It’s time for the first city Fact Sheet law, written by Philadelphia Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, to take effect. But as with the several state fact sheet laws, the same old cronies who tried to block the law from getting passed -- the pro-mercury dentists -- step in to try to block it from being implemented.
A “Fact Sheet law” requires dentists to give patients, and parents of child patients, a brochure explaining that the “silver fillings” are really mercury, that they can have terrifying health risks, and that alternative materials are available for any type of cavity.
We are proud that Councilwoman Reynolds Brown wrote into the law that Consumers for Dental Choice must be consulted in the process. I appointed Freya Koss, head of the PA Coalition for Mercury-Free Dentistry, as our representative for the negotiations. After months of ducking the issue -- whereupon we threatened a lawsuit, a bona fide threat considering our FDA case -- the city Health Board is now focused on complying with this law.
Unfortunately, the staff of the Health Department, allying with the PA dental association, tried to end-run the law’s requirements, submitting a draft fact sheet to the Health Board that obscured the toxicity concerns via the sham “allergy” term. Fortunately, we were able to win the first round, defeating this attempt to end-run the law.
Our first team testified before the Health Board at that December hearing: Freya, plus Philadelphia area dentists Dr. Vinnie DiLorenzo and Dr. Andi Brockman; each presented compelling arguments why the Health Board should reject the staff draft.
The meeting’s high point, ironically, came from mercury apologist Thomas Gamba from the Pennsylvania Dental Assoc., who was trying to convince the Board that mercury fillings are safe. (Gamba has been engaged in myth-making for years; he once wrote the City Council, No dentist places mercury in a patient’s mouth.) But then Gamba explained the meticulous precautions he used when removing amalgam. Realizing the oxymoronic testimony, Dr. Donald Schwarz, the Philadelphia Health Commissioner and the city’s Deputy Mayor, asked, in effect:
Hey, wait a minute, Doctor -- if amalgam is so safe, why do you need all those precautions when you remove them?
The befuddled Gamba was speechless. Point, game, and match to us. (By the way, the item that Gamba most wants removed from the brochure is our website, www.toxicteeth.org -- clearly, the truth hurts the PA Dental Association.)
The city Health Department will re-convene on February 10 at 5 pm in the Municipal Services Building, to consider the issue anew. Both sides have submitted draft fact sheets.
The upcoming weeks, therefore, are critical. We have the chance to get the most accurate fact sheet ever.
- You are welcome to send your ideas, encouragement, and assistance to Freya, frekoss@aol.com
- If you are a PA resident -- and ONLY if you are a PA resident -- you could write Commissioner Schwarz and explain the importance of educating parents and patients about mercury, which organized dentistry decidedly will not do; he’s at donald.schwarz@phila.gov
- If you live in the PA-NJ-DE-MD area and can come to that meeting, please do so (ask Freya, not me, for details.) I cannot understate the value of having the energy of a crowd of supporters in the room when policymakers decide issues; it can be enough to make them forego backroom deals with the dental association. I’ve seen the impact of your grassroots work at hearings and public meetings in Arizona and Iowa, in California and Pennsylvania, in Oregon and Maine, in Florida and Connecticut … (etc.)
Charlie Brown
26 January 2009
Charles G. Brown, National Counsel
Consumers for Dental Choice
316 F St., N.E., Suite 210 , Washington, DC 20002
Ph. 202.544-6333; fax 202.544-6331
charlie@toxicteeth.org,
www.toxicteeth.org
Working for Mercury-Free Dentistry