The Minamata Convention on Mercury is the world’s game changer, our path to bringing mercury-free dentistry to all people. As president of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, Consumers for Dental Choice executive director Charlie Brown was proud to lead a talented and united team from five continents at the second conference of the parties in Geneva during the U.S. Thanksgiving Week.
In Geneva, where over 100 governments gathered, our campaign to “Make Dental Amalgam History!” stirred intense interest. From our British chief dental officer to our Bangladeshi environmental colleagues to our Ethiopian international attorney, our team seized every opportunity by:
- making speeches to the plenary session
- hosting a well-attended briefing for government delegates
- participating in a dentist roundtable
- leading an event on mercury-free fillingsinchildren
- running a booth with materials about our cause in several languages, which we popularized with a huge tooth mascot that convention participants wanted to stand beside for photos!
Our key show-and-tell was the report ofthe world workshop we co-sponsored with the United Nations Environment Programme in Bangkok last May. This workshop brought together experts from 20 nations – many of them dentists – to discuss effective strategies for ending amalgam use in children in both developed and developing countries. Our report documents their strategies so that other countries and institutions can learn from them – and follow suit as a first step toward a total amalgam ban!
The world is ready to cross the finish line into a future free of dental mercury!