Dental Mercury

In the process of restoring teeth with so-called "silver" fillings — which are actually 50% mercury — dentists use approximately 40 metric tons of mercury each year, most of which is eventually released into the environment.

In 2002, Health Care Without Harm and the Mercury Policy Project released a report about the environmental impacts of the dental industry's use of mercury. Among other significant findings, the report reveals that dentists are now the third largest users of mercury in the U.S. and are the single largest polluter of mercury to the nation's wastewater treatment plants.

Fortunately, alternative filling materials are available, and there are cost effective devices to properly manage waste dental mercury. Yet only a small percentage of dentists nationwide are taking steps to collect and recycle mercury waste, including installing amalgam separation filters necessary to reduce mercury discharges.