L.A. Times
By Lisa Richardson, Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2003
A nonprofit consumer group sued the California Dental Board on Monday, seeking to force distribution of a new fact sheet outlining the dangers of mercury used in amalgam fillings.
Although the dental board approved the new fact sheet in July, the suit says it is still distributing an older version that is long and confusing and that "The citizenry should be alarmed that a profession has decided that disclosure is against their interests," said Charles Brown, national counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice, which filed the suit.
The dental board is to present a revised version of the fact sheet at a meeting this month, but the meeting has not been scheduled. Fearing a delaying tactic on the part of the board, consumer advocates sued.
Dental board members are not stalling, said the board's executive director, Cynthia Gatlin, on Monday, but are busy working on the new fact sheet.
"Frankly, I'm quite surprised that we're being sued for a fact sheet that we're busy working on right now," Gatlin said.
When the new fact sheet is ready, Gatlin said, the board will have 10 days to give notice of a meeting - something she said still could happen by the end of the year.
"I don't see that being an impossibility," Gatlin said.
Monday's suit is another twist in an 11-year debate over the health risks posed by amalgam - half mercury and half other metals - and how best to inform consumers about them.
In 1992, then state Sen. Diane Watson wrote a statute requiring the dental board to adopt a fact sheet disclosing the risks of dental restorative materials, including amalgam. Two have been issued; but the state consumer protection agency rejected one as inadequate, and a newer version has been challenged by consumer advocates.
Organizations representing dentists have maintained that amalgam is safe.
"Our goal, being a good public resource, is to base everything on scientific evidence, and currently there is no scientific evidence to prove amalgam is deleterious to someone's health," said Lori Reed, a spokeswoman for the California Dental Assn.
Under Proposition 65, passed in 1986, mercury is listed as a potential cause of birth defects or other reproductive health problems. The measure required consumers to be notified of such risks.
Watson, now a U.S. representative from Los Angeles, said Monday that she hoped the lawsuit would encourage the dental board to act.