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“Following the recently agreed Minamata Convention, a phase-down in the use of dental amalgam will become a priority for the profession. With a lead-in period of a number of years, important changes in the mind-set of the profession are required to ensure that patient safety is not compromised. Posterior composites have been a viable, and in many cases preferable, alternative to amalgam for many years. However, notwithstanding considerable developments in dental school teaching on the application and placement of posterior composites, growing evidence to support the use of composites in the restoration of posterior teeth and advances in composite systems, many practitioners remain reluctant to place composite rather than amalgam. This paper considers the present and future use of posterior composites and highlights ways in which dental school teaching and continuing professional development (CPD) may contribute to the successful phase-down, and now inevitable discontinuation, in the use of dental amalgam.”

“The announcement of the Minamata Convention has triggered the lead into a phase-down in the use of dental amalgam. This paper considers aspects of this development in the context of the experience of banning the use of dental amalgam in Norway. It is suggested that strong top-down leadership and joined-up working by all relevant stakeholders, including patients, may be one of the most important keys to an effective, seamless transition to the provision of preventatively orientated, patient-centred, minimally interventive operative dentistry, based on state-of-the-art selection and application of tooth-coloured restorative materials. The benefits of such a transition are considered to be an important goal for dentistry in the UK.”

“The trouble with human beings is that virtually everything we do interrupts up some ecological or natural system and as an activity, dentistry is no exception. It stands to reason then that we are not going to either change our ways overnight, or the impact that they make. However, there are steps that we can take to modify, slightly soften and possibly engender a small and definite difference to the environmental stress that we cause. What can we do? ‘It’s the practice, stupid’.”

“Due to possible health risks, quantification of mercury accumulation in humans was included in the Flem-ish biomonitoring programmes FLEHS I (2002–2006) and FLEHS II (2007–2011). The general objectiveof FLEHS I was to assess regional exposure levels in order to link possible differences in these internalexposure levels to different types of local environmental pressure. Therefore, Hg and MMHg (methylmer-cury) were only measured in pooled blood samples per region and per age class. In FLEHS II, mercuryconcentrations were measured in hair of each participant. About 200 adolescents and 250 mothers (ref-erence group) and two times 200 adolescents (2 hotspots) were screened. The main objectives of theFLEHS II study were: (1) to determine reference levels of mercury in hair for Flanders; (2) to assess rela-tions between mercury exposure and possible sources like fish consumption; (3) to assess dose–effectrelations between mercury exposure and health effect markers. The results showed that mercury con-centrations in the Flemish population were rather low compared to other studies. Mercury levels in the Flemish populations were strongly related to the age of the participants and consumption of fish. Significant negative associations were observed between mercury in hair and asthma, having received breastfeeding as a newborn, age at menarche in girls, allergy for animals and free testosterone levels. Significant correlations were also observed between mercury in hair and genes JAK2, ARID4A, Hist1HA4L (boys) andHLAdrb5, PIAS2, MANN1B1, GIT and ABCA1 (girls).”

“Thimerosal, an organomercury compound, has been widely used as a preservative. Therefore, concerns have been raised about its neurotoxicity. We recently demonstrated perturbation of early serotonergic development by prenatal exposure to thimerosal (Ida-Eto et al. (2011) [11]). Here, we investigated whether prenatal thimerosal exposure causes persistent impairment after birth. Analysis on postnatal day 50 showed significant increase in hippocampal serotonin following thimerosal administration on embryonic day 9. Furthermore, not only serotonin, striatal dopamine was significantly increased. These results indicate that embryonic exposure to thimerosal produces lasting impairment of brain monoaminergic system, and thus every effort should be made to avoid the use of thimerosal.”

“The aim of the study was to determine the content of mercury both in sick (cancerous) and healthy men in relation age and state of health. The samples coming from men lived in Cracow and area around of the city. Healthy tissues were collected during autopsy, cancerous tissues during surgery.
The content of mercury in the samples was measured using cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry method (CVAAS). The fragments of esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder and skin tissues (healthy tissues) and stomach, large intestine, kidney and bladder (cancerous tissues), were placed in a special crucible directly after defrosting and weighing.
The average mercury content in healthy men was significantly higher in the age group 51-90 years old (0,027 ppm), compared to young men (0,008 ppm). Similar differences were obtained for sick men – older men have a slightly higher content of mercury in the organs (0,106 ppm) than men younger (0,088 ppm).”

“IMPORTANCE:
To date, this is the first population-based study to examine the recurrence risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), including time trends, and the first study to consider the ASDs recurrence risk for full- and half-siblings.

OBJECTIVES:
To estimate the relative recurrence risk for ASDs in a Danish population, including recurrence in full- and half-siblings, and to examine time trends in ASDs relative to the recurrence risk.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:
Population-based cohort study in Denmark. All children (about 1.5 million) born in Denmark between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 2004, were identified and followed up to December 31, 2010. We identified a maternal sibling subcohort derived from mothers with at least 2 children and a paternal sibling subcohort derived from fathers with at least 2 children.

EXPOSURES:
Children having an older sibling with ASDs are compared with children not having an older sibling with ASDs.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:
The adjusted hazard ratio for ASDs among children having an older sibling with ASDs compared with children not having an older sibling with ASDs. RESULTS The overall relative recurrence risk for ASDs was 6.9 (95% CI, 6.1-7.8), and it did not change significantly over time; similar risks were observed in maternal and paternal full-siblings. The relative recurrence risks were 2.4 (95% CI, 1.4-4.1) for maternal half-siblings and 1.5 (95% CI, 0.7-3.4) for paternal half-siblings.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
Our population-based recurrence risk estimate is lower than the recently reported estimates from clinical samples. Our results demonstrate no time trend in the ASDs recurrence risk as seen in the ASDs prevalence. The difference in the recurrence risk between full- and half-siblings supports the role of genetics in ASDs, while the significant recurrence risk in maternal half-siblings may support the role of factors associated with pregnancy and the maternal intrauterine environment in ASDs.”

“The aim of this study was to compare the number of inactivated-influenza vaccine-related spontaneous abortion and stillbirth (SB) reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database during three consecutive flu seasons beginning 2008/2009 and assess the relative fetal death reports associated with the two-vaccine 2009/2010 season. The VAERS database was searched for reports of fetal demise following administration of the influenza vaccine/vaccines to pregnant women. Utilization of an independent surveillance survey and VAERS, two-source capture-recapture analysis estimated the reporting completeness in the 2009/2010 flu season. Capture-recapture demonstrated that the VAERS database captured about 13.2% of the total 1321 (95% confidence interval (CI): 815-2795) estimated reports, yielding an ascertainment-corrected rate of 590 fetal-loss reports per million pregnant women vaccinated (or 1 per 1695). The unadjusted fetal-loss report rates for the three consecutive influenza seasons beginning 2008/2009 were 6.8 (95% CI: 0.1-13.1), 77.8 (95% CI: 66.3-89.4), and 12.6 (95% CI: 7.2-18.0) cases per million pregnant women vaccinated, respectively. The observed reporting bias was too low to explain the magnitude increase in fetal-demise reporting rates in the VAERS database relative to the reported annual trends. Thus, a synergistic fetal toxicity likely resulted from the administration of both the pandemic (A-H1N1) and seasonal influenza vaccines during the 2009/2010 season.”

“At its fourth session, held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, from 27 June to 2 July 2012, the intergovernmental negotiating committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury requested the Chair of the committee to prepare, for consideration by the Committee at its fifth session, a Chair’s draft of the global legally binding instrument on mercury called for by the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme in its decision 25/5. In his draft the Chair would propose compromise text in an effort to bridge the differences between some of the positions espoused by the parties during the fourth session. He would also seek to harmonize style and terminology and achieve editorial consistency in the draft instrument.”