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WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In response to last week's groundbreaking vote by two U.S.
Food and Drug Administration panels to reject a staff white paper on the safety of mercury-laden
"silver" dental fillings, the dentists, physicians and scientists of the International Academy of
Oral Medicine and Toxicology have made a formal request to the FDA for an expanded review of
current science on dental mercury amalgams; a definitive date for such a hearing; and a format
that will assure that the full breadth of health effects is assessed.
The Academy's request follows votes Sept. 7, by two FDA- selected committee panels (Joint Panel),
which by a 13-7 margin, rejected the FDA's own report as insufficiently representative of current
science on the health risks of what most consumers are told are silver fillings. Actually they are
approximately half mercury.
Health risks identified by scientists and health professionals that appeared to be persuasive to
the joint panels include:
- Harm to unborn babies
- Mercury exposure from chewing and drinking beverages
- Interaction with other metals and dental materials that increases risk of harm
- Mercury's links to neurological diseases like -- Alzheimer's disease and autism.
- Vulnerability of exceptionally sensitive people such as pregnant women and young children
- Lack of patient informed consent
"We applaud the joint committee's courage to resist pressures to rubber-stamp support for the
safety of fillings that are still being used in many dental offices when the science shows that the
claims of safety are unsupportable," said Dr. Janet Stopka of Downers Grove, Ill., president of the
Academy.
Dr. Terry Messerman of Beachwood, Ohio, immediate past president of the Academy, added: "This one
step of resisting business-as-usual and denial of pertinent science is a tremendous victory not
only for the more than one-third of dentists in the U.S. who have already switched to more
biologically-compatible treatments, but especially for the millions of patients that have already
received what are essentially mercury-emitting implants, and yet were never informed.
Dr. Boyd Haley, a University of Kentucky chemistry professor who chairs the Academy's Scientific
Advisory Board, said a recent study found 85 percent of dentists already display a mercury-related
biological impairment.
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