Mercury in the mouth of babes.

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Courtesy: Sallie Bernard From 4-18-06 Newsletter of Merrill Goozner, Director of the Integrityin Science Project, the Center for Science in the Public Interest andcontributing editor to the American Prospect magazinehttp://www.gooznews.com/archives/000328.html Mercury in the Mouths of BabesTwo new government-funded studies, which will appear tomorrow in the/Journal of the American Medical Association/, found that children whoseteeth were filled with mercury-based dental amalgam suffered no IQ losscompared to children that used other types of fillings. The NationalInstitute of Dental and Craniofacial Research put out a press release<http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/NewsAndReports/NewsReleases/NewRelease04182006.htm>suggesting the findings "should be reassuring for parents, children, anddental professionals."Yet the journal that published the studies wasn't so sanguine. /JAMA/invited Herbert Needleman, the University of Pittsburgh psychiatrist whofought a 20-year battle to make the nation aware of the neurotoxiceffects on children of low-level lead exposure, to write an accompanyingeditorial. Here's what he had to say in part: /"It is predictable that some outside interests will expand the modest conclusions of these studies to assert that use of mercury amalgam in dentistry is risk free. This conclusion would be unfortunate and unscientific. The conclusions that can be extrapolated from these 2 studies are

constrained by several factors. / /First, the follow-up duration is limited to 5 years in the study by Bellinger et al and 7 years in the study by DeRouen et al. Although these follow-up periods are noteworthy, the delayed effects of early toxic exposure on health later in life, which are a subject of growing interest, are not, as acknowledged by the authors, addressed in these reports. The hints that mercury has an effect on the aging brain emphasize the salience of this question./ /Second, although both studies were sufficiently powered to rule out clinically important neurocognitive effects, the statistical power may be insufficient for detecting smaller effects. . . The

estimated amount of mercury used in amalgam production each year is 100 tons, and the number of children with amalgam fillings is estimated to exceed 50 million. If mercury caused subtle effects in 1% of those exposed, up to 500 000 children could be affected."/I have no idea if the press will cover this story tomorrow. But if theydo, it would be a shame if they did not prominently feature theimportant caveats expressed by this pioneering physician. Posted by gooznews at April 18, 2006 10:24 PM "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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