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The rules governing the use of metallic mercury, a toxic and hazardous chemical, is in most jurisdictions identical to widely accepted standards and practices for handling the same chemical in industry for the protection of humans and their work environment. There cannot be exceptions solely for the practitioner dentists and their patients. Any workplace must be safe for both workers and visitors. The latter being dental patients waiting in the dentist’s work environment. We reviewed the literature for toxic health effects of elemental mercury upon humans and present information about the Minimata Convention convened by the United Nations Environment Programme. A study conducted among dentists in Singapore and their personal work environment almost 30 years ago contributed to the workplace standard for elemental mercury, which was reduced, and is still currently enforced as a global standard. We recommend that dentists, with a large alternative battery of restorative materials today, make selection of a restorative material a more seriously considered choice, and not to make use of amalgam without the proper use of personal protective equipment for themselves (members of the dental operating team) and their patients, (amalgam traps and judicious monitoring of their workplace air quality). Mercury is ubiquitous in our presence due to human activities; any reduction in the dentists’ workplace contributes to a global reduction.

Amalgam use in dentistry has been controversial since around the 1830’s, in part because it threatened the profitable use of gold as a filling material, but also because of health concerns about mercury.

Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) is an approach showing main sources of emission and flows of pollution to the environment, which allows to define possible environmental risk. Total identified mercury emission to air, soil and water in Poland for year 2010 from anthropogenic sources was estimated as 18.0 Mg. Annual Hg emission to air from by-product sources was equal 13.5 Mg, with the highest share of emission from brown coal-fired power plants. Mercury contained in combustion residues and removed from flue gases is transferred to waste waters, disposed to landfills and used to a concrete production with unknown amounts. Annual mercury emission to air from the use of mercury-containing products (0.5 Mg) was estimated by authors based on model for distribution and emissions for batteries, light sources, other electrical and electronic equipment and also for measuring and control equipment. Emission to air from dental practice (0.3 Mg) was estimated for combustion of wastes containing dental amalgam and from bodies cremation. SFA for the use of mercury-containing products and dental practice presents significant load of 10.4 Mg mercury
contained in hazardous wastes produced annually. It covers wastes of used products, dental amalgam wastes directly from clinics as well as stream from incineration of infectious dental wastes. In the paper mercury discharges to water from large and medium industrial facilities (2.9 Mg) and municipal waste-water treatment plants in large agglomerations (0.4 Mg) are presented. Smaller loads are generates by leachate transfer from
municipal landfills to WWTPs and further to agriculture and also by releases from dental amalgam in buried bodies. The paper indicates lack of information in SFA which should be regarded, mainly concerning mercury releases from municipal landfills to water and soil and emissions from municipal WWTPs to air.

Though Multiple Sclerosis (MS) sufferers are probably genetically predisposed, toxic metal poisoning (TMP) does seem an increasingly likely environmental trigger. The technique for measuring and clearing TMP was chelation therapy using ethylene-diamine-tetracetic acid (EDTA), which revealed aluminum accumulation in both cases. The first patient, initially benefiting from removing dental fillings that had leaked mercury, also showed gadolinium accumulation from scan contrast medium, and a genomic deficiency of glutathione transferase M1. Glutathione production was impaired and hence also liver detoxification functions. The personal protocol involved glutathione administration and deutrosulfazyme to enhance oxygenation and alleviate oxidative stress. As aluminum began to clear with EDTA infusion, the extracellular/intracellular water ratio was carefully monitored, and carbohydrates limited. In the second case, aluminum poisoning responded to EDTA chelation therapy with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), multivitamins, and glutathione administration, again followed by deutrosulfazyme, water ratio control, and dietary correction. The two personalized protocols presented here tend to confirm the hypothesis of TMP as an environmental or iatrogenic trigger for MS, especially when inadequate detoxification lies at the root. Cleansing by chelation therapy, properly understood, can be efficacious, especially bearing in mind the altered cellular water ratio.

OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate the effects of 3 T magnetic field on microleakage of amalgam restorations containing three different types of silver (Ag).

METHODS:
60 extracted teeth were restored with three different types of amalgam filling materials. Restored teeth were sectioned mesiodistally and divided into experimental and control groups. Experimental groups were exposed to a magnetic field of 3 T for 20 min. All samples were plunged into 2% basic fuchsin solution and examined under a digital microscope by three different observers with regard to microleakage.

RESULTS:
Statistical analysis showed significant differences in microleakage between the groups exposed to MRI and controls, whereas differences in microleakage between amalgam types were insignificant.

CONCLUSIONS:
The primary risk of MRI systems arises from the effects of its strong magnetic field on objects containing ferromagnetic materials. An MRI of 1.5 T is known to be safe for amalgam restorations. However, our research indicates that MRI is not completely devoid of any effects on amalgam restorations.