Mercury Revisited - Part V – The Latest Assault in the Amalgam Wars

In this installment of Mercury Revisited, I was initially going to move on to a discussion of the controversies revolving around diagnostic methodologies for determining mercury body burden. However, given that one of the themes of this newsletter series is the wars that we wage in relation to mercury, I thought it would be apropos to delve into another mercury related war called the “Amalgam Wars.” Why? In April of 2006, without any warning, another salvo in the “Amalgam Wars” was fired by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) with the publication of two studies that received a good deal of media attention. What did “Neurobehavioral effects of dental amalgam in children” by DeRouen et al and “Neuropsychological and renal effects of dental amalgam in children” by Bellinger et al conclude? I will discuss these studies in detail shortly. What may be even more important, though, concerning our efforts to address the mercury issue with our patients, is the media response to these studies. I would guess that it comes as no surprise to you that the following headline appeared in the April 19, 2006 edition of The New York Times just after the studies were published: