• The reality behind silver fillings — Nicely, I’m right here to let you know that “silver” filling is definitely a mercury filling. Mercury isn’t solely poisonous, however probably the most vaporous of heavy metals. So, meaning mercury can attain the mind, the kidneys, the placenta, and the breast milk.

• The established order is enforced — The ADA’s callous and irresponsible promotion of mercury-based dentistry — when the alternate options are technically higher now and far more tooth pleasant — continues to have extreme well being, office, and environmental penalties.

• Vote together with your pockets — Fashionable dentists by no means use dental amalgam. In case your dentist nonetheless locations amalgam in any dental affected person, it’s time to take what you are promoting elsewhere.

• Main victories have been received — With tenacity, Charlie constructed a worldwide nonprofit powerhouse — and with strategic brilliance, discovered the trail to dismantle the pro-amalgam machine. Amalgam is now banned throughout Europe, and in a number of African and Asian nations.

Each the FDA and the WHO switched from amalgam advocates to amalgam opponents. Readers, convincing both the FDA or WHO to change from help to opposition of a product is extraordinarily uncommon; altering each of those impenetrable colossi is, effectively, unprecedented in my expertise.

• Numerous lives have been saved from mercury — Thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of American shoppers — and billions worldwide — have been spared from the well being threat of mercury-based fillings. Three a long time in the past, the late mercury-free dental pioneer Dr. Hal Huggins requested Charlie to assist a billion individuals — it now seems he has achieved so.

• There are nonetheless battles to be fought — However as I clarify beneath, we don’t have mercury-free dentistry for all. We have to hold the momentum going to banish use of this primitive, pre-Civil Conflict pollutant from our planet.

• The selection nonetheless isn’t given to all — Many shoppers are powerless to decide on. Troopers and sailors, institutionalized people, individuals caught in authorities packages just like the Indian Well being Service (IHS), and folks saddled with cut-rate insurance policy that favor mercury.

• Victims of fraudulent campaigning — The talked about shoppers and their kids are generally victims of pro-mercury dentists who falsely inform sufferers amalgam is “silver.” These are victims of callous authorities chief dental officers who couldn’t care much less that the FDA warns in opposition to amalgam use in kids and different high-risk populations, victims of dental insurance coverage corporations that squeeze each greenback from shoppers with out regard to security.

• Authorities lastly gathered and listened — After years of pounding on doorways, Shoppers for Dental Alternative lastly acquired the federal government to the desk for a complete day final yr in Washington, DC to speak about ending amalgam.

Assembled have been authorities officers representing the FDA, the Environmental Safety Company (EPA), the State Division, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), and the IHS who met with a broad vary of environmental, medical, dental, science, and shopper leaders.

• New packages have been created — Now, we see outcomes. Shoppers for Dental Alternative satisfied the IHS to publish its “Plan to Part Down the Use of Dental Amalgam amongst American Indians/Alaska Natives 2010 – 2030 (or till dental amalgam is phased out within the U.S.).”

It consists of such efficient measures as “Present steering to IHS, tribal, and concrete dental packages to stop the usage of dental amalgam on deciduous (major) tooth,” “Conduct a nationwide webinar for IHS dental suppliers concerning the 2020 FDA Security Communication and this phase-down plan,” and “Develop insurance policies that cut back the quantity of dental amalgam bought by IHS service models.”

• The ultimate push is on the horizon — Now, Shoppers for Dental Alternative calls on Secretary of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to go additional. Certainly, Charlie wrote a visitor column within the Tampa Bay Instances urging Secretary Kennedy to finish amalgam use in federal packages with the “stroke of a pen” — that’s, ban purchases of mercury-based dental fillings by federal well being businesses.

Then, 150 dental professionals signed onto a letter calling on Secretary Kennedy to finish dental amalgam in authorities packages.

• Florida — Assembling 4 nationwide organizations, Shoppers for Dental Alternative filed a petition to Tallahassee to finish amalgam use in Florida Medicaid. That they had a Zoom assembly with my good friend, famend Florida Surgeon Common Joseph Ladapo. Greater than a dozen Florida dentists signed a letter asking for motion.

• Rhode Island — Shoppers for Dental Alternative is constructing a grassroots motion within the Ocean State, discovering actual curiosity amongst environmental teams, racial justice advocates, and dental professionals.

• California — Shoppers for Dental Alternative is working with the Alameda County (Oakland) Client Affairs Fee to empower shopper selection.

• Slicing off amalgam provide — Shoppers for Dental Alternative already pushed main U.S. dental merchandise makers Dentsply and Envista (Kerr) out of the amalgam enterprise. Immediately, the most important American corporations make solely mercury-free fillings.

• Slicing off amalgam demand — As Shoppers for Dental Alternative wins bans and restrictions on amalgam, the demand for this mercury product continues to drop. Nations banning amalgam sweep throughout Asia, notably the Philippines and Indonesia. In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon have additionally banned amalgam, in addition to within the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis).

• Slicing off the amalgam commerce — The latest European Union (EU) legislation not solely bans amalgam use, but additionally bans amalgam imports and exports, chopping off dental mercury peddlers — each within the EU and overseas — from many markets.

• Europe was the most important consumer of amalgam on the planet — Governmental officers learn from speaking factors equipped by the pro-mercury Council of European Dentists (CED). Charlie assembled a workforce from the 27 member nations. His workforce returned repeatedly to the federal capital, Brussels, went to the nationwide capitals, and arranged a response to a European Fee ballot demonstrating that 88% of Europeans need mercury-free dentistry.

• Laborious work and perseverance repay — To run the marketing campaign in Europe, Charlie appointed Florian Schulze, chief of an thrilling new non-governmental group (NGO) in Berlin, the European Community for Environmental Medication. Florian and his NGO engineered the breakthrough our trigger wanted — a legislation in 2017 banning amalgam for kids, pregnant ladies, and nursing moms.

The purpose, then, upshifted to mercury-free dentistry for all — a path requiring a Biblical seven extra years of grueling challenges. The end in 2024 — a vote to ban amalgam was 27 nations for, zero nations in opposition to. What began with two nations in help in 2011 morphed into unanimity in 2024. The European Parliament supported the ban 98% to 2% — think about such a near-unanimity from a legislative physique!

• Governments all over the world are following — Along with the rising variety of nations banning all amalgam, many nations — from Vietnam to Mauritius to Tunisia — have banned amalgam use for high-risk populations like kids.

Now, one other main nation, China, has joined them. China issued a brand new regulation in 2024 that in translation says, “Dental amalgam is prohibited to be used in dental therapy of deciduous tooth, sufferers below 15 years of age, and pregnant and lactating ladies, except the dentist deems it obligatory primarily based on the wants of the affected person.”

• Getting ready for the faceoff — In 2022, the Events adopted the Kids’s Modification addressing an finish date for amalgam for kids and for pregnant and breastfeeding ladies. In 2023 the Events adopted a part out of dental amalgam as a worldwide purpose.

In November 2025, the Minamata Conference on Mercury reconvenes — on the prime of the agenda is whether or not to shift treaty language from part out amalgam as a purpose to part out of amalgam as a authorized mandate. Each the Africa continent, by unanimity, and the European Union have already referred to as for help of this modification — and help is rising throughout the globe.

• The struggle to ban amalgam involves a head — Charlie will lead a civil society delegation from 13 nations on the upcoming convention of the events, coming 3 to 7 November in Geneva. The voice of mercury-free dentistry might be well-represented.