercury; the sources of ocean fish methylmercury are not well understood. Coal-fired power plants shorten nearly 24,000 lives a year in the United States, including 2,800 from lung cancer.

But according to the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/m...), mercury from dental fillings and other medical devices accounts for 53% of the total mercury emissions, meaning that dental amalgams are a major source of mercury pollution of our planet.

According to Consumers for Dental Choice, dentists purchase nearly 40 tons of mercury each year. That's over 35 million micrograms of mercury being put into the bodies of humans and, ultimately, the environment.

How? Because of the popularity of cremation. With burial costs so high and families lacking funds to even claim the bodies of their dead loved ones (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG....), more families are choosing cremation over burial. Cremation, it turns out, vaporizes mercury and releases it into the air where it eventually falls on the land and water, contaminating our planet.

Remember this: Every microgram of mercury put into peoples' mouths eventually ends up in the environment. Anyone concerned about the future of life on earth should be concerned about mercury fillings.

The FDA, of course, is not concerned with protecting the future of life on Earth. That's why they also ignore the environmental contamination caused by pharmaceuticals. There are now antibiotics, antidepressants and hormone drugs showing up in fish (https://www.naturalnews.com/025933_pharmaceut...). Pharmaceuticals are contaminating our rivers and oceans, yet the FDA does nothing to regulate their environmental effects. They merely pretend the problem doesn't exist (much like how they deal with mercury).

It is truly fascinating to see what the FDA considers dangerous: Colloidal silver, medicinal herbs and dietary supplements. But the things they don't consider dangerous include mercury, antibiotics, hormone drugs, cigarettes and chemotherapy.

What has this world come to? How has it all gotten so twisted?

I have an answer to that, actually. Watch NaturalNews for an upcoming article that attempts to explain it all...

Six facts about mercury you probably never knew

(Courtesy of Consumers for Dental Choice):

1. Dentists purchase about 40 tons of mercury per year. Since mercury is so toxic it is measured in micrograms. Forty tons is over 35 million micrograms.

2. Dentists are the third largest purchaser of mercury, and they are moving up the list as the others decline faster.

3. There is more mercury in Americans' mouths than in all consumer and medical products combined.

4. Dental offices are by far the largest source of mercury in the wastewater.

5. Dental mercury is largest source of mercury in household waste (through our body waste).

6. In communities without power plants, dental mercury is the No. 1 source of mercury in AIR pollution because of the increased choice of cremation.

As Charlie Brown recently told me, "Those mercury-laden fish we eat... they aren't making their own mercury..."

FDA Ruling on Mercury Fillings Falls Short

Reprint of the press release from Consumers for Dental Choice:

New FDA guidelines fail to protect pregnant women and children from threat of "silver" dental fillings

Washington (July 28, 2009) -- In a disappointing move, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today did an about face in issuing a final regulation classifying dental amalgam without calling for stringent precautions for pregnant women and children. Last June, a court settlement filed by the Consumers for Dental Choice required the FDA to withdraw claims of mercury amalgam's safety from its Web site and issue an advisory indicating: "Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses."

"FDA broke its contract and broke its word that it would put warnings for children and unborn children for neurological damage," said Charles G. Brown, National Counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice, who brought the lawsuit compelling today's action. "Bowing to the dental products industry, FDA for the first time in its history pulled a warning about neurological harm to children. This contemptuous attitude toward children and the unborn will not go unanswered. We will see FDA in court."

Most consumers, and most dentists, have already switched to the main alternative, resin composite. The FDA rule destroys a dental myth that the mercury becomes inert in the mouth; FDA says the vapors from dental mercury go into the human body. Due to mercury waste, amalgam is also increasingly targeted by environmentalists.

Intense interest in the rule exists on Capitol Hill. Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-CA) and Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) co-authored a letter to FDA in May, signed by 19 Members of Congress, calling for a rule to protect children and young women from amalgam. In July, they introduced a resolution on the issue with 29 co-sponsors (H.Res. 648).

Amalgam has also become controversial because the middle-class has largely moved to non-toxic alternatives while the poor, minorities, and institutional recipients, such as soldiers and prisoners, still get amalgam.

"FDA remains alone in the world in failing to protect children and pregnant women from mercury fillings. Since 1996, Canadian dentists have been told not to put mercury amalgam in children or pregnant women. Since 1998, British dentists have been told the same for pregnant women. Norway and Sweden have banned amalgam altogether. Regrettably, this rule should have meant the end of two-tiered dentistry: mercury for the poor and choice for the rest. Instead the FDA has failed to carry out its mission of protecting the public health," concluded Brown.