At a by-invitation-only workshop last Thursday in Brussels, the European Union took a giant step toward phasing out all amalgam use – and Consumers for Dental Choice executive director Charlie Brown was there with our European team to make sure it happened!
The EU amalgam regulation we won in 2017 not only banned amalgam use in children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers; it also required the European Commission (the staff arm of the European Union) to issue a report on the feasibility of phasing out dental amalgam use by 2030.
The draft of that report was presented at this workshop, where our European team and I were present in full force to support its conclusion: amalgam use in the EU should be phased out by 2025. Going toe-to-toe with the pro-mercury Council of European Dentists, we pointed to the benefits of a dental mercury-free Europe while decimating our opponent’s demonstrably false claim that this primitive mercury product is still needed.
The European Commission will complete its final report this spring – and must make its official recommendation to the European Parliament by June. We expect the final report will likewise recommend the end of amalgam by 2025, but we’ve still got the challenge of shepherding this recommendation through two more branches of the European Union government ahead of us. So at the workshop’s conclusion, the European Commission and its consultants requested follow-up information to further bolster our position, which our team of experts is working on now.
A total phase out of amalgam use in the EU has worldwide implications, so stay tuned for updates!