Amalgam fillings classified as 'hazardous waste'

Nick Kettles

1st May, 2008

Mercury is the second most toxic metal in the world, and yet it's still being used to make fillings. Nick Kettles wonders if the dental establishment is away with the tooth fairies.

It’s official: it’s safe to put hazardous waste in your mouth – and not just any run-of-the-mill hazardous waste, either. According to the European Waste Catalogue (entry 18 01 10), this particular hazardous waste possesses the hazardous property H6, meaning that it is toxic if inhaled or ingested, and may result in serious, acute or chronic health risks – even in death. Is this claim for safety being made by magician David Blaine? Or mystic yogis demonstrating their mastery over the mindbody continuum? No, this spectacular claim is the direct implication of separate advice given by the Department of Health (DoH) and Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on dental amalgam.

Clearly not everybody knows that dental amalgam – the ‘silver’ fillings in their mouths – contains 50 per cent mercury, the second most toxic metal on the planet after plutonium, or the reason why it’s considered a hazardous waste in the first place.

According to DEFRA’s guidance for dentists – published in December 2005 and based on England and Wales Hazardous Waste Regulations, which in turn adhere to EU Waste Directives...

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