Showing posts with label American Dental Association. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Dental Association. Show all posts

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Governor McAuliffe Makes Major Women’s Health Announcements

McAuliffe speaking at Frying Pan Park in Hernd...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
RICHMOND – Today, Governor Terry McAuliffe kicked off National Women’s Health Week with four significant announcements demonstrating his commitment to protecting Virginia women’s rights to make their own healthcare decisions. 

“This is not just a health issue – it’s an economic issue,” McAuliffe said during his announcement at the state Capitol. “In order to grow and diversify our economy, Virginia needs to be open and welcoming to all, and we need to ensure that all Virginia women have access to the healthcare resources they need.”

The governor highlighted three initiatives he is pursuing to meet that goal:

Board of Health directive. McAuliffe issued a directive asking members of the Board of Health to immediately begin a review of last year’s regulations on women’s health centers to ensure that those regulations guarantee Virginians’ access to the centers’ services.

“I am concerned that the extreme and punitive regulations adopted last year jeopardize the ability of most women’s health centers to keep their doors open and place in jeopardy the health and reproductive rights of Virginia women,” McAuliffe said.

Board of Health appointments. The governor also announced the appointment of new members to the Board of Health who share his commitment to women’s health and support his plan to review the health center regulations. Governor McAuliffe noted that he has “a right and a responsibility to have reasonable people of my own choosing at the table for that review.”

The new board members are as follows:

Dr. Benita Miller, DDS
Dr. Benita Miller is a Richmond dentist who practices Periodontics. Dr. Miller has been a member of the American Dental Association since 1980 and has held many leadership positions in the Richmond Dental Society and the Virginia Dental Association since 1986.

Dr. Miller was inducted as a Fellow to the International College of Dentists in 2000 and previously served as an Assistant Clinical Instructor at the Department of Peridontics at the VCU School of Dentistry. Miller received a B.S. from Duke University and a D.D.S. degree from VCU/MCV School of Dentistry.

Faye O. Prichard, Ashland
 Faye O. Prichard is the mayor of Ashland. She has been serving the residents of Ashland on the Town Council since 2002. Ms. Prichard earned her master's degree in literature from Virginia Commonwealth University and has taught composition there for approximately 15 years. Currently, she is the Director of Writing at the Honors College at VCU. 

Before her entry into academia, she held certification and state licensure in respiratory care and worked in a number of Richmond hospitals and for several local home health care companies.

James Edmondson, McLean
Mr. Edmondson, principal of E&G Group, has been in the real estate business as consultant, developer, property owner and manager since 1972. He has served as vice chair of the Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia for many years. Gov. Mark Warner appointed him to the Virginia Board of Health in 2005. He was re-appointed to the board in 2009 by Gov. Tim Kaine. Edmondson has an A.B. in economics from Princeton and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia’s Darden School. 

Linda Hines, RN, MS, Chester
Ms. Hines earned her bachelor of science degree in nursing and her master of science in executive nursing administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. She currently serves as the vice president of medical management for Virginia Premier Health Plan, Inc. Ms. Hines has worked in managed care for more than 17 years and brings a strong clinical, administrative and management background to her work in managed care.

She is active in a variety of professional activities, including the Virginia Maternal and Child Health Council and Leadership Metro Richmond. She is a task force member to Gov. Kaine’s health care policy committee and a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Ms. Hines has served as adjunct faculty for the VCU School of Nursing.

Tommy East, Salem
Tommy East is the president and chief executive officer for American HealthCare, LLC in Roanoke.  American HealthCare is the management company for 17 Heritage Hall Healthcare and Rehabilitation Centers throughout the commonwealth.

Mr. East, who has served as the company’s chief executive officer since 2012, is a 30-year veteran of eldercare, having managed nursing facilities and assisted living facilities, and worked in home health and hospice. The Salem native is an accomplished businessman who has served on the board of directors and the executive board for the Virginia Health Care Association.

Discounted drug pricing program. The governor announced that he is directing the Virginia Health Commissioner to register and enroll Virginia’s eligible women’s health clinics in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which allows eligible clinics to obtain pharmaceutical drugs from manufacturers at a significant discount.

Expanded access to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The Virginia Department of Health will also sign a Memorandum of Agreement with Virginia’s four Planned Parenthood affiliates to provide free HIV testing to more than 1,800 women and men by the end of 2014. The initiative is part of a directive from the governor to pursue programs that expand access to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, the leading cause of infertility in women.
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Dentists Targeted for Recklessly Polluting Water with Mercury Waste

Environmental Protection Agency Seal
Environmental Protection Agency Seal (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)
By Dr. Mercola
Did you know that dentist offices are the largest source of mercury in wastewater entering publicly-owned treatment works?
Once there, dental mercury converts to methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury known to be hazardous to brain and nervous system function, particularly in fetuses and young children.
Mercury is extremely tenacious once in the air, water, and soil; levels gradually increase over time, as it accumulates. It's no wonder then that contaminated fish and other seafood are the largest dietary source of mercury in the US, courtesy of polluted waterways.
In 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would create a rule requiring dentists who use dental amalgam to conduct best management practices and install amalgam separators.
An amalgam separator is a wastewater treatment device installed at the source, in the dental office, that removes 95-99 percent of the mercury in the wastewater. As originally proposed, EPA said the regulation would be finalized by 2012.1 Such a rule would be a step toward making dentists accountable for future environmental damage caused by their archaic pro-amalgam stance.
Amalgam is primitive polluting pre-Civil War product, one that the invasive process of damaging and removing good tooth matter. The alternatives are minimally-invasive, requiring no such draconian process. Plainly, 21st-century dentistry is mercury-free dentistry.

Why Is the EPA's Mercury Rule at a Stand-Still?

It appeared in 2010 that EPA would move forward to draft a rule, but in fact the rule continues to suffer from a long string of delays and excuses for not being brought forth.
At least eleven states—including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Washington, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Oregon, and Michigan—require dentists to use amalgam separators to reduce mercury discharges. There, the system works fine; it does not raise the cost of dental care, but it does lower environmental pollution.
Do pro-mercury dentists in the other 39 states buy separators? Hardly. If they are putting mercury into children's mouths, and calling them silver fillings, why would they act responsibly toward the environment?
That's why we need a ruling by the EPA -- to apply to all states and territories.
Even the otherwise pro-mercury American Dental Association (ADA) amended its best management practices (BMPs) in 2007 to endorse amalgam separators as an effective tool to reduce mercury discharges in dental offices in November 2013, the US government became the first country to both sign and accept the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury, which covers dental amalgam. (The ADA actually fought hard to keep amalgam out of Annex C, the part of the treaty that will be regularly reviewed and can be easily amended, but they didn't succeed. The Convention thus has a path to a full amalgam phase-out, a point well-known to both sides)
Internal documents now reveal that EPA will announce it has no intention of everproposing its amalgam rule. This abandonment of the public trust has ADA footprints all over it... Thus:
  1. You, and other members of the public, will not have the chance to comment on the EPA's mercury rule
  2. Dentists will not be held accountable for their mercury dumping
  3. Our children will suffer the consequences

Tell EPA to Release Its Mercury Amalgam Rule!

This is unconscionable. Charlie Brown and Consumers for Dental Choice have created a petition demanding the EPA immediately release its mercury amalgam rule for public comment. I hope you will take a moment to sign this petition right now.
Abandoning the long-promised separator rule is a horrid decision. It hands American dentists carte blanche to pollute without accountability, passing the costs onto not only taxpayers to clean it up, but to families whose children are affected by dental mercury in the water (and hence fish), air (via cremation), and soil (and hence, our vegetables).
Furthermore, based on the EPA's promise to act, the environmental protection community stopped pushing for individual state mandates, of which there were about a dozen in the works. By backing off and relying on the EPA to move forward, years have been wasted waiting for what might never happen.
Just what kind of message is the US sending to the international community when, just 90 days after being the first to accept the Minamata Convention, it tosses in the towel and reneges on a four-year old promise to address dental mercury wastewater pollution?

Indiana Department of Environmental Management Calls for Action Against Polluting Dentists

According to the featured article,2 the Indiana Department of Environmental Management sent a letter to the city of Elkhart on December 31, 2013, alerting it to mercury levels in its treatment plant exceeding the allowable limit of 1.6 nanograms per liter (ng/L). The limit had been exceeded in June, August, and October that year. The highest reading measured in at 4.4 ng/L. As reported in the article:
"Laura Kolo, utility services manager for the Elkhart public Works and Utilities Department, said the city must act on the violation... and will focus on dentists' offices because Elkhart doesn't have any industrial operations that could be behind the mercury. She noted in a response letter to IDEM that a 2002 report had found dental clinics are the primary source of mercury emissions at public wastewater treatment plants."
Kolo estimates the draft for a voluntary amalgam separator program in Elkhart will be finished by late June. If program compliance ends up being low, the program could become mandatory.
Today, dentists make a higher income than physicians. The cost to them of a separator? About what they make in a single chair in a single day.

Dental Amalgam Is the Leading Intentional Use of Mercury in US

Dental amalgam, a tooth filling material that is 50 percent mercury, is the leading intentional use of mercury in the US (this despite the fact that 52 percent of American dentists have stopped using amalgams.) Dental offices generate a variety of amalgam waste3 that gets flushed down the drain, unless dentists implement best management practices and dentists install and properly maintain amalgam separators. Such practices will collect:
  • Scrap amalgam
  • Used, leaking or unusable amalgam capsules
  • Amalgam captured in chairside traps and vacuum pump screens
  • "Contact amalgam," including teeth with amalgam restorations
There's a growing global consensus that dental amalgams is a considerable source of environmental mercury pollution. Several studies show that about 50 percent of the mercury entering municipal wastewater treatment plants can be traced back to dental amalgam waste.
This mercury waste amounts to about 3.7 TONS each year! An estimated 90 percent is captured by the treatment plants generally via sewage sludge.4 -- some of which ends up in landfills, while other portions are incinerated (thereby pollution the air) or applied as agricultural fertilizer (polluting your food), or seep into waterways (polluting fish and wildlife).
Amalgam is far more costly for taxpayers than the alternative tooth-colored material, when the external costs to the environment and society are factored in. A recent study details how society pays for dental mercury through additional pollution control costs, deterioration of public resources, and the health effects associated with mercury. It shows that when these costs are considered, amalgam is more costly than composite as a filling material, by at least $41 more per filling.5
So EPA inaction means our government is enriching the dentists who use amalgam in the 39 states that don't require separators. The polluter does not pay. With costs lower, it is more profitable to place mercury amalgam -- and amalgam use will grow, not shrink. More American children, not fewer, will receive mercury in their mouths because our government takes sides -- in favor of the polluters.
One would think EPA would look kindly toward dentists who do not use mercury, who are not creating a toxic workplace, who are not dumping mercury into the environment, and most of all are not putting mercury into their patients' teeth.
dental fillings infographic
Embed this infographic on your website:

A Call to Action

Why should we be forced to pay when irresponsible dentists who still use mercury could easily and relatively inexpensively install amalgam separators, which catch most of the mercury before it goes down the drain? At present, the EPA is letting them get away with it, and it's high time for that to change.
I urge you to take a stand with us and tell the EPA not to let polluting dentists off the hook: It's time to stop dental mercury dumping.
The mystery here is the position of EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy. A few years ago, she was the hard-charging environmental commissioner in Connecticut, and before that a deputy in Massachusetts. Back in her days in state government, she clamped down on dentists, requiring not only separators, but posted disclosures in dental offices advising parents and consumers that amalgam is mainly mercury, that it is a health risk, and that alternatives are available. But now the question for the new EPA Administrator is, will she do what she believes it right, based on her experience as a state regular, or will she succumb to the inside game in Washington? With your help maybe McCarthy will return to being as tough on dental mercury -- as she when posted in Hartford and Boston. To learn more about dental mercury and its risks, as well as keep abreast of the latest news on the EPA's mercury rule, please see the following sources:
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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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