Disease Forming Toxic Waste Dumps

(In the Mouth)
Dental mercury pollution is responsible for more diseases
and human misery then anyone imagines.
Amalgam is made of 50% mercury which
leaches from the set amalgam all of the time.

It is very difficult to accept the devastating reality about what dentists have done to humanity, and what they intend to continue to do. Even though the evaporation of mercury from dental amalgam was known as early as 1882 by Talbot[i] and by Stock in 1926[ii] dentists have, decade by decade, continued to expand the use of mercury amalgam cavity fillings. It is well known that the American Dental Association[iii] (ADA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) were founded to defend their respective professions use of mercury, which was under attack in the 1800s. What is very clearly evident about these organizations is the fact that they have resisted, to their utmost ability, any suggestion that mercury in medical and dental products is dangerous. In the case of dentistry there is no doubt who won the “amalgam wars,” though the losers are each and every person who ended up with a mouth full of materials that wreck havoc with ones health.

Though sensitivity to the poisonous effects of mercury is highly individual and unpredictable it is considered a poison by most rational people and organizations. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) mercury is used in producing of chlorine gas and caustic soda, and in extracting gold from ore or articles that contain gold. It is also used in thermometers, barometers, batteries, and electrical switches. Silver-colored dental fillings typically contain about 50% metallic mercury.

Mercury is one of the most potent chemical inhibitors of
thiol-sensitive enzymes and mercury vapor easily
penetrates into the central nervous system.
Dr. Boyd Haley

Mercury interferes with enzyme function and this disturbs protein synthesis and mitochondria energy production. Thus mercury toxicity, even at low levels can interfere with cell reproduction, cause fatigue, and is sometimes known to lower body temperature more than the thyroid can compensate for. ``Doctor Edward Howell states in his book Enzyme Nutrition, that the chief culprit of disease is enzyme deficiency or undernourishment, the all-important, underlying predisposing first cause, which prepares the ground for degeneration and ill health. The assault of mercury, as the leading most toxic polluting heavy metal, poised to attack our biological activity and devastate our enzyme and nervous activity simultaneously, is like a sneak attack behind enemy lines; it is not laying out there in the environment somewhere like a landmine that some unfortunate soul unlucky steps on. It is planted inside our mouth as a vaporous chemical weapon whose poison is guaranteed to leak out into our inner biochemistry. Dr. Hal A. Huggins stated that amalgam fillings can effectively devastate human health, that the accumulation of mercury can be so toxic that the effects imitate a hand grenade of biological violence. It is a fact of life that dentists who practice using conventional methods are the largest combined group of individuals in our society who cause exposure to mercury. It turns out that our former best and most trusted friends are in actuality our biological enemies.

The most common form of exposure to mercury is by inhalation of vapor and there is widespread general agreement that this leads to a slowly developing and insidious poisoning, which at first yield psychic and other general effects that are vague and difficult to diagnose. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991 determined that dental amalgam was the greatest source of mercury contamination to the general population - up to ten times greater than all other sources combined[iv], and that that for mercury vapor, there is no known "no-observable-effect level (NOEL)". In other words all levels of mercury vapor are harmful. Doctors Kingman, Albertini and Brown concur having determined in their research with US military populations that the major contributor to mercury body burdens of Americans comes from dental amalgam.[v]

Amalgam dental fillings have been in use for about 180 years originating in England then spreading to the rest of Europe and America. At the time they gained immediate acceptance by dentists as they provided a cheap and reasonably effective alternative to any other filling techniques. Figures released from the Gold Institute in Washington show that America and Japan use proximately 100 metric tons of silver per year for the fabrication of dental material. The silver fillings in our mouths should more accurately be called mercury fillings as they are made of about 50% mercury and only about 35% silver. Amalgam is a mixture of Silver, Tin, Zinc and Copper which is mixed in the dental surgery with an equal amount of mercury. This would indicate that approximately 140 metric tons of mercury is being placed directly into the mouths of these countries citizens. Scaled up to figure the world wide use, we can speculate that approximately 1,000 metric tons of mercury, the most poisonous non radioactive element known to mankind, are being placed directly inside of human mouths, where chewing and bacteria maximize contamination and vapor release, and where the lungs are present to absorb what is released. This kind of tonnage is making some people a mountain of money creating vested interests in the continued use of mercury amalgam tooth fillings. When the ADA says that the strongest and most convincing support they have for the safety of dental amalgam is the fact that each year more than 1.1 billion amalgam fillings are placed in the United States, they should be careful not to incriminate themselves and give lawyers the true dimensions of the chemical horror they have perpetuated.

Vapors from Hell

It is estimated that an amalgam filling will release up to half of
its mercury content over a ten year period (50% corrosion rate).
Dr. Robert Gammal

Dental amalgam fillings interact in a complex way with the environment in the oral cavity as they are subjected to chemical, biological, mechanical, and thermal forces yet dental authorities tell us that amalgam is a stable material. They suggest that the mercury is locked into the fillings, that free mercury does not exist in amalgam, which they say is an alloy formed in the mixing process, and cannot break down into elemental mercury or dangerous mercury compounds as it is molecularly linked to the other component metals. This statement is false. By definition an amalgam is a mixture of one or more metals with mercury. It is not an alloy - it is a mixture. As such the whole substance has free mercury as part of its components. The average size amalgam filling contains approximately 750,000 micrograms of mercury (Hg) which releases part of that everyday for as long as the filling is in a person’s mouth. A microgram (mcg) is 1/1,000 of a milligram in weight or one-millionth of a gram. A milligram (mg) is 1/1,000 of a gram by weight.
People with amalgam are exposed to from tens to several hundreds of micrograms of mercury per day depending on how many fillings are in their mouth, how old the fillings are, how much a person brushes their teeth, chews and eats, the bacteria count in the mouth, and even the temperature of the body. Dr. Vimy, professor of dentistry says, "It is estimated that the average individual, with eight biting surface mercury fillings, is exposed to a daily dose uptake of about 10 micrograms mercury from their fillings. Select individuals may have daily doses 10 times higher (lOOmcgs) because of factors which exacerbate the mercury vaporization. These factors include frequency of eating, chronic gum chewing, chronic tooth grinding behavior (usually during sleep), and the individual's chewing pattern, consumption of hot foods and drinks, and mouth and food acidity.” A critical and often overlooked variable is body temperature. People with high fevers will increase the vapor emission rate of the amalgam because mercury is highly unstable at or above the melting point of Hg, which is only 39oC. This is also why drinking lots of hot coffee and tea will increase the vaporization rate.


Dr. Haley says, “The ADA claims that a zinc oxide layer is formed on the amalgams that decreases mercury release is true, if you don’t use the teeth! The zinc oxide layer would be easily removed by slight abrasion such as chewing food or brushing the teeth. If you gently rub the amalgam with a toothbrush the amount of mercury emitted goes up dramatically.” Placing gold into a mouth with amalgam fillings will also create an increase in electrical currents in the fillings which also results in an increase in the release of mercury from all of the fillings. A gold crown over an amalgam filling may cause a four fold increase in the amount of mercury being driven through the tooth.[vi] Amalgam is still the most commonly used material to build a core for a crown. New types of amalgam introduced in the past 20 years or so have increased copper content. This type of amalgam emits much more mercury than older fillings.[vii] Any plumber and certainly all chemists know that it’s not a good idea to mix elements with both gold and copper increasing the rate of mercury corrosion and emission.


Note: Vapors from Hell is continued in the book The Rising Tide of Mercury.

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[i] Hanson, Mats. A hundred and fifty years of misuse of dental amalgam.
http://art-bin.com/art/hanson_en.html

[ii] Stock, Alfred. (1876-1946) German chemist, appointed professor of inorganic chemistry at the polytechnicum of Bresiau. Stock showed that dental amalgam fillings more than three years old denerated mercury vapor in the mouth with an iodine color test.

[iii] Cline, John. Mercury Toxicity and the Use of DMPS Chelation. When mercury amalgam was initially introduced into North America in the 1830s, its use was vehemently opposed by the dental licensing authority, the American Society of Dental Surgeons and official policies were adopted to prohibit the use of this material. Their concern was focussed upon the safety of placing mercury into humans since many toxic effects of mercury were well known; including dementia and loss of motor coordination. In spite of this official prohibition, several dentists continued to use mercury amalgam and some were subsequently suspended for malpractice. The popularity of this inexpensive, durable and easy to work with material continued to rise amongst dentists and by 1856, there were so many dentists using mercury amalgam that the American Society of Dental Surgeons was disbanded by overwhelming opposition to their policy surrounding amalgam fillings. Following this, in 1859 the American Dental Association was founded on the premise that mercury amalgam was a safe and desirable tooth filling material.

[iv] Friberg L. Inorganic Mercury. In: Organization WH, ed. Environmental Health Criteria 118. Geneva: WHO; 1991.

[v] Kingman, A., Albertini, T., and Brown, L.J., Mercury Concentrations in Urine and Whole Blood Associated with Amalgam Exposure in a US Military Population. J of Dental Research, 1998 V77 (3) pg 461.

[vi] Gammal, Robert. Bio Compatible Dentisty. http://www.bcd.com.au

[vii] Ferracane et. Al., 1995