FAQ's How You Can Stop Dental Mercury Pollution

CALIFORNIANS FOR GREEN DENTISTRY

P.O. Box 664, Newport Beach CA 92661 • Telephone: 714.825-0224 • www.toxicteeth.org

Ban Dental Mercury!

What is Dental Mercury?

· Dental amalgam (also deceptively called "silver fillings") is a primitive, polluting, 19th century cavity filling material made up of 50% mercury – a neurotoxin and reproductive toxin that is a particularly dangerous for children and pregnant women.

· Dental mercury is no longer needed to fill cavities (modern dentists have stopped using it and started using safe resin composite materials), but pro-mercury dentists are still the second largest buyer of mercury.

The Dental Mercury Crisis

The mercury implanted into the mouths of unsuspecting dental patients ultimately ends up back in our environment:

· in our water via dental office releases and household waste

· in our air via cremation, sludge incineration, dental office emissions, and human respiration

· in our land via landfills, burials, and fertilizer.

California taxpayers are being ripped off by pro-mercury dentists. We are footing the bill for the environmental clean-up of dental mercury – by far the largest source of mercury in our wastewater and a major contributor to mercury in our fish. Meanwhile, the California Dental Association 1) blocks all laws that would require dentists to catch some of their mercury waste before it is dumped into our water and 2) refuses to address dental mercury that gets in our air and land.

You Can Stop Dental Mercury Pollution

· Sign the petition to ban dental mercury in our community by emailing consumer director Anita Vazquez Tibau at anitatibau@hotmail.com

· To receive email updates on the fight to eliminate dental mercury, join our mailing list at http://www.toxicteeth.org/mailingList.cfm

••••••••••

OC