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October 2013 has been a momentous month in the fight against dental mercury fillings, or amalgam. On October 10, a legally binding international treaty to control the use of this toxic metal was signed into action – and thanks largely to the work of The Campaign for Mercury-Free Dentistry, the project organized and led by Charlie Brown of Consumers for Dental Choice, the treaty gives special attention to amalgam.

Making the signing even more poignant, it was signed in Minamata, Japan, a city where hundreds of residents have died, and thousands have become ill, due to poisoning from excessive mercury exposure over a more than 50-year period.

It’s Official: The International Mercury Treaty

It took a three-year campaign encompassing five negotiation sessions with all the nations, 15 regional sessions, dozens of papers and reports, and hundreds of meetings with individual governments  but the hard work paid off.

The treaty, named the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury, requires the phasing out of many mercury-containing products, including thermometers, by 2020, and also calls for an end to all mercury mining within 15 years.

Importantly, the treaty is being hailed as marking the beginning of the end for dental amalgam aroun d the world, as it mandates that each nation phase down amalgam use.

Specifically, each country must do at least two phase down steps listed in the treaty. The most constructive and efficient of those phase-down steps are:

• Promote mercury-free alternatives   
• Change dental school curriculum and re-train dentists    
• Encourage insurance programs to favor mercury-free dental restorations over amalgam

According to Charlie Brown, the treat means:

” dental amalgam is neither appropriate nor practical in the 21st century  Mercury fillings – amalgam is 50% mercury – have no future, on any continent.”

The treaty takes effect after its ratification by 50 nations, which can take three or four years.  But the advocates are not sitting back and waiting; the Zero Mercury Working Group, has launched a campaign to get it ratified by 50 nations – and hence take effect – in just two years.