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Are tooth filling materials safe?
Mercury-containing dental amalgams & alternative materials
Brussels, 22 May 2008. Both dental amalgams and alternative tooth filling materials are effective and safe to use. This is one of the conclusions of a recent opinion by the European Commission Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR). A small part of the mercury released into the environment by the use and disposal of dental amalgams can be converted to methylmercury and build up in organisms and along the food chain. Indirect exposure of humans to methylmercury (from emissions due to use of dental amalgam) is, however, well below tolerable limits and unlikely to cause serious health effects. This emerges from a second opinion prepared in parallel by the European Commission Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER). At the request of the European Commission DG Health and Consumer Protection, GreenFacts faithfully summarised these two opinions on dental amalgams and other tooth-filling materials. This month, a summary for non-expert readers has been published on http://copublications.greenfacts.org/en/dental-amalgam/ and on the website of the DG Health and Consumer Protection: http://ec.europa.eu/health/opinions/en/dental-amalgam/ Highlights of the SCENIHR and SCHER Opinions Indirect effects on the environment & on humans: About GreenFacts GreenFacts asbl/vzw is an independent, multi-stakeholder non-profit organization based in Belgium. Our mission is to bring complex scientific reports on health and the environment to the reach of non-experts. We publish faithful summaries of authoritative international scientific reports. The summaries are written in a language for non-specialists and presented in a reader-friendly Three-Level Structure of increasing detail. GreenFacts’ publications are freely available in several languages on www.greenfacts.org. GreenFacts was created in 2001 by individuals from scientific institutions, environmental and health organizations, and businesses, who called for wider access to unbiased information on health and the environment. About SCENIHR and SCHER The SCENIHR and the SCHER are two of three independent non-food scientific committees set up in 2004 by the European Commission to advise the Commission on matters of consumer safety, public health and the environment. The SCENIHR (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks) provides the Commission with unambiguous scientific advice on the safety of a series of issues requiring a comprehensive assessment of the risks, such as new technologies, medical devices, etc. The SCENIHR addresses questions concerning emerging or newly-identified risks and on broad, complex or multi-disciplinary issues such as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), West Nile Virus, Nanotechnologies, Electromagnetic Fields (EMF), and Smokeless tobacco products. The SCHER (Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks) provides the Commission with unambiguous scientific advice on health and environmental risks of chemicals, biochemicals and biological compounds. In particular, the SCHER addresses questions related to new and existing chemicals, the restriction and marketing of dangerous substances, biocides, waste, environmental contaminants, plastic and other materials used for water pipe work (e.g. new organics substances), drinking water, indoor and ambient air quality. It addresses questions relating to human exposure to mixtures of chemicals, sensitisation and identification of endocrine disrupters. About DG Health and Consumer Protection The role of Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General is to make Europe’s citizens healthier, safer and more confident. Over the years the European Union has established EU laws on the safety of food and other products, on consumers' rights and on the protection of people's health. The DG Health and Consumer Protection has the task of keeping these laws up to date. See also the press release by the European Commission at: Subscribe to our RSS Feed For more information about GreenFacts:
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