Another chance for another Kennedy to make major change with a stroke of the pen, this time focusing on mercury in dental fillings.
As a presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy promised to stop federal housing segregation with a "stroke of the pen" -- a promise he kept.
Today, his nephew, Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., can do likewise -- making Americans healthier and our environment safer by ending the continued use of toxic mercury in federal programs. Mercury is the primary substance (more than 50%) in the amalgam products that the pro-mercury dentists -- fortunately, on a steep decline in America -- have falsely labeled as "silver" fillings for more than a century.
The "stroke of the pen" would be an order for the Public Health Service and Indian Health Service to eschew amalgam sales -- and instead purchase only mercury-free, American-made dental materials.
Dental amalgam owes its silvery appearance to the large quantities of mercury in each filling -- enough, according to some studies, to contaminate a small lake. Amalgam is a primitive, pre-Civil War material whose use has been banned or restricted by advanced countries around the world. In the final year of the first Trump administration, the Food and Drug Administration issued warnings not to implant amalgam (due to the risk of exposure to mercury) in the mouths of broad categories of Americans, including young children; women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning pregnancy; and people who have kidney or neurological conditions that are affected by metal sensitivity. In other words, about one-third of the nation's population.
Both major U.S. manufacturers of dental products, Dentsply and Envista, quickly and prudently stopped producing amalgam. Many dentists also heeded the call and switched to mercury-free dentistry. End of story? Not yet.
Unfortunately, our federal government has not fully complied with the FDA recommendations against amalgam. In the four years between the two Trump administrations, some government agencies have simply disregarded the FDA safety recommendations altogether. Mercury-based fillings have continued to go into the mouths of American Indian children, pregnant military servicemembers, and veterans with kidney problems or neurological issues.
The roadblock? The bureaucrats at the top: chief dental officers who seem to be locked in to a "this is the way we've always done it" attitude. The chief dental officer of the Public Health Service, Admiral Timothy Ricks, refused to meet with the National Medical Association, an amalgam opponent, about enforcing the FDA recommendation. His Public Health Service successor, Chief Dental Officer Admiral Michael Johnson, did the same: no meetings with opponents of mercury-based fillings.
Where does the U.S. government get this amalgam? Mainly from imports. An opportunistic Australian company, Southern Dental Industries, grabbed the market share of the two exiting American amalgam producers. So in between the Trump terms, the federal government supported the Australian economy with substantial purchases of a toxic material that the FDA said was a health risk to millions of Americans.
The environmental impact of mercury fillings has been equally severe. An EPA regulation adopted by the first Trump Administration noted that dental amalgam poisons the fish that children eat, often causing permanent brain damage.
Amalgam is banned outright in 41 countries, including the entire European Union. Amalgam is banned for use in children or in general disuse in 35 other countries. On the transition to modern dentistry, the United States has fallen behind.
Early in his career, as a full-time environmentalist, RFK Jr. was the Hudson Riverkeeper. In focusing on a clean Hudson River, he warned repeatedly about the hazards to fish (and to humans) from the major sources of mercury. His interest in ending use of dental amalgam continued during his time with the public interest groups he ran: the World Mercury Project and Children's Health Defense. He has demonstrated a profound understanding of the mercury problem. Now, he has the power to end the use of mercury-based dental amalgam in federal government programs forever.
Like his Uncle Jack did 63 years ago, RFK Jr. can do it with the stroke of a pen.