ronment, conditions may be right for waste dental 
mercury to methylate, become bioavailable, and sub-
sequently biomagnify in fish as methyl mercury, the 
most toxic form of mercury. 
(3) Forty-eight States, the District of Colum-
bia, and the United States Territory of American 
Samoa 
have 
issued 
2,362 
fish 
consumption 
advisories to their residents due to mercury contami-
nation. 
(4) The Food and Drug Administration has 
issued fish consumption advisories due to levels of 
mercury in commercially-caught fish and, in Janu-
ary 2001, warned pregnant woman and young chil-
dren not to eat certain marine fish. 
(5) According to the Environmental Protection 
Agency, United States dentists use approximately 34 
tons of mercury per year. 
(6) A report issued on June 5, 2002, by the 
Mercury Policy Project, the Sierra Club, Health 
Care Without Harm, Clean Water Action, and the 
Toxics Action Center stated that, because of mer-
cury fillings, dental offices are now the leading 
source of mercury in the Nation’s wastewater. 
(7) Mercury from dental amalgam can enter the 
environment during any point of the product’s life- 
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cycle. This includes placement or removal of fillings; 
through bodily excretions; when sewage sludge is in-
cinerated, spread on crops, or dumped in land fills; 
when vapor is released or land filled; when vapor is 
released directly from the filling (which increases 
with brushing, chewing, and consuming hot foods or 
salt); and during cremation. Currently there are no 
requirements for mercury capture before or during 
cremation. 
(8) The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage 
Agencies reported human wastes from individuals 
with dental amalgam fillings to be the most signifi-
cant source of domestic mercury entering publicly 
owned treatment works, greater than 80 percent of 
the total contributing factors. 
(9) According to the Association of Metropoli-
tan Sewerage Agencies, removal of mercury from 
publicly owned treatment works has been shown to 
cost $10,000,000 to $100,000,000 for every pound 
removed. 
(10) Mercury use by the dental industry in-
creased from 2 percent in 1980 to 22 percent of the 
total use of mercury in the United States in 2001, 
because of drastic declines in mercury use by other 
industries over that period. 
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(11) Amalgam restorations were estimated to 
be 55 percent of the total mercury product reservoir 
in 2004 by the Environmental Protection Agency, 
and will therefore be a source of environmental con-
tamination into the future. 
(12) According to a joint study by the Environ-
mental Protection Agency and the Cremation Asso-
ciation of North America, approximately 238 pounds 
of mercury, mostly from dental amalgam fillings, 
were released from crematoria nationally in 1999. 
(13) Cremation is chosen in approximately 30 
percent of all deaths, and this percentage is expected 
to increase every year. 
(14) According to industrial hygiene surveys, 6 
to 16 percent of dental offices exceed the exposure 
levels for air mercury permitted by Occupational 
Safety and Health Administration standards. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON INTRODUCTION OF DENTAL 
AMALGAM INTO INTERSTATE COMMERCE. 
(a) PROHIBITION.—Section 501 of the Federal Food, 
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 351) is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(j) Effective January 1, 2009, if it contains mercury 
intended for use in a dental filling.’’. 
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(b) TRANSITIONAL PROVISION.—For purposes of the 
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 
et seq.), effective December 31, 2007, and subject to the 
amendment made by subsection (a), a device that contains 
mercury intended for use in a dental filling shall be consid-
ered to be misbranded, unless it bears a label that provides 
as follows: ‘‘Dental amalgam contains approximately 50 
percent mercury, a highly toxic element. Such product 
should not be administered to children less than 18 years 
of age, pregnant women, or lactating women. Such prod-
uct should not be administered to any consumer without 
a warning that the product contains mercury, which is a 
highly toxic element, and therefore poses health risks.’’. 
Æ 
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