IIT Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, TS 502285, India.
Environ Sci Technol. 2020 Nov 17;54(22):14139-14142. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c01248. Epub 2020 Nov 3.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury (ref. 1) is a global treaty to protect human and environmental health from adverse effects of the toxic element mercury and its compounds. During the Third Conference of Parties (COP-3) in November 2019, elimination of the use of dental amalgam in oral health care was discussed. Dental amalgam is one of the most commonly used restorative materials in oral health care due to its strength and longevity (ref. 2). However, the use of mercury in an amalgam adds to global environmental mercury pollution and can contribute to adverse health effects on humans and other organisms. The outcomes of the COP-3 meeting included a call for information on the availability at a national scale, the economic and technical feasibility of alternatives, and the associated risks or benefits. In this feature, we discuss the risks and benefits of dental amalgam, the global tracking of availability and procurement, and the implications and realities for global phase out. We suggest a better accounting of mercury use in dental amalgam is needed with sales being made only to registered practitioners via a Know Your Customer approach.
《水俣公约》（参考文献 1）是一项全球性条约，旨在保护人类和环境健康免受有毒元素汞及其化合物的不利影响。在 2019 年 11 月举行的第三次缔约方大会（COP-3）上，讨论了在口腔保健中淘汰牙科汞合金的问题。由于其强度和耐用性（参考文献 2），牙科汞合金是口腔保健中最常用的修复材料之一。然而，汞在汞合金中的使用增加了全球环境汞污染，并可能对人类和其他生物体造成不利的健康影响。COP-3 会议的结果包括呼吁提供有关在国家范围内的可用性、替代方案的经济和技术可行性以及相关风险或收益的信息。在这篇特写文章中，我们讨论了牙科汞合金的风险和收益、全球可用性和采购情况的追踪，以及逐步淘汰的影响和现实情况。我们建议，需要更好地核算牙科汞合金中的汞使用情况，只通过“了解你的客户”的方式向注册医生销售。
