Showing posts with label ADA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADA. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Celebrate Mercury-Free Dentistry Week

American Dental Association
American Dental Association (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 ADA’s Power Over Amalgam Collapsing






By Dr. Mercola
This week, September 15-21, is Mercury-Free Dentistry Week. The Natural Health Research Foundation, which I founded, will match every contribution received this week to the nonprofit group Consumers for Dental Choice, who runs the Campaign for Mercury-Free Dentistry.
Last year’s Mercury-Free Dentistry Week was quite a success. With your help, the Campaign for Mercury-Free Dentistry met the match goal of $50,000, which we matched dollar-for dollar. So this week, I up the ante by $25,000.
I pledge to match all contributions received – up to $75,000!
Dental amalgam is a primitive, pre-Civil War, polluting product that cracks and damages your teeth. In 21st-century dentistry, it owes its continued use to the machinations of the American Dental Association (ADA).
The ADA is a trade group created in the Civil War era with the goal of advancing mercury fillings as dentistry’s mainstay; to maintain its hold, the ADA resorted to deceptive and manipulative techniques.
These include strategies like acquiring patents on amalgam, adopting a gag rule to order dentists to stand silent about amalgam’s mercury, and handing out brochures deceptively promoting amalgam as “silver fillings” rather than the accurate term “mercury fillings.”

ADA’s Stronghold Over Amalgam Is Finally Crumbling

As its power reached monopoly status, the ADA became the puppeteer for amalgam. Its string-pulling caused regulators to dance, lawmakers to speak, and the mainstream media to stay silent. Following the ADA line, state dental boards enforced the gag rule at the threat of license removal.
Choosing to please the ADA and hence defying its legal duty to classify amalgam, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drew the wrath of a United States District Judge.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), instead of trying to reduce mercury pollution, cut the infamous “midnight deal” with the ADA so dentists could continue to pollute instead of buy separators.1 ADA’s actions gave license to profiteering ADA members to reap quick and easy profits by, in the generations-old dental school joke, the method of “drill, fill, and bill.”
Enter Consumers for Dental Choice, the nonprofit group led by attorney and advocate Charlie Brown. In their first campaign, they destroyed the gag rule, freeing up dentists to talk to patients and the public about the value of mercury-free dentistry.
Later, they sued the FDA, and a federal judge forced the agency to classify amalgam. At the dawn of the International treaty on mercury talks, they organized the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, so they could go toe-to-toe with the pro-mercury World Dental Federation (the ADA is its major member).
Then came 2013, and things started to fall apart for the ADA. In the past nine months, this pro-mercury trade group has suffered a succession of humiliating defeats -- at the mercury treaty, in the mainstream media, and in the public health community.
In Geneva in January, at its fifth session stretching over three years, 140 nations reached an agreement on the language of the mercury treaty on amalgam. Here is why our side won at the mercury treaty, and why the ADA side lost:
  • For the first time, nations have acknowledged that amalgam waste management is not enough. The final treaty language calls for nations to take measures “to phase down the use of dental amalgam.”
  • Amalgam is the only mercury-added product in the treaty with a road map for how to phase down its use, providing nations with specific guidance on what measures can be taken to transition to mercury-free alternatives. That’s how seriously the nations are taking this issue.
  • Phase-down measures listed in the treaty include adopting national objectives to minimize amalgam use, promoting the use of mercury-free alternatives, training dentists and dental students on alternatives, encouraging insurance policies that disfavor amalgam, and ending the use of unencapsulated bulk amalgam.
  • The American Dental Association (ADA) fought hard to keep amalgam out of Annex C, the part of the treaty that will be regularly reviewed and can be easily amended. The world alliance led by Charlie Brown pushed hard to get amalgam into Annex C – and won! So now, the treaty’s amalgam provision that currently calls for a phase-down can be upgraded later… to set a phase-out date that will end amalgam use once and for all.

Amalgam’s Days Are Numbered...

The American media was quick to understand the value of the treaty. Even in its hometown of Chicago, the ADA is facing stories saying amalgam’s days may be numbered. The Chicago Tribune2 ran a long article on amalgam, explaining that “momentum is building to phase out dental amalgam.”
The widely-watched Dr. Oz Show aired “Are Your Silver Fillings Making You Sick?” – an episode devoted to telling dental consumers the truth about dental amalgam. Dr. Oz, audience members, and even dentists roundly condemned the continued use of mercury-releasing dental amalgam. If you missed the Dr. Oz show, you can watch the episode here.
In the old days, the ADA would go to the producer, a retraction would be made, and the status quo ante would return. This time, it did not work. Dr. Oz stood his ground, and the ADA threw in the towel, severing its affiliation with Dr. Oz’s website. The public health community, an integral part of health care in America, now realizes the value of mercury-free dentistry. An American Public Health Association panel met last month to review policy proposals and soundly rejected one backed by the ADA to “preserve” the use of dental amalgam. The panel suggested that any revised resolution “…be reflective for support of eventual phase out of the use of dental amalgam” and presented comments from several APHA sections:
  • “Recent studies verifying the benefits of mercury-free alternatives over amalgam (in terms of longevity, accessibility, and the environment) are neglected,”
  • “Scientific evidence, as well as updated data from the United Nations Environment Program and other reputable sources, indicates that amalgam is a significant source of mercury pollution and largely cannot be prevented except by source reduction,” and
  • From the Environment section of the APHA: …the [ADA] proposed resolution is plainly inconsistent with the Association’s comprehensive, precautionary approach to anthropogenic mercury use.”

Let’s Keep the Momentum Going!

On Sunday, I wrote about a major reason to celebrate Mercury-Free Dentistry Week: the new treaty on mercury includes amalgam; each nation who signed the treaty (and every major nation and virtually every small one is indicating support)  pledges at least to reduce its use (or end its use entirely).
Today, I write about another reason to celebrate: the ADA’s power over amalgam is collapsing -- and their leaders know it. Please keep this momentum going -- give to the Mercury-Free Dentistry Campaign. If you give this week, we double the size of your gift.
Donate Today!
That the ADA recognizes its power is dissipating was illustrated at a treaty briefing in Washington on September 4. Seven U.S. government agencies hosted a meeting at the August U.S. State Department for treaty “stakeholders” -- non-government organizations representing business, consumer, and environmental interests. Among those attending were Charlie Brown for Consumers for Dental Choice and the outside counsel for  the American Dental Association.
Speaking humbly, the ADA attorney said he had two areas to address. First, , he asked the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward and adopt its proposed rule to mandate amalgam separators. The action  is a startling reversal of a 2008  ADA -  EPA “Memorandum of Understanding” -- exposed by Michael Bender of the Mercury Policy Project in his paper entitled “Midnight Deal on Dental Mercury.”3
Second, he promised the government agencies that the ADA would work on phasing down amalgam. That the ADA would make such promises to seven U.S. government agencies is astonishing. At the least it is a reversal of the ADA’s previous no-holds-barred robust protectionism of amalgam, a recognition that their monopoly power has gone to the dustbins of history.
But will the ADA back up this talk with action? Two things are clear:
  • With their 150 years of protecting mercury-based dentistry, we must hold their feet to the fire to see if they are serious. Charlie Brown advises me that we have been down this road before.
  • Consumers for Dental Choice is the team who has gotten us to this point -- and who will be the ones to work to hold the ADA accountable,to its promise.  I hope you will help Charlie lead us to the finish line -- mercury-free dentistry!

How You Can Help Bring Mercury-Free Dentistry to America and the World

Consumers for Dental Choice and its allies have made amazing progress in exposing the truth about mercury fillings… a truth that the ADA masked in myth for far too long. But the battle’s not won yet – while more and more governments, journalists, and consumers are now questioning the ADA’s myths, many people still buy into the ADA’s slick marketing of a mercury product.
You can help stop dental mercury today! Will you please consider a donation to Consumers for Dental Choice, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advocating mercury-free dentistry?
Donations are tax-exempt and can be made online at www.toxicteeth.org. Checks can be mailed to:
Consumers for Dental Choice
316 F St., N.E., Suite 210
Washington DC 20002
For updates on the movement for mercury-free dentistry, join Consumers for Dental Choice on Facebook or sign up to receive email newsletter. Thank you for supporting mercury-free dentistry!

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/17/mercury-free-dentistry-week.aspx  Link back to Mercola.com where the article originated from.

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Monday, April 15, 2013

Gloucester, VA - Main Street Village's 3 foot sidewalks. Federal ADA Violations?

We have had a number of people complain to us about the conditions of the sidewalks in the Gloucester Main Street Village area.  We went to the area and conducted an assessment of the area and these are the results we came up with..

 There are many area's on Main Street that are obstructed by light poles and signs.  This significantly cuts down the pedestrian traffic.  This is just one of the many areas of complaints we have heard.  We will be covering other areas throughout the week.  We checked the specs of what is required for sidewalks and we will go over them here in this article.

  Without the obstruction, the sidewalk is 5 feet which is fine for residential as long as it is NOT obstructed.   Once obstructions are installed, other guidelines come into play such as effective width of the walking path.  But here is the funny part.  There are no federal ADA regulations for the most part except for widths concerning wheelchairs and the minimum overall width and a few other areas.  Everything else are suggested guidelines.   The suggested guideline for the Main Street Village area should be much wider than most of it is.  But there are no legal violations that we found in any of the widths here.  Just major obstructions that hamper pedestrian traffic flow and are very annoying to walk over.

4.3.3 Width

The widths of sidewalks not only affect pedestrian usability but also determine the types of access and other pedestrian elements that can be installed. For example, a 1.525-m (60-in) sidewalk is probably wide enough to accommodate pedestrian traffic in a residential area,but a much wider sidewalk would be necessary to include amenities such as street furniture or newspaper stands.Design width is defined as the width specification the sidewalk was intended to meet; it extends from the curb or planting strip to any buildings or landscaping that form the opposite borders of the sidewalk  .Minimum clearance width is defined as the narrowest point on a sidewalk. An inaccessible minimum clearance width is created when obstacles such as utility poles protrude into the sidewalk and reduce the design width.A reduction in the design width could also create a minimum clearance width.

Although most guidelines require sidewalk design widths to be at least 1.525 m (60 in) wide, larger design widths can accommodate more pedestrians and improve ease of access. The AASHTO Green Book, the Oregon Department of Transportation guidebook, and other guidelines recommend wider design widths in areas with high volumes of pedestrians. The sidewalk width often depends on the type of street. In general,residential streets have narrower sidewalks than commercial streets.
The guidelines and recommendations that were reviewed for minimum clearance width are included in Tables 4-2.1 through 4-2.4 at the end of this chapter. Most of the guidelines reviewed concur with ADAAG, which specifies that the minimum passage width for wheelchairs should be 0.815 m (32 in) at a point and 0.915 m (36 in) continuously (ADAAG, U.S. Access Board, 1991). Additional width is necessary for turning and maneuvering.

The width of the sidewalk is also affected by pedestrian travel tendencies.Pedestrians tend to travel in the center of sidewalks to separate themselves from the rush of traffic and avoid street furniture, vertical obstructions, and other pedestrians entering and exiting buildings. Pedestrians avoid the edge of the sidewalk close to the street because it often contains utility poles, bus shelters,parking meters, sign poles, and other street furniture. Pedestrians also avoid traveling in the 0.610 m (24 in) of the sidewalk close to buildings to avoid retaining walls, street furniture, and fences (OR DOT, 1995). The sidewalk area that pedestrians tend to avoid is referred to as the shy distance. Taking into account the shy distance, only the center 1.830 m (6 ft) of a 3.050-m (10-ft) sidewalk is used by pedestrians for travel, as shown in Figure 4-7. Thus,the effective width of a sidewalk, not the design width, constitutes the sidewalk area needed to accommodate anticipated levels of pedestrian traffic.

In this picture, you see a double obstruction to the pedestrian path lowering the sidewalk usability even more than our first picture.  This section is less than 32 inches, however, the obstructions are not next to each other even though they create highly limited access.




In this picture, you have an area again less than 5 feet, with a clearance of about 37  inches.  It may meet the law for a wheelchair, but it misses the intention of the laws.  At least a person in a wheelchair can invade someone's driveway and lawn to get through here.




 This is the area where we were going to take a wheelchair but then decided that blocking pedestrian traffic in an already limited area would not be a good idea.  The clearance is about 38 inches.  Again, it may meet federal ADA law per se,. but it's a potential elbow buster and is one of two obstructions within a very short distance against this wall.

This is the other obstruction along that same wall as shown above.  The clearance here is 39 inches of usable pedestrian traffic to include a wheelchair.  Average overall wheelchairs are between 24 inches wide to 34 inches wide.  If you are in one of the wide wheelchairs and are self propelled, your arms extend out past the wheel width.  38 inches will be very uncomfortable to try and maneuver through but not at all impossible.  It might prove to be very nerve wracking for some however.

   "An inaccessible minimum clearance width is created when obstacles such as utility poles protrude into the sidewalk and reduce the design width."  Now this is pulled from the federal ADA guidelines.  As we have shown, there are multiple areas at the Gloucester Main Street business district that are below 3 feet. due to obstructions in the walkway.

  ",the effective width of a sidewalk, not the design width, constitutes the sidewalk area needed to accommodate anticipated levels of pedestrian traffic."  So the constant obstacles of light poles, street signs, newspaper boxes, embedded or on the sidewalk throughout the area lower the effective width of the sidewalks. 

  The design width before obstructions meet the bare minimum width requirement of 5 feet wide for a residential area.  But once again, we are supposed to be talking about a business district.  This, in our view, is anti business.  It says to people that we do not want you walking around here.  Why else make accessibility so poor?  It also says that we are not expecting anyone to really walk around and shop here as well.  Great way to attract future business into the area.

This section of Gloucester Main Street seems to be the only area where the sidewalks are done correctly.  The effective pedestrian area is ample for a good amount of foot traffic.  We are only talking about a couple of blocks on one side of the road that looks like this however.


Here is a measurement along the sidewalks of Heron Cove, just off of Gloucester Main Street.  It's 6 feet wide with no obstructions in the walkway whatsoever.





This is a longer view of the sidewalk in Heron Cove.  Again, no obstructions in the walkway.  Amazing how they can get it right and this is a residential area off of Main Street.





Now as seen above, if you are going to install street furniture, (Light Poles, Signs, etc), it is recommended that you increase the usable part of the sidewalk.  Something Gloucester Officials decided not to do?  In fact, the recommendations are for planners to factor in decreasing the size of the roads to increase the size of the sidewalks.  Didn't we see the opposite here?  The road size was increased and the sidewalks decreased?  So again, we do not need more bad planning.

In this picture, you see multiple obstructions along the sidewalk.  This affects pedestrian traffic flow.  The cross grade along here is also uncomfortable for many handicapped people.   There is questionable debate if the cross sloping of this section of the sidewalk actually slopes to much which could be of danger to pedestrians in wheelchairs of using canes or crutches.  This requires special measurements which we were not prepared to do at this time.
    http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/sidewalks/chap4a.cfm

This is the link to the site where we retrieved information on Federal ADA guidelines for sidewalks.  You can see for yourself what the guidelines are.  It's straight from the Federal Highway Administration.

  Guess this is the price we are expected to pay for beautification?  Forget accessibility, appearance is much more important.

Homeopathy Ayurveda Herbal

Free MP3 Download:  Don't Look Down  - " Not Alone" is the track for this post.  Alternative Blues tune.  It kicks.  Fast paced and upbeat.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8TllrN05NejMwVlU/edit?usp=sharing


For all the latest news, please click on the Home button towards the top of this site.
Have a news story? Submit it above.
Some of Gloucester's most incredible history is found on this site in detail.
Gloucester, VA Links and News – A GVLN Website.
We cover what no one else will.

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