From: Steve Tevdten via email
An amalgam of
half-truths
The news that the
European Parliament is expected to ban mercury fillings throughout the 27 member
states, including the UK, raises two questions: why was mercury ever put in our
teeth in the first place, and why have the dental associations always been so
ready to defend the use of one of the most toxic elements?
The
answer to the first question is now lost in the mists, although cost appears to
have been an over-riding factor when it was mooted as an acceptable filler of
dental cavities around 160 years ago. Gold was the only material
available, and mercury was more pliable, durable – and far less
expensive. By
mixing it with copper, tin and silver – thus creating an amalgam, the name given
to the fillings – dentists believed the mercury would be stabilised and ‘locked
in’. And as the
early patients seemed able to stand and walk out of the surgery, dentists
believed it was safe.
But the
mercury wasn’t locked in. By the 1970s, sophisticated
technology such as mass spectrophotometry could ‘see’ mercury vapours coming out
of the fillings, forcing the dental associations to shift their
ground. The
fillings were releasing such small amounts of mercury that it wasn’t doing us
any harm, unless we had a ‘mercury sensitivity’ (doesn’t everyone?), and that
applies to just 3 per cent of the population, reckons the British Dental
Association. It’s a conservative estimate,
but it still represents an epidemic, according to official public health
definitions of what an epidemic looks like.
From
the vapours being released from the fillings, the mercury makes its way into all
our tissues and organs, and especially to the kidneys. Indeed, the European Commission
states that we ingest more mercury from our fillings than from any other source,
including fish. The amount varies, of course, depending on the number of amalgam
fillings we have, but it can up to five times the levels our bodies can tolerate
and dispose of.
Conspiracy theorists believe the dental associations won’t come clean
about amalgam fillings because of the deluge of legal claims that would follow,
but absolute proof that dental fillings have directly caused a chronic health
problem is almost impossible to establish.
Rather,
we think it’s because it would cause a national panic. Most dentists have not been
trained in removing amalgam – and the release of mercury during the procedure
could be catastrophic.
Instead, it takes the European Parliament to make the decision while
dentists – quietly, quietly – move to safer materials, as they started to do 20
years ago.
Published 02 October 2012 16:11 by Bryan
Hubbard
..............................
I have finally finished my free Chapter 46 on
healing with this note: Every chronic dis-ease is an inflammatory dis-ease. You
can find this free Chapter at:
My entire free book on safe and more effective pest
control and alternative healing can be found at: http://www.stephentvedten.com/
All the best,
Steve
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