If you’re on the mailing list for Consumers for Dental Choice – a leader in the fight for mercury-free dentistry – then you may have already received the wonderful news that yet another manufacturer is getting out of the amalgam biz.
According to Charlie Brown, National Counsel for the group and the President of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, Southern Dental Industries has backtracked on its previously announced plan to grab market share and “continue to promote its amalgam products to lower socio-economic markets.”
On SDI’s latest earnings call with major shareholders, CEO Samantha Cheetham backtracked on its amalgam “maximizing” agenda. Noting the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the EU development, she explained to investors questioning the wisdom of SDI’s continued involvement with amalgam:
“Look, we’re going to be – we’re planning to finish Amalgam manufacturing in 2028 or earlier…. We will be stopping [in] approximately 2028.”
Meantime, although the US has yet to show any signs of catching up with the growing number of nations around the globe that have banned amalgam altogether, there’s more heartening news: According to new research in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), amalgam use in the US plunged just over 80% between 2017 and 2023.
The overall rate dropped from 21.8% to 4.1%. This declining trend was observed consistently across all four of the at-risk populations the researchers considered. Unfortunately, those in the most vulnerable group experienced the smallest decrease in amalgam use.
But some vulnerable groups are fighting back. Just last month, Native American, environmental, and consumer groups issued the Red River Declaration, which demand an end to the use of amalgam in the US Indian Health Service.
“It’s important for Indigenous Peoples to understand the compounding impacts of multiple sources of exposure we absorb and pass on to our babies. These exposure sources include mercury-based dental fillings provided by the Indian Health Service,” says Andrea Carmen, Executive Director of the International Indian Treaty Council. “Our babies and children pay the highest price. This is so unjust.”
“NGOs from the Arctic to the Amazon signed onto the Red River Declaration,” says Maria Carcamo of the Latin American Center for Environmental Health. “Governments across the Americas – from Brazil to Mexico to Canada – must stop implanting mercury fillings in American Indians.”
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“For Indigenous Peoples, exposure to mercury is a direct threat to our health, culture and future generations,” says Rochelle Diver, UN Environmental Treaties Coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council. “It is far past time that HHS and IHS honor their treaties with Native Nations as well as their obligations as under the Minamata Convention on Mercury.”
Indeed, it is.
