U.S. EPA proposes to eliminate mercury pollution from dentist offices nationwide
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a proposal to eliminate
mercury pollution from dental offices nationwide. These new Clean Water
Act standards would cut discharges of dental amalgam - a mixture of mercury
and other metals that dentists use to fill cavities. Under this proposal,
dentists must use devices to remove mercury and other toxic metals before
they go down the drain.
“This proposed rule would cut mercury and toxic metal discharges
to public wastewater systems by at least 8.8 tons a year nationwide,”
said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific
Southwest. “Bay Area communities already require dentists to use
amalgam capture devices and have seen their mercury pollution levels drop
nearly 75 percent. Now the rest of California and the nation will see
these same benefits.”
About half the mercury that enters public water treatment systems comes
from dental offices that do not use amalgam separators. When mercury from
amalgam is discharged into water bodies, it can be transformed into methylmercury,
a highly toxic form of mercury that builds up in fish, shellfish and fish-eating
animals. People can be harmed by methylmercury when they eat contaminated
fish and shellfish. Methylmercury is a neurotoxin which impairs brain
and nervous system development and function.
Many states and local wastewater districts have started mercury pollution
control programs that require amalgam separators in dentist offices. Amalgam
separators remove 90 to 95 percent of mercury and other metal waste. Under
the San Francisco Bay Regional Watershed Mercury control program, virtually
all Bay Area cities and public water systems have successful mandatory
dental amalgam separator programs, but this is not the case in most other
communities and states.
EPA estimates that up to 120,000 dental offices in the U.S. use or dispose
of amalgam fillings that contain mercury. Almost all of these offices
discharge to sanitary sewers that flow to wastewater treatment plants.
While most offices use some practices to reduce amalgam discharges to
the sewers, they are not nearly as effective as amalgam separators. Because
40 to 50 percent of dentists across the country already use amalgam separators
thanks to state and local programs, the new rule may result in installation
of separators in up to 60,000 dental offices nationwide.
EPA estimates put the total annual cost of the proposed rule at $44 to
$49 million and a new streamlining proposal will cut state and local oversight
costs by a similar amount. This action is one way the U.S. is meeting
the goals of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international environmental
agreement that addresses human activities contributing to widespread mercury
pollution.
EPA will accept public comments on the proposal for 60 days following
publication in the Federal Register and expects to finalize the rule in
September 2015.
More information:
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/guide/dental/