E.P.A. Suggests Requirements to Reduce Mercury Discharges from Dental Offices

E.P.A. Suggests Requirements to Reduce Mercury Discharges from Dental Offices

WASHINGTON - The E.P.A. (EPA) today suggested Requirements under the Clean Water Act to help cut discharges of dental amalgam to the environment. Amalgam is a mixture of mercury and other metals that dentists use to fill cavities. Mercury is discharged when dentists remove old fillings or remove excess amalgam when placing a new filling.

Studies show about half the mercury that enters Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) comes from dental offices. Mercury from amalgam can then make its way into the environment in a number of ways, including through discharge to water bodies. Contact with some microorganisms can help create methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury that builds up in fish, shellfish and fish-eating animals. Fish and shellfish are the main sources of human exposure to methylmercury.

In response, many states and localities have implemented amalgam discharge-cutting programs requiring amalgam separators and other Best Management Practices in dentist offices. The American Dental Association (ADA) also recommends separators and other Best Management Practices for amalgam.

E.P.A. expects compliance with this suggested rule would cut metal discharge to POTWs, half of it from mercury, by at least 8.8 tons a year.

"This is a common sense rule that calls for capturing mercury at a relatively low cost before it is dispersed into the POTW," said Kenneth J. Kopocis, deputy assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Water. "The rule would strengthen human health protection by requiring removals based on the use of a technology and practices that approximately 40 percent of dentists across the country already employ thanks to the ADA and our state and local partners."

This action also represents one way that the U.S. is meeting the goals of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international environmental arrangement that addresses human activities contributing to widespread mercury pollution, which impacts the American public. EPA's suggested rule supports a Convention measure to promote the use of best environmental practices in dental facilities to reduce delivers of mercury compounds to water and land.

The suggested rule would require all affected dentists to control mercury discharges to POTWs. Specifically, it would require them to cut their dental amalgam discharges to a level achievable through the use of the best accessible technology (amalgam separators); and the use of other Best Management Practices. The suggested rule would allow dentists to demonstrate compliance by installing, operating and maintaining amalgam separators. It would declare dental practices whose existing separators do not remove the percentage of amalgam in the suggested requirements as meeting the suggested requirements for the life of the existing separator. Finally, it would limit dental dischargers' reporting requirements to yearly certification and recordkeeping in lieu of wastewater monitoring.

Finally, E.P.A. is proposing to streamline dental sector oversight requirements to cut implementation and oversight costs of the suggested rule to states and localities by $47 million annually.

The agency will accept public comments on the suggestion for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. A public hearing is also scheduled for November ten at one p.m. in the William J. Clinton East Building, Room 1153. The agency expects to finalize the rule in September 2015.

More information: http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/guide/dental/

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