Evidence of Harm (2015) Movie Script

1
Mercury is one of the most
toxic elements and a persistent
traveler through
our environment.
So who's the travel agent
for this elemental poison?
Coal-fired power plants?
Most definitely.
Mining operations?
Of course.
Your neighborhood dental office?
Surprisingly, yes.
Do you swear to tell
the whole truth and nothing
but the truth so help you God?
Is mercury toxic?
Elemental mercury is toxic.
Silver amalgam fillings,
does it contain mercury?
It does.
Almost up to 50%?
Yes.
Mercury is a toxic substance.
If you're exposed to mercury,
we start seeing much more
serious health effects.
These health effects would be...
Chronic fatigue.
Double vision.
Couldn't sleep.
Depression.
Panic attacks.
Memory loss.
A lowered immune system.
Loss of vision.
Chronic headaches.
Is both an immediate
problem in some individuals,
and a very long term
problem in others.
I started having
neurological symptoms.
I didn't feel
like a human being.
In the deepest part of
myself, I thought I was dying.
People think you're
crazy, and you're not crazy.
You have mercury poisoning.
Why is it that the ADA
will not tell the public that
mercury amalgam is harmful?
Frankly, the American Dental
Association welcomed new looks
at all of the dental
restorative materials.
The American people are being
overtly lied to by the American.
Dental Association and the
dental branch of the Food,
Drug Administration.
4, 3, 2, 1.
You're watching
Fox 17 News at 9:00.
Three years ago, I was
diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis, a debilitating
disease that scared me
to death.
But I stand before you
tonight not for pity,
but to share my
hope that I believe
could help hundreds of thousands
of other sick people like me
in "My Journey to MS and Back."
My aspiration was
to be a journalist
and tell stories
that affect change,
and tell stories
that help people,
and tell stories
that right wrongs,
and expose things that need
a light shined on them.
I'd just left my dream
job with "CBS News"
as a national correspondent.
My husband had just
left his career.
And we made those two
decisions based on the kind
of parents we wanted to be.
We wanted to be engaged parents.
We wanted to be active parents.
We wanted to be full-on,
hands-on, 24/7 parents.
We're very much an outdoorsy
family, love nature.
And I run or do some
type of exercise,
workout five days a week.
No issues with my energy level
at all, I mean just felt great.
I mean, I felt great.
Typical day, taking care
of my kids and working,
and basically just
focusing on my family.
Yeah, life was good until the
day I had the dental work done.
The thing about mercury is
it looks cool, but it's not.
It's really poisonous.
When you mess with
mercury, it gets
in your clothes, your games,
your stuff, your furniture,
your house, until everything
it touches is trashed.
Elemental mercury is toxic
primarily through inhalation
exposure.
And people just don't
realize how dangerous it is.
But it is very
important to recognize
that you can't see it,
you can't smell it,
and there's no way to know that
it's there, except that we know
that it volatilizes into air.
And you'll see it in
literature all the time,
it will volatilize at room
temperature and higher.
That's a very bad
misconception people have.
It will volatilize at anything
above negative 38 degrees.
The higher the temperature,
the more readily it
will volatilize, the quicker
it will be volatilize.
When a woman is pregnant, we
hope that she's never exposed
to mercury vapor, because
we know that it can pass
the placenta and cause
neurological problems
in the unborn baby.
And if we see residences
or buildings that
have 10 micrograms per cubic
meter or more of mercury,
then we consider that
it poses a health risk.
And we recommend
that people don't
stay in the building
or the residence.
10 micrograms is generally
considered inhabitable without
some kind of
respiratory protection.
Two schools will be closed
tomorrow after a custodian
finds a small amount of
mercury on the floor of a room
at Picklin Mills High School.
Now, how much mercury
are we talking about?
Not very much.
About the amount the size of
the eraser on this pencil.
But school officials
explained to us,
it would only take
the amount of mercury
about the size of the
sharpened end of this pencil
to contaminate the
entire building.
They'll evacuate a
public building for a broken
thermometer.
But each one of your
amalgam fillings
contains roughly the
same amount of mercury.
I had one tooth hurting.
So when I went to the dentist
and he looked at my mouth
and looked at the one tooth, but
she's more focused on the fact
that my silver fillings
are 30 years old.
And there were eight of them.
And he was telling
me that I needed
to get all of these
silver fillings out
and I needed to
get them replaced.
And I kept saying, well,
this is the only tooth
that's hurting, just this one.
Can we just replace that one?
And I let him talk
me into replacing
all the silver fillings
on the right side.
When it came time to
refill them, he said,
what do you want in there?
Do you want amalgam, or
do you want the composite,
the white version?
And I said, well, what
does insurance cover?
And he said, well,
insurance covers amalgam.
And the composite is a
little more expensive.
And I said, well,
oh well, you know,
I've had these other ones
for 30 years, they work fine.
And if that's what
insurance covers,
let's just get that again.
There was never a
discussion about what
was in a silver filling.
I never gave it
a second thought.
So I got four bright,
new, shiny silver fillings
put in on the right side.
And that's when
everything started.
I was a professor of
chemistry and biochemistry
at the University of Kentucky.
I'd been doing mercury
research since about 1985.
I came to the
University of Kentucky,
and my research here led me
into Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Markesbery had
found elevated mercury
in the brains of
Alzheimer's patients.
So I did a set of
studies showing what
heavy metals would do this.
And mercury was one
of them I put in.
And at that time,
I had no concern
about amalgam fillings, anything
regarding mercury toxicity.
And the results were dramatic.
Phenomenal data
that came out was
that mercury and
only mercury would
cause the same
biochemical abnormalities
as you saw in
Alzheimer's disease
using our technology
for evaluating
the activity of certain enzymes.
And then all of a sudden,
the problem changed.
It was no longer a scientific
problem that I ran into.
That was easy.
I mean, I could do that.
The problem was political.
When I tried to get funded to
look at mercury as a neurotoxin
and its possibilities of
contributing to Alzheimer's
disease, they shut me down.
My grants were just
totally rejected.
And they said
something to the effect.
Doc Haley has to
realize we don't
need to see any more of
these kinds of studies.
And since that time, I have
never gotten another NIH grant.
And that was soul destroying.
I had been funded for 20
some years of doing research.
Then all of a sudden,
I couldn't get a grant.
I had no money to
run my laboratories.
And I felt like I just
walked off a cliff
and was hanging onto
that last branch.
And I was devastated.
And Sandy helped
me through that.
When I first wrote
in those grants,
I remember talking to
Sandy about how important I
thought they were.
Sandy is a good sounding
board, gives good advice.
And she helped me accept the
fact that my ideas were not
going to be accepted by the
current medical establishment.
My name is Karen Burns.
I was a dental
assistant for 24 years.
I got a lot of name tags here.
Time for my biannual
dental appointment.
Hopefully, I'll
have no cavities.
Going to Dr. Goldberg's office.
Dr. Goldberg is
the dentist that I
worked for, I would say,
about seven years, my last job
that I had before I got sick.
And luckily, even though we
don't agree on the issue,
we've maintained a friendship.
And I go to the office parties
and going to lunch with them
after my cleaning today.
So it was a good way to
wrap up my dental career.
From his education
and knowledge,
he has a difference of opinion
about what made me sick.
But he doesn't say
that I'm not sick.
And he respects me.
And he even respects, I believe,
my activism that I'm doing.
And I tell him all
the time, I'm doing it
for him and the girls in the
office to make them safe.
So it's all good.
Hey, Darlene.
How are you?
Hello.
How're you doing?
Haven't seen
you in a long time.
Six month.
Long.
My name is Dr.
Richard Evan Goldberg.
I am a practicing
general dentist
in Monroe Township, New Jersey.
I met Karen the year 2000.
She came to me as a dental
assistant with experience.
I hired her.
She proved herself to be a fun,
vivacious, energetic character
and a good dental assistant.
Now.
Hi, Dr. Goldberg.
Good to see you.
How are you?
Good.
Nice to see you.
How is everything?
Everything's good.
How are the boys?
The boys are excellent.
She worked with me
for a few years.
And then at some
point, she physically
became unwell to the point
where she could no longer work.
She felt fairly early on
that her medical condition
was as a result to her exposure
of mercury and amalgam.
All right, guys.
Say hello to everybody, OK?
Yeah, thank you.
You're welcome.
You're doing great.
OK.
I'll see you later?
All right.
If you have any
problems, give me a buzz.
OK.
Discussion about dental
amalgams and its safety have
gone back before
I went to school.
Big concern, obviously, is
mercury and the mercury coming
from dental amalgams,
and whether or not
it has some kind of negative
effect on individuals
and to what degree
can you measure it,
and whether or not it
is to such a degree
that it makes the material
unsafe for usage in people.
In the early 1800s, organized
dentistry was still in its
infancy.
As there were no dental
schools or licensing boards,
it was common that craftsmen,
such as the local barber
or blacksmith might also
practice dentistry, which
at the time amounted to little
more than having teeth pulled
or gold fillings
placed in cavities.
Dental mercury's introduction
to the United States
came in 1833 by the
Crawcour brothers of France.
They called it Royal Mineral
Succedaneum, a handmade mixture
of melted silver coin shavings
and elemental mercury.
The lower cost of
this combination
of mercury with another metal,
otherwise known as an amalgam,
enabled a larger portion
of the population
to afford the services
of those dentists who
used amalgam fillings.
But a bitter controversy started
brewing over the use of mercury
as a restorative material.
And by 1843, the world's first
national dental organization,
the American Society
of Dental Surgeons,
passed a resolution stating
that the use of amalgam
was considered to
be malpractice.
The American Society
of Dental Surgeons
asked members to
sign a pledge never
to place what the
organization referred to
as poison metal fillings.
And those members who did use
amalgam risked being expelled.
And by 1856, the American
Society of Dental Surgeons
disbanded due to
loss of membership.
In its place rose the American
Dental Association in 1859,
which to this day
continues to promote
the safety of mercury fillings.
Shortly after I had
the dental work done,
I had this heavy metal
taste in my mouth.
And it was all day, every day.
It was gross.
And so I started buying a
lot of gum and chewing gum
all the time, trying to mask
the taste or make it go away.
Then a few weeks,
I started noticing
some weird neurological
sensations.
I started having what I
would describe as like pin
prick feeling.
And I had the sensation
of cool water rushing down
the back of my head
and down my back.
And I kept just sort
of passing it off
as something fleeting
that would go away.
But it kept building, the
symptoms kept building.
And then it affected my vision.
And I had blurred
vision in one eye.
And then I had this
weird ringing in my ear.
I would be in a
conversation with someone,
and there's like this,
in my ear,
while I'm trying
to talk to someone.
And the biggest effect was
these deep, deep headaches.
And they were so deep, I
mean, deep, deep down in my...
Like in my brain.
But when I would
go to the doctor,
and they would tell me all of
these possibilities of what
it could be, then that
would kind of make me feel,
OK, this is probably in my head.
It's probably a culmination
of all those things together.
And I'm going to be fine.
And I'm going to ignore this.
So I would just go on about
my business and think,
OK, they're right, they're
right, they're right,
and I'm wrong.
This must be in my head.
This must be in my head.
It was in my head.
It was in my teeth.
So I kept believing
them, letting
it get worse and
worse and worse,
until the day when I woke
up and couldn't walk.
The first time I saw Sandy
was she was walking down
the farm lanes, and she would
walk up and get on the same
school bus I was riding on.
She's the first
girl I ever dated.
When I was about a
junior in high school,
I asked her on a hayride.
When I came back from out of
the Army, she picked me up.
We were sitting in her car.
But I asked her to marry me.
And I told her what
my goal was, was
to go get a PhD in
chemistry and it
was going to be tough for
about four or five years,
because you're not going
to make a lot of money.
Well, it's been very
important to both Boyd and I
to stay balanced.
And we both love nature.
We both love animals.
So this is a perfect
place for us.
It's our refuge against
the stresses of life.
So we love it here.
For over 20 years, Boyd
has committed himself
to educating people about the
dangers of mercury exposure.
He has traveled
all over the world.
Sometimes, he's
gone once a month.
So it's a considerable
amount of time.
He has sacrificed a lot in the
way of time, energy, and money.
He doesn't do this
for monetary reasons.
He does it 'cause he's so
passionate and committed
to the cause.
It takes a very
courageous person
to be truthful and speak
honestly as he has.
I admire him for that.
But since 1991, I've
been giving talks all over
the world.
I was averaging over
30 trips a year.
And I testified in
front of Congress.
I've gone to Europe
many, many times.
And that's not an easy trip
for an older person like me.
It takes a lot of
starch out of you.
The organization that actually
introduced me to the concept
that dental amalgams
were releasing
toxic amounts of mercury is
The International Academy
of Oral Medicine and
Toxicology, because they
thought it was causing
a lot of medical damage.
And they were right.
I mean, I agree with them now.
I didn't at the time.
I thought that the
FDA nor the ADA
would allow anyone
to put something
in the mouths of citizens that
released so much mercury vapor
and not have tested it.
I've given up a huge number
of my weekends with my family
to go to meetings, because
this is a message that
has to get out, that the
amalgams are toxic to people
and are causing a
lot of problems.
I don't see my family
as much as I used to.
They live here in Staten Island.
I live in New Jersey.
Like my husband said,
you know, most people
don't know about
mercury poisoning.
They don't know anyone else
with mercury poisoning.
They don't read
about it in the news.
They don't hear about it.
So even though I have it,
they don't really understand.
Because they assume... they
see me, I'm on my feet
and everything is fine.
It's kind of like they
forget that I'm sick.
And I don't want to be sick.
FDA says it's safe.
The ADA really says it's safe.
So they don't understand
how I could be sick from it
and nobody else is.
Amalgams or silver fillings
have been used for over 150
years.
Some critics have claimed
that amalgams are unsafe.
This is not true.
You can't install a
mercury-releasing product
into someone's mouth 2 inches
from their brain and expect not
to see some repercussions.
Amalgam fillings
contain roughly 50%
elemental mercury,
which releases
mercury vapor that
is 100 to 600 times
higher than what
the FDA estimates.
The science tells us
that 80% of the mercury
vapor we breathe accumulates
in our bodies very quickly.
But a good portion
end up in our brains.
There are vapors,
mercury vapors,
that are emitted from dental
amalgam during the mixing
process, during the
placement process.
There is no evidence
that at this point
that the mercury vapors, say
that were emitted, are harmful.
And I woke up the next
morning, and I got out of bed,
and I was walking
sort of like this.
And I had to reach
for the door facing.
And I... as hard as I
tried to get my brain
to tell my legs
to walk straight,
I couldn't make them work.
It was beyond frightening.
I didn't know if I'd
had a stroke overnight.
I just couldn't figure
out what was going on.
And I called my husband, and
I said, honey, I can't walk.
I was so scared.
I was home alone, and I knew
the kids were about to get up.
And I'm trying to figure out...
I'm not going to be able
to care for these children.
So we went back to
the doctor that day.
And the same doctor who
had been telling me it
could be all these other things
and same doctor this day,
after she ran a
couple of tests on me,
she said just kind
of in callous manner,
well, you've either got
MS or a brain tumor.
So we're going to get you in
for your MRI later tonight.
And we'll get right on this.
I mean, my husband I both
looked at each other thinking,
did we just hear what
we think we just heard.
What just happened?
I've been coming to you for
three or four months telling
you something's
wrong, and you're
telling me everything's fine.
And now, you tell me I
have a brain tumor or MS?
From there, we went
to see an MS doctor.
And he ran a bunch of
tests and came back
and said, at this
point, we're going
to hold off on treating
you with any MS medication,
because we want to see you
back in six months just
to kind of see where
things are and kind of get
a better feel of how your body's
going to react to this disease.
And I mean, I am in tears.
Would you please give
me these MS shots,
give me something,
slow this thing down?
I'm raising babies.
I need you to stop this train.
And he wouldn't give
me any medicine.
And now looking back, that was
basically the hand of God just
interceding right at
that moment and saying,
just hold on, hold on, just
wait, there's something better.
I'm Dr. Matthew Young.
I'm a general dentist here in
Hendersonville, North Carolina.
I've been here at this
location for 29 years.
I was a traditional dentist
for about 10 or 12 years
and then found out about
the dangers of mercury
and other dental materials.
So we became mercury-free, not
putting in any mercury amalgam
fillings.
And then when I discovered
The International Academy
of Oral Medicine and Toxicology,
then I became mercury-safe.
What that means is we use
special protective engineering
controls for OSHA to reduce
the exposure of our employees
and our patients to
the mercury vapor
when the old mercury
fillings are removed.
Well, we've been
out here at Dr.
Young's office this week
installing a multipoint mercury
monitoring system that
continuously and sequentially
measures from eight different
sample points throughout as his
dental office.
Almost all of our other
clients that deal with mercury
are required by OSHA and EPA
to measure their facility
throughout the day to make
sure that their employees are
below the ceiling
limit, which is
100 micrograms per cubic meter.
Dr. Young has taken
a major step here
by being the first
dentist that I'm aware of
to install a multipoint
mercury monitoring
system into his office.
He's doing everything
that he can
to keep his employees and
himself as well as his patients
save during normal
procedures that
have to do with dental
mercury amalgam fillings.
And this was what the
OSHA regulation requires,
is that the dentist is aware
of how much mercury is in his
office, that the employees
are educated about it.
We have a heavy metal
chapter in our OSHA handbook
that the employees have
to read and understand.
And they have to wear
special protective gear,
so it keeps off their skin.
And they're not
allowed to breathe it.
And our machine keeps track
of how clean the air is here
in order to stay below
these dangerous levels.
And I think it's incumbent
ethically upon the dentist
to be aware of those risks and
to also monitor and educate
their employees every day.
I just flew in
from Santiago, Chile,
where I gave a presentation
to a group of legislators
and researchers down there.
And tomorrow, I give a talk
to The International Academy
of Oral Medicine and
Toxicology on how
mercury causes some of the
biochemical abnormalities
that we see in some of
the neurological diseases
such as Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Haley is a
research scientist,
an international lecturer,
is a former chairman
of the department of chemistry
at the University of Kentucky.
He has numerous research studies
published in peer reviewed,
medical scientific journals.
Please welcome to the
program Dr. Boyd Haley.
Mercury and only mercury
causes the break down and deep
polymerization of tubulin
off of the neurofibril,
producing
neurofibrillary tangles,
which is the hallmark
of Alzheimer's disease.
Not only that, but
published studies
repeatedly show that the
widespread exposure of mercury
and its effects on the brain
explains every single aspect
of Alzheimer's disease.
It is the missing
piece of the puzzle
that's been literally right
under the noses of researchers
for all these years.
Metal amalgams release many,
many micrograms of mercury per
day into our bodies.
So you not only have a toxin
that can do the effect,
you have it placed within
inches of your brain.
And how do you get
that across to people?
And I think I do a decent job.
But sometimes, I'm not
so sure it's adequate.
And a lot of people,
they want my slides.
Anybody who asked for
them, have my slides.
You give my talk, I don't care.
I mean, this is not information
that's secretive or anything.
It's something that should be
out there for everybody to use.
Here I was with six months
to do nothing but wait and get
worse.
And I thought, well,
what else do I have to do
but maybe try to look
into this and figure out
where all this came from.
The very next Sunday at
church, a guy in our classes
said, you know,
my brother treats
people who've been
diagnosed with MS.
He treats them for heavy
metal toxicity related
to their fillings.
He said, I don't
know much about it.
But I know that he's
had some success.
And there's something about
there's mercury or something
in these fillings.
He said, do you
have any of those?
And I said, well, yeah,
I just got four new ones,
and I have four old
ones on this side.
That was my first glimmer
of hope, the first moment
that I had been told anything
that even remotely sounded
like there might be some sort
of hope out there for me.
I could not believe I didn't
know that there was mercury
in these silver fillings.
I couldn't believe it.
I thought, oh, well,
this has to be a lie.
I think the majority
of people still
do not know what these dentists
are putting in their mouth
and in the mouths
of their children.
According to a 2006
nationwide Zogby poll,
76% of consumers did not know
mercury was the main component
of dental amalgam fillings.
But once informed,
92% of respondents
thought their dentist should
be required to inform them
about mercury and
non-mercury dental fillings
prior to treatment.
The majority of
dentists are not aware
that under the learned
intermediary doctrine,
health care
practitioners are bound
by law to pass along
manufacturer warnings
to patients.
We know that's
not being done.
In fact, it's worse
than you think.
It's prohibited.
Regrettably, the American
Dental Association has
a provision in its code of
ethics to stop dentists from
initiating communications
with patients about the risk
of mercury dental fillings.
This what I call gag
rule has unfortunately
been enforced by many
dentist-dominated state
dental boards.
Today, I'm here with
the Pennsylvania Coalition
for Mercury-Free Dentistry.
And we were talking
to patients going in
to get free dental care.
And we were letting
them know they
were eligible to get a white
filling for no extra cost.
And that would be
safer for them.
A lot of the dentists that
came out and dental assistants
were putting their
eyes up in the air,
like they were aggravated
that we would come and talk
to the patients like this.
But you know, I wish
somebody told me
that I was breathing in
all these toxic fumes.
I had no idea.
And these people in the
school that are being trained,
they have no idea.
Well, I can't remember
when I didn't enjoy fishing.
I mean, my granddad was a person
who liked to fish quite a bit
and took me quite often.
It's always been a
major relaxation for me.
Went to graduate
school, we ate a lot
of what I either caught
fishing, my wife and I,
or what I shot bird
hunting with my dogs.
Catching fish was a
supplement to our diet.
And since we didn't
have a lot of money,
eating a fish was
probably better
than a lot we could buy
in the grocery store.
It's a big, big difference.
And it's kind of sad that
today the kids are told...
Everyone's told, don't
eat too many of the fish,
they're too toxic with mercury.
There are fish advisories in
about almost all the water
in the United States.
I think it's sad.
Why go fish, if you can't
eat the fish you're catching.
You're catching something
that's toxic, why...
It just takes the romance and
the livelihoodness out of it.
And I think we
should do everything
we can to get our water
and air clean again.
That means we have to
stop all kinds of mercury.
We can't blame just one group.
And the ones that... things that
you can do something about,
like dental amalgams,
that should be done.
The United Nations
Environment Programme reports
that 10% of global mercury usage
is for amalgam tooth fillings.
This results in up to 340
tons of dental mercury
journeying into the
environment each year.
In the United States, dentists
are currently the largest users
of elemental mercury.
This accounts for roughly 32
tons of mercury used yearly
to place amalgam
restorations, otherwise known
as silver fillings.
Although the number
of amalgams placed
has decreased over
the last few decades,
dentists still use amalgam
without precautions.
So the threat of mercury
exposure continues.
Tonight, I continue my
story with a comprehensive look
at efforts to ban silver
fillings across the world.
This year, the US
State Department
proclaimed we should phase
down the use of mercury amalgam
fillings during international
treaty talks at the United.
Nations.
But the mercury
treaty, as it's called,
which would affect every
dentist in the world,
is not a done deal yet.
Whether or not I believe
that the minute amounts of inert
dental amalgam that might go
down into a system really will
affect the water
supplies of a community,
I haven't seen any
evidence to suggest it,
I'm always open to
changing my mind.
Because of the United Nations
mercury treaty recognizing
dentistry as a significant
contributor to environmental
mercury exposure, the EPA is
considering regulations that
would require all dentists to
install equipment that would
capture the dental
mercury before it reaches
the environment.
For over 75 years, consumers
and dental professionals have
looked for the American Dental
Association seal of acceptance
on products.
The ADA seal stands for
quality and effectiveness.
Manufacturers who
apply for the seal
must meet certain criteria.
They must provide objective data
supporting the product safety.
You've never done any
safety studies on this product.
I'm the former consumer
representative on the Dental.
Products Panel at the FDA.
If amalgam is taken to
a class III by the FDA,
class III would require
manufacturers to prove safety,
which they never had to do.
They're not going to spend
the millions of dollars to try
to prove that mercury is safe
when everyone knows it isn't.
All product claims made
on packaging and labeling are
approved by the ADA.
So you can trust them.
My name's Christopher Shade.
I have a PhD in environmental
and analytical chemistry
of mercury.
I developed a new
testing technology
for separating different
forms of mercury.
We use that now in
clinical testing
to look at how different forms
of mercury go into the body
and build up in
different reservoirs
and how they come out.
We've run about
20,000 tests now.
And unfortunately, most
mainstream dentists
don't come to me to
look for testing.
They're taught that there
is no mercury exposure.
And so the only
guys that I look at
are the mercury-free
dentists, which means
they're only removing amalgam.
They're not placing it.
And they even stick out
from the regular population
as having higher mercury levels.
So if these guys, who are
taking every step they
can to lower all of their
occupational exposure,
just imagine what the dentists
who take no precautions look
like.
I had a regular life.
Everything was going good.
And when my daughter
was about two years old,
I started to get
sicker and sicker.
I finally went to
a holistic doctor.
And they asked what
I did for a living.
And I said I was a
dental assistant.
A dental assistant has the
potential to have a very high
amount of mercury in the brain.
Neurological symptoms happen
to be the most dominant symptom
in the constellation of problems
that mercury can create.
Well, I've been diagnosed
with fibromyalgia and chronic
fatigue.
So they tested my
hair and my urine
and found out that I had
full-blown mercury poisoning.
Karen Burns' urinary levels
at the time of her sickness
were well within the range
where this could be an issue.
So she had sufficient
exposure to cause
serious neurological effects.
And this was causing my
fatigue, and my muscle pain,
and my lowered immune
system, my rashes,
the numbness in my hands
and fingers and feet.
So a lot of these fatigue
symptoms that come along with
the mercury exposure, along
with the emotionality, are very,
very obvious repercussions
of a mercury toxicity.
I worked for
over 20 dentists.
None of them ever said
amalgam wasn't safe.
They didn't tell
anybody that there
were warnings on the labels.
We discovered that when you
remove these old fillings with
the dental drill that a large
vapor of mercury is exposing
the patient and the
employee in the workplace.
So we put in protective
engineering controls
to filter the air,
filter the water,
and to reduce the patient
and employees' exposure
to that toxic level of mercury.
I don't particularly have
great concerns with the removal
of dental amalgams.
And like I've said to you,
if something came up tomorrow
where I thought I
was conv... there
was some convincing
evidence that it
would show some kind
of harm, of course,
then perhaps I would change.
"Barnes versus Kerr,"
David Barnes is a dentist
in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
He hired me, and off we
went against the largest
manufacturer of dental
amalgam in the country,
Kerr Corporation.
What they did was present
evidence that their warning was.
Kerr's warnings are published
in material safety data sheets
that they're required to
distribute their product.
But the warning essentially said
that mercury is a neurotoxin.
And it was at least
arguable that all the things
that Kerr was warning
about happened to Burns.
So Kerr's position was,
this is a dangerous product.
We told you it's a
dangerous product.
And the case ought
to be dismissed,
because you've been
adequately warned.
OK, a little history here.
When dentists go
to dental school,
they're taught that mixed dental
amalgam is completely inert.
And so when a dentist goes in
to grind out an amalgam filling,
he is creating
tremendous quantities
of mercury particulate.
The particulate is bound to the
other constituents of amalgam.
But Burns was absorbing
tremendous amounts, thousands
of micrograms of mercury a
day, and ultimately began
to suffer a very
predictable consequence.
Back to our case, Kerr tells
us it's warning is adequate.
We say, no, it's not.
The vast majority of the
mercury going into a system
is from this mixed
dental amalgam.
And it was.
And I don't think
anyone argued with that.
So is the warning adequate
if it only tells them
that mercury is poisonous?
To my surprise,
the district report
said, yeah, it is adequate.
The manufacturer didn't say
that the poisonous mercury would
be any less poisonous when mixed
with the other dental amalgam
constituents.
The appellate court
in a published opinion
also felt that the
adequacy of the warning
was such that Burns was
or should have been aware
that mixed dental amalgam
was completely poisonous.
I had been pushed by the
FDA, American Dental Association
as somebody that's on
the lunatic fringe.
And what's lunatic
about, the fact
that somebody is putting
a most toxic metal known
to man in your mouth,
and I'm saying,
hey, we really need
to look at this.
This may be the cause
of Alzheimer's disease.
We have to do something.
We have to come up with
something that's very dramatic.
I am going to visualize the
mercury vapor rolling off
of these amalgams when
you put a drill on them
or when you abrade
them in any way.
This will leave no
doubt in people's mind
that there's a lot of mercury
coming out of dental amalgams,
when you put them in,
when you take them out.
I'm very optimistic
this may change
the entire attitude of the
American Dental Association.
Dr. Boyd Haley coming from
University of Kentucky up
at Lexington.
And he's going to help us
to put the box together,
where we're going to
visualize the mercury vapor.
Yeah, the first smoking
tooth video shows a 25-year-old
amalgam from an extract a tooth.
And they put it in front
of the mercury lamp,
and you can see exactly how
much mercury is vaporizing off
the filling.
When you see this for the
first time, it's quite a shock
to see the amount of
mercury and the volume
that your patients are either
breathing or swallowing.
And from then on, I
knew that I wasn't going
to place anymore amalgams.
And when I remove them, I
was going to do it safely.
I just think the
best thing to do
is to keep in mind that our
ethical creed is to do no harm.
I think the biggest
inflection from anybody
who first joins
the IAOMT is you're
going to have to talk
to the same patients
that you just put the mercury
fillings in maybe a year ago,
two years ago, and tell
them that you've learned
this new information about it.
I think you have to come to
terms in your own ethics,
in your own heart as to how
you're going to communicate
that and how you're
going to present that
to patients without feeling
like you're contradicting
your previous work.
The most beautiful part
about the whole transition
is that your patient loyalty
really blooms tremendously,
because it seems like
the patients know more
about this than the
traditional dentist do.
We're finding out that
mercury's been taking out
a lot of other medicines and
other industries in the world.
And it's soon
going to be removed
from dentistry, according to
the UN treaty in 2013, we hope.
So when the times change,
it's wise to change with them.
There's a difference
between someone coming in here
and being concerned about the
safety of the amalgam and after
me educating a patient,
who's a lay person,
who's not in the profession and
may just have heard something
from a fairly uneducated
journalist about this,
that I will... after
that discussion,
they still feel that they
would like them removed,
I might consider
doing it for them.
OK, this is going
to be a lot of money.
It sounds crazy, looks crazy.
And if this works, why
isn't everybody doing it?
And where are we going to
find the money to do this?
And what if it
doesn't work and we've
poured all this money
down the drain, then
what am I going to do?
And my husband and
I talked about it,
prayed about it
over several weeks.
And we decided that we needed to
get these fillings out and just
see what happened.
And that was $10,000.
I have a real hard time
with is when you have doctors
espousing removals
of dental amalgams,
because they believe that some
systemic illness is the cause
of it.
And within a week of getting
the silver fillings out,
the mercury out of my
mouth, I was 50% better.
The science is
not very convincing.
It's not.
Because you can find people
with these conditions
without dental amalgams
in their mouths.
The dental industry promotes
a stance that on its surface
seems simple and adequate.
It says that if she
got sick from mercury,
then all the dental assistants
would be sick for mercury,
all the dentists be sick from
mercury, but they're not.
But if you really understand the
complexities of biochemistry,
genetics, and genetic
susceptibility,
you'd see that that's really
a flawed scientific stance.
Lead will increase the
toxicity of a known amount
of mercury over 100-fold.
And so when people say,
well, we can look at people
and they don't have enough
mercury to be mercury toxic,
well, I would say,
you're not that smart.
You have to know what
the lead concentration is
in that person.
Every human body has
a genetic predisposition
to handle toxicity
a certain way.
And that's what's
so frustrating,
is they just feel
like they can dismiss
all of this information,
and all of these studies,
and all of the stories
like mine of people being
cured because not everybody who
has amalgam fillings get sick.
And there's a very strong
biological reason for this.
And it comes down to the
individual's susceptibility.
Most of this is
genetic susceptibility.
Certain people will get sick,
will have symptoms at much
lower levels of exposure
than other people.
But what I personally
would not do is,
if somebody came in with, say,
multiple sclerosis and said I
heard that if I remove all these
dental fillings my multiple
sclerosis is going to go
away, I won't do that.
I will tell them that I
do not believe that that
is the science at all.
I'm not convinced of it
and that I would perhaps
be doing more harm to
them than good in trying
to remove these things.
Dental amalgam has been used
in dentistry for over 150 years
and was grandfathered into
use by the Food and Drug.
Administration.
Because of this, the
product was not classified.
In 1976, Congress
passed a law mandating
that the FDA classify
all products which had
been grandfathered into use.
After 33 years of ignoring
the congressional mandate
to classify amalgam
fillings, the FDA was sued.
Charlie Brown, National
Council Consumers for Dental.
Choice, our mission is to ban
the use of mercury-based dental
fillings known incorrectly
as silver fillings.
And we sought a court order
to order FDA to classify.
The judge Ellen Huvelle
said that's enough.
You go into mediation.
You come back here
a week from Monday.
And you tell me what date you're
going to classify amalgam,
said that to FDA.
The federal government
is again going to look
into the safety of the fillings
that tens of millions of us
already have.
The fillings in question
are the silver kind.
And the concern here is
mercury, which is an ingredient.
The American Dental Association
insists the fillings are safe,
but many people believe
the mercury can lead
to serious health problems.
I'm going to take
the dog for a walk.
OK.
Our whole lives changed
because of this.
In the beginning, it was hard
for him to understand this too.
And I was lucky that Nick
went to a health conference
and a holistic
dentist was there.
And he lectured.
And then my husband came home
and took his retirement money
out, so that I
could get chelation.
That was the first time
that I got the chelation.
So yes, he's been
really supportive,
amazingly supportive.
When you get
something like this,
you just to go crawl in a hole
and just say, to heck with it,
I'm out.
See ya.
I mean, I never could have made
it through this without Chris.
I mean, he is so strong.
He's strong in his faith.
He's strong emotionally.
He just kept encouraging
me and telling me,
it's going to be OK.
We've got such
a great marriage.
I mean, she's my best friend.
It just doesn't matter.
Nothing's going to get between
us, including a sickness.
I know how sick she feels,
and I just try to do whatever I
can to help her.
And I think she
appreciates that.
It has affected
our relationship.
And our life is
totally upside down.
Well, it was a good defining
moment in our marriage.
Because when you get married,
what are the vows, you know?
There's sickness and
in health, right?
Every step of the way, it's
like, it's going to be fine.
We're good.
We're together.
I'm not leaving.
I love you.
I don't care if you're
in a wheelchair.
I don't care if I
have to pick you up.
We're just going to pick you up
and take you where we're going
I did what I had to do to be
a supportive husband in every
way possible.
So it wasn't that big of a deal.
It's what I signed up for.
And it's the way it should be.
I'm glad that he had the
foresight to see farther down
the road and to not be
as frightened as I was.
It's brought us
closer in some ways.
But there's days when, you
know, it catches up to me,
catches up to her.
It's like, we all
want just go to bed
and try to hope that
tomorrow will be better.
But it's not always easy.
We're going to go to Walmart
and pick up some material
to make a box, so we can
video mercury leaving a dental
amalgam, like you would do in
a general chemistry experiment.
The most uneducated person is
going to look at that and say,
that is mercury vapor coming
off of an amalgam that's
been in my mouth for 20 years.
This is a really
inexpensive experiment
that the ADA and the FDA can
do this with their lunch money.
And yet, they refuse to do it.
And they'll even make
claims that what we're doing
can't be repeated.
And it's something that's done
in so many general chemistry
laboratories that you can't
deny what it's measuring.
Dr. Matt Young and I are
going to make this box
and demonstrate this.
Hello, Matty.
Oh, hey, boy.
Good to see you again.
Glad to have you.
Thanks for coming.
Yeah.
My pleasure.
It's mercury vapor.
You can't see it
in the daylight.
And if you breathe it, you can't
taste it, you can't smell it.
So what we're
hoping is that when
we make visuals showing this
mercury vapor rolling off
of these amalgams when you put a
drill on them, that the dentist
will all of a sudden, oh, my
god, these guys aren't lying.
There's a lot of
mercury coming off.
We can visually show it.
And this is an approach that's
been developed by chemists,
who activate a mercury lamp.
A mercury lamp is a lamp
that contains mercury vapor
that you run a current through.
And that mercury emits a
light of a special wavelength
that water and air
will not absorb.
However, if you place
in front of that lamp
an amalgam in a tooth and
you activate that tooth
by brushing it, then
millions and millions
of atoms of mercury
come off of that tooth.
When the atom of mercury
gets in between the screen
and the lamp, it absorbs that
photon and blocks that light.
And it looks like
there is a shadow made
on the screen where the
mercury is absorbing the light.
So what you're seeing
is really an absorbance
of the photon by
the mercury atom
that reflects as a
shadow on the screen.
In addition, there's a lot
of skeptics out there that think
this is water vapor coming
off the teeth and not actually
mercury.
We want to prove
once and for all
that it's actually mercury
vapor that's coming off.
We also have a hole in the
top of the box with which we
will insert our probe.
And this is going to
go to the mercury 3,000
mass spectrophotometer.
And this is going to go
into the top of the box
like this, so that a sample of
the air during these procedures
can be measured accurately.
Are you prepared to
take the oath, Senator?
I am.
I, Barack Hussein
Obama do solemnly swear...
I will not back down
from protecting our kids
from mercury poisoning.
While the FDA was working
on the classification,
newly elected President
Obama had nominated Dr.
Margaret Hamburg to be
commissioner of the FDA.
It is a privilege to be here
today to discuss my nomination
as commissioner of the Food
and Drug Administration.
To me, this means
operating an agency that
is accessible and transparent.
The FDA has responsibility to
ensure that its work is given
by the best possible science and
is undertaken with integrity,
openness, and credibility.
I'm happy to answer any
questions that you may have.
Senator Enzi is going to...
During her
confirmation hearing,
she was asked of her
position on dental amalgam.
She's asked about the rule
in the Senate confirmation.
She should have said, I'm
recused from that rule.
Instead she didn't.
Dr. Hamburg failed to
disclose to Senator Enzi that
she was a board member
of Henry Schein,
the largest distributor
of amalgam in the US.
After her appointment
was confirmed,
Dr. Hamburg inherited the
oversight of the amalgam rule
already in progress at the FDA.
Hamburg had a conflict that
should have resulted in her
dismissal as commissioner.
They made her sign an
ethics contract that said,
I will not participate
in any matter affecting
Henry Schein as long as I own
the stock or stock options.
So she checked the price
of her stock options
a day before the
meeting that she knew
was being held, July 1.
She had the meeting to discuss
the amalgam rule with Susan.
Runner and other top FDA staff.
She went ahead and worked
on the Henry Schein rule
while she owned
the stock options.
In mid July, she said,
OK, I'll recuse myself
for ethical reasons.
She will not disclose
how she recused herself,
when she recused herself,
whether she recused herself.
We take their word for it.
You understand, a recusal is
normally a written phenomenon.
The judge says,
I'm off this case.
The commissioner says,
I'm off this case.
She never wrote down anything.
Hamburg in the final
weeks before the rule,
wrote Henry Schein's
lawyer and said,
I want to unrecuse myself.
Will you take back
the stock options?
I want to get back in
and regulate for you.
I want to regulate for you.
I want it in my recusal
of anything affecting you,
so I can go back, take
my stock options back.
And the guy was happy to do it.
I knew from my research that
getting the fillings out alone
was not enough, because the
mercury from the fillings is
stored in your tissue.
And it particularly likes
the central nervous system.
So I knew that I needed to
take that next step in trying
to decide, do I really
need to get chelation?
And if so, how do
I go about this?
And I never would have
figured all of this out
if it weren't for
God's guiding hand.
I never will forget,
one day I was at the Y.
And I'd finished my workout, and
I'm just praying and meditating
it.
I'm just saying, you know, God,
if I'm not supposed to do this,
just let me know.
I mean, I'm already better
without these fillings in.
I can already feel
my body's calm down.
It's not as agitated.
And I'm not twitching as much.
But I'm good, I can
live with what I've got.
And if I'm not supposed
to do anything else,
if I'm not supposed to go
get chelation or pursue
any other experimental
treatments, I'm good.
Just let me know.
Give me a sign.
Just give me a sign that
I'm on the right track.
And at the place
where I work out,
they have a basket of Bible
verses as you walk out.
And they call it the
spiritual vitamin.
And I grabbed one on
the way out that day.
And it said, you
will know the truth.
The truth will set you free.
And I knew.
These treatments
were IV treatments.
And I did it for
a couple of years.
And then my veins collapsed.
I had no veins left.
I couldn't do it anymore.
So even if I had the
money, I don't even
know if I could get chelation
at this stage of the game.
If you've had a bad amalgam
removal or a period where you
had high mercury exposure, often
long after that mercury you are
exposed to is gone, the
damage from that remains.
I don't know what
to say, what to do.
I mean, this has
been a long haul.
I've been sick now for 15 years.
There's so many days out
of year that I can't even
get out of bed.
You know, every day,
you wake up and you
feel like you have the
flu, flu-like symptoms.
And you're just sick as a dog.
And you push yourself,
push yourself,
push yourself, because
you want to maintain
what little life you can.
My big concern was A,
for her health, but, B,
also for whether or not she was
going down a rabbit's hole with
no end.
And that's... I may still
feel that way to some degree.
I don't see in my lifetime
it ever getting straightened out
and people ever believing
what happened to me.
A recent study by the Food
and Drug Administration found
no valid evidence that
amalgams are unsafe.
That's great news for
patients and dentists alike.
The International Academy of
Oral Medicine and Toxicology,
a scientific organization
made up of dental, medical,
and research professionals,
immediately started combing
through the new rule and
found many glaring errors,
all in favor of the
safety of amalgam.
The petition for
reconsideration challenged
the FDA final rule on regulatory
grounds and scientific grounds.
We found 27
propositions of error,
and I mean big errors,
in the FDA's final rule.
The public doesn't know it,
because public doesn't keep up
with this.
But the FDA knows it.
Amalgam somehow
gets a free pass.
I don't understand it.
And I can only assume that it's
political influence brought
by the FDA that's causing
these aberrant results.
Not everyone agrees
with the new Food and Drug.
Administration report
that's out this week.
It says, silver dental
fillings are safe.
In fact, an FDA...
The final rule of the
classification was a huge
disappointment to
health advocates,
as it declared the mercury vapor
released from amalgam fillings
to be safe for
anyone and everyone.
With the news that
there would be
no constraints upon the product,
Henry Schein's stock soared.
Hamburg writes him the day
the rule comes out and says,
my friendships with Henry
Schein outlasts my recusal,
my friendships
outlast my recusals.
Schein's stock jumps
a buck and a half.
July 30, the general counsel
writes Margaret Hamburg,
we are indebted to you for
your work as commissioner.
We are indebted to you.
That's the kind of thing
that happens in Washington that
creates in everybody's mind
that we're all corrupt up here.
Well, I'm Congressman Dan
Burton from the 5th district
of Indiana.
And when you find out that
government officials, who
are making decisions regarding
the health of the nation,
are doing questionable things,
it only adds to the problem.
People should have
confidence in the government
that we're trying to do
the best we can for them.
And if the head of
the FDA has stock
in a company that
makes dental amalgams
and they're making rulings, they
should be recusing themselves.
And if they don't,
I think that they're
guilty of criminal activity.
And the reason I say
that is because I
am convinced after having been
the chairman of government
reform and oversight
for six years
and had numerous
hearings on the subject
that the mercury in
the amalgam does cause
human neurological problems.
She should not be FDA
commissioner, absolutely not.
I literally put myself in
that doctor's hand and just
went with it.
I am seeing an
osteopathic doctor,
began intravenous
chelation of EDTA and DMPS.
It's kind of like chemotherapy.
That's what it's like.
You get an injection,
you get an IV,
and you just kind of sit
there for a couple of hours.
And there's this
big bag of liquid
being poured into your body.
And it's frightening.
And I made it through the
whole day, and I felt normal.
And then I slept great
and woke up the next day,
and I thought, well,
OK, I survived it.
There must be something to this.
Then I went back for my next
treatment the next week.
And then I started
feeling so much better.
I mean, I just had like
an extra kick in my step.
I'm thinking, OK, I'm
onto something here.
And each treatment
just reinforced
what I had researched in.
And it may not
work for everybody.
And I'm certainly not
saying that it will.
And I think that
there's something
to be said of starting early.
In my case, we
arrested it early.
We arrested it, contained
it, stopped it, and I'm good.
But there's some
people who've been sick
for a long, long time.
And it's hard to
reverse damage if it's
been going on for a long time.
I definitely felt vindicated.
And I think I told
my husband that.
I said, oh, I feel
so vindicated.
I said, now, I mean, look
at me, I'm so much better
and I can't even believe it.
I feel like I'm not
crazy anymore, you know?
I feel like this is valid.
This is real.
More people need
to know about this.
And that's when my
husband started saying,
well, you need to tell people.
He'd say, honey, you know,
you sure are doing good.
You really need to
tell people about this.
This morning is the
open public hearing.
Could you state your name?
My name is Karen Burns.
And I was a dental
assistant for 24 years,
until I couldn't work anymore.
When I first started
dental assisting,
we didn't wear a mask or gloves.
We had a bottle of
mercury and silver pellets
that we put together by hand.
We didn't understand that
these vapors were everywhere.
You must see the
damage that it's doing.
Why should anyone have to
suffer this illness when
it can be totally eradicated?
I hope you people just listen
and find it in your heart
to really consider all of this.
It's a real thing.
Thank you.
For the most part, I
generally approached it with
a skeptical eye.
And I did not do
that necessarily
because of any ill will, but
because sometimes if you follow
a certain orthodoxy
that's wrong,
whether it be a flat Earth
theory or anything else,
you're not getting to truth.
And of course, I think in the
end, you're looking for truth.
We just finished constructing
our visualization box,
which is made out of everyday
materials that you can get
in any hardware store.
Typically in most
dental schools,
it's been taught
that the mercury is
trapped within the
matrix of the amalgam.
And so therefore, we're trying
to visualize here and prove
the fact that there is a
significant amount that
comes off during the
mixing, during the packing.
And then we'd have some
teeth with the amalgam
that's been set for a while.
And we're going to
be removing that
with a high-speed
dental drill in order
to visualize how much vapor
comes off during that procedure
as well.
The American Dental
Association has made
the argument that mercury is
fixed in the amalgam fillings
and it doesn't come out easily.
And what this research that
we're doing here visually shows
is that, when you drill
on an amalgam filling,
that it dramatically exposes
the patient, and the dentist,
and the dental technician to
huge amounts of mercury vapor
that enters the body.
It's even worse than
what they imagined.
2,483 micrograms
per cubic meter,
and I've never seen levels
of mercury this high.
That's pretty much unheard of
in any type of work environment.
Because it definitely
shows with just absolute fact,
hard science that amalgams when
they are heated with the drill
by drilling on them release
copious amounts of mercury,
of vapor into the air.
Clearly, if you're
not measuring it,
you're not monitoring it, and
you're not educating these
employees, then the OSHA
regulations are not being
upheld.
And so I just ask the ADA,
don't you care about your own
people?
I mean, these are people
who are members of the FDA.
And you're exposing them to
high levels of mercury vapor
by its still supporting
the use of dental amalgams.
The ADA's message
is just simple.
And it's been this
for many, many years.
And that is that amalgam
is a safe and effective
dental material.
It's disconcerting that,
despite all the regulations
regarding mercury
in the workplace,
mainstream dentistry still
promotes these fillings
as perfectly safe.
The science hasn't changed.
The science has been
this way for decades.
Unfortunately,
there's some groups
who don't accept
the science, who
like to rely on fear
and other factors.
The ADA is a group that just
dismisses and denies without
doing any experiments.
They could be doing the same
experiments we're doing,
showing that mercury
doesn't come off.
I want to see them do that.
What patient safety
and science shows us,
what science shows us now
is that patient safety is
absolutely protected with
general amalgam material.
When a dentist goes in to
grind down the amalgam filling,
he is creating tremendous
quantities of mercury
particulate.
So for that period
of time they're working,
they're 100-fold over the
recommended levels for air
in a workplace.
It's no wonder that
people like Karen
are going to have an issue
with being in that environment.
I don't believe that
the vapors that are...
The come off from the removal
of an amalgam are going to put
a patient in harm's way.
Nor do I believe it will
put me in harm's way,
although we have
masks, of course,
that to some degree protect us.
In dental school, they taught
us nothing about protecting
the dentist, the staff, or
the patients from the dangers
of mercury vapor.
Dental schools ought to
be fearful of major lawsuits,
because this is not
a secret anymore.
You can see it coming out.
I mean, the exposure to
mercury to those people
is just tremendous.
We are turning now to the
OSHA Hazard Communication.
Standard this is a
final regulation.
And there is no escape
for it, for any of us.
Everyone walking around
hazardous chemicals and other
toxic substances has a right
to know of possible dangers
and how to protect themselves.
Health care professionals and
folks all over the country are
asking the Food and Drug
Administration to protect
and inform the public about
the potential dangers of silver
amalgam fillings.
Those include my
colleague Stacy Case.
Now, we've been following
Stacy's personal story
for months now, telling
you about her diagnosis
with multiple sclerosis after
a routine dental procedure.
And tonight, Stacy is in San
Francisco sharing her story
with the federal government.
Nearly four years ago, I let
a dentist talk me into having
four 30-year-old silver mercury
fillings replaced because he
said they were cracked.
Your agency at the
time, though, the FDA,
had done nothing to warn me,
an educated professional,
that this was a health hazard.
This is a great injustice.
Seven months after that dental
work, I got out of bed one
morning and could not walk.
My children were two
and three at the time.
My immediate concern was,
will I be caring for them
or will it be the
other way around?
I now know that I and
millions of other Americans
are genetically predisposed
to autoimmune disease.
And these mercury fillings
are the trigger in many cases.
I read several dozen
scientific studies.
One such study, 1990
University of Denmark,
proved monkeys with
mercury dental fillings
stored it in their spinal
ganglia, pituitary gland,
and many other organs.
This stuff seeps into the body
from the day it is implanted.
Then one day, you reach
the tipping point,
like I did, and disease sets in.
Your hand-picked
scientists in 2006 and 2010
have made you keenly
aware of the health risks
and the disease causation.
Please do not ignore them
or injured consumers like me
any longer.
You really want to help
this country get health care
costs under control?
Ban amalgam.
You really want to see a cure
for many autoimmune diseases?
Ban amalgam.
You really want to
ensure American moms
like me can play chase with
their children in the yard?
Ban amalgam.
After two decades in the news
business, I know the truth.
And the truth is silver mercury
fillings are causing disease.
And they are making people
sick, keeping them sick,
so help me God.
Use your power and position
for good, Dr. Shuren.
Leave a legacy.
Please right this wrong.
We've gone back and we
looked at the evidence.
And what I can tell
you is we intend
to come out with an announcement
by the end of this year.
Since that missed deadline,
the FDA has been silent
on where the ruling stands.
Obviously, this has
been an emotional journey,
but an important one.
And I just hope that my
story affects change.
In San Francisco, Stacy Case.
Scott, back to you.
We've gone back and we
looked at the evidence.
And what I can tell
you is we intend
to come out with an announcement
by the end of this year.
And so 2011 came and went.
And sometime early in 2012,
I sent an email to my contact
at FDA.
Response I got was,
we'd love to respond,
we sent our document
to HHS for approval.
And unfortunately, we don't
have a response back yet.
We sued FDA to compel them
to respond to our petitions
after waiting very patiently
for five, six years.
And they did so.
In January 2015, they came out
with a document that completely
affirmed what FDA had found in
2009, which was that mercury
fillings are completely safe.
We, my team, IAOMT team, we
were all deeply disappointed.
And then we get this
whistleblower document.
It was a document
provided prohibitions
on placing mercury fillings
in tens of millions of people.
What happened here?
What happened?
HHS came back and provided
a political solution
to a thorny scientific problem.
HHS put the veto on
this statement of policy
that would have been
published by FDA,
but for HHS's
political decision,
not scientific, political
decision to not change the way
the game was played.
But don't be deceived,
there are hundreds
of peer-reviewed published,
scientific studies
by top authors that associate
the mercury in fillings
with systemic disease.
And so going forward,
what are we going to do?
We're going to go back to court
and take this document that
was issued way back in 2012 that
states what FDA really thought
about all this and ask the court
to reinstate the 2012 document.
That's our plan.
Good girl.
And so coming out here,
just very relaxing.
Mandy.
She takes off.
And it's a real good
working relationship.
No one's ever put mercury
vapor in an animal that
didn't make that animal sick.
And yet, our government
says, but you
can't prove that it's toxic
just because it's there.
The science is there.
It's very clear.
Anyone that has two neurons
left to rub together
can look at the
research data and see
that mercury should not be
placed in the mouth of a child
or to anyone.
And yet, you can't get an honest
discussion with our government
or with the medical
authorities about this problem.
We have not had any success,
taken to them the most solid
science, and I mean tons of it.
So, no, I'm upset about it.
And the science is on my side.
United Nations
Environmental Programme
is eliminating mercury, because
all the scientists in the world
are worried about mercury
decreasing the health
of all humans from any source.
The overall treaty
that was accepted
had amalgams as a product
that needs to be phased out.
And that's really
great news to us,
because that means that
we're at the beginning
of the end for amalgam
fillings in the world.
I think the job now is to
educate the American people.
If you go to a dentist who
says the amalgam fillings are
safe and should be
placed in your mouth,
then you should find
yourself another dentist.
Despite a wealth of studies
showing the harm of mercury
as released from the product,
the American Dental Association
continues to promote the
safety of mercury fillings
and supports its use for anyone
and everyone without regard
for reproductive status, age,
or any of the known factors that
make a person unusually
susceptible to the effects
of mercury.
Hi.
I'm Dr. Gerry Curatola of The
International Academy of Oral.
Medicine and Toxicology.
Our organization
has been a leader
in mercury-safe dentistry
for over 30 years.
I know it might be
hard for some to fathom
that measuring and
visualizing mercury
vapor during routine
dental procedures
could be as easy as portrayed
in the movie, but it is.
In fact, if you're skeptical
of the findings in the movie,
we encourage every
dental professional
to take the Mercury
Measurement Challenge.
Our organization has partnered
with Mercury Instruments USA
to offer a discounted
rental of their equipment
for any dentist who wants to
take the Mercury Measurement.
Challenge.
You will find that the
mercury vapor released
during the placement and removal
of dental amalgam fillings
exceeds occupational
safety limits that
requires employee protection.
The American Dental
Association recommends
that dentists periodically
monitor their office
for dental mercury vapor.
But that suggestion
does not go far enough
to make dentists truly aware
of the risks of working
with mercury.
It is important for
every dental professional
to be aware of occupational
safety requirements
to protect and inform our
staff from any toxic exposure.
But it all starts
with being informed.
I encourage you to
visit The International.
Academy of Oral Medicine
and Toxicology website.
information on the Mercury.
Measurement Challenge.
I watch it
fall down to the ground,
cut off the things
that weighed me down.
There's nothing left I'm
trying to hide, living
life now feeling free inside.
Feeling free inside.
I see the beauty of the sun,
another day has just begun.
I start to dream
and start to see,
wonder what the
world has for me.
What it has for me.
So I'm moving on.
I'm moving on.
And it feels wonderful.
Yeah, wonderful.
I'm moving on.
I'm moving on.
And it feels wonderful.
Yeah, wonderful to me.