The debate over the safety of mercury amalgam fillings rages on. According to the Associated Press this week a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel recently voted against a federal review that found no safety concerns for mercury amalgam fillings.
The vote was 13-7 against acceptance of the review according to the Associated Press. The review was conducted by a special panel of FDA members and included a analysis of 34 studies that investigated the safety of mercury amalgam fillings including use in special populations such as children and pregnant women.
The use of mercury amalgam fillings in controversial because elemental mercury is a known neurotoxin that bio-accumulates in specific areas of the human body including the brain. Mercury toxicity has been associated with numerous conditions including Parkinson's disease, autism, and cancer.
Mercury amalgam was used in the majority (66%) of all fillings in 1990, but the use has been cut in half with only 30% use reported in 2003. Now a majority of fillings use a resin or porcelain amalgam that does not contain mercury.
Currently many other countries in the world limit the use of mercury fillings and use is banned in pregnant women because of risk to developing fetus. Currently there is no ban in the US on use in pregnancy but many advocacy groups are pushing for this. While some groups are pushing for a total ban of mercury amalgams. As you can imagine many groups fight these claims that the amalgams are unsafe and support the new findings by the FDA.
The citizens of the US can be happy that the FDA is voting against the findings, because policy is often set by the panel and not the findings of a review, whether conducted internally or by outside investigators.
As voters, we should push public policy on issues such as mercury amalgams. The mercury used as a preservative has bee pulled from state and federal supplied vaccines and pregant women are cautioned not to consume tuna and other large fish with high levels of mercury. Why cannot this be changed too?
Posted by Dr. Christina Gutierrez on September 13, 2006 02:41 PM
