NEXT time you visit your dentist, make sure you ask for mercury-free dental fillings. This is the message that AGENDA for Environment and Responsible Development is seeking to get across to the public as part of an awareness campaign against the use of mercury in dental care. The Dar es Salaam-based NGO is one of more than 30 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that have signed the Abuja Declaration calling for Africa to be the first continent on the planet to end the use of mercury in dental care. "Amalgam fillings are 50% mercury, a major neurotoxin. Its continuous use is not justified because alternatives are now affordable, effective, and available in Tanzania and Africa in general," observes AGENDA Executive Secretary and Senior Programme Officer, Mr Silvan Mng’anya. His views are seconded by the World Health Organization report Future Use of Materials for Dental Restoration, which states thus: "recent data suggest that RBCs (resin-based composites) perform equally as well as amalgam – and offer additional oral health benefits because adhesive resin materials allow for less tooth destruction and, as a result, a longer survival of the tooth itself. "On the other hand, a website on health issues, Mercola.Com outlines that a lesser-known alternative is increasingly making mercury- free dentistry possible even in the rural areas of developing countries. A traumatic restorative treatment (also called alternative restorative treatment or ART) is a mercury-free restorative technique that has been demonstrated a success in a diverse array of countries around the world, including […]