Published Friday, June 15, 2001 <br><br>State
officials threaten to dissolve dental board<br>By Andrew
Bridges<br>ASSOCIATED PRESS <br>-------------------------<br>LOS
ANGELES -- State officials threatened to dissolve the
California Dental Board on Thursday as the battle over the
use of mercury in dental fillings heated
up.<br><br>The 12-member board canceled a scheduled meeting
Thursday, set up to consider a revised fact sheet on
various materials, including mercury, used in fillings.
The Los Angeles session was scrubbed for lack of a
quorum.<br><br>That enraged activists, who want patients to know that
silver fillings are about 50 percent mercury by weight.
It also antagonized state officials, who claimed the
board dragged its feet in updating the fact
sheet.<br><br>The sheet, mandated by a 1992 law but never
implemented to the satisfaction of state officials, is
designed for use by dentists in patient discussions. It
describes various materials used in fillings, including
amalgam, porcelain and resin.<br><br>"We are very
displeased," said Lynn Morris, a deputy director of the
Department of Consumers Affairs, who convened Thursday's
meeting without the dental board. "The members of the
board do not understand the gravity of this
situation."<br><br>The dental board plans to sign off on the fact sheet
during a meeting scheduled for July 19, or more than 18
months after it began the task. Kit Neacy, the board's
president, said the panel had promised to complete the task
by the end of the fiscal year, or June
30.<br><br>"All I can say is we have not. I am sorry. In terms of
getting a quorum, of getting a meeting going, I did what
I could do and failed," said Neacy, a Covina
dentist.<br><br>But the board may never take up the issue -- much
less meet -- again. State Sen. Liz Figueroa,
D-Fremont, said she intends to introduce legislation on
Monday that would yank the panel's funding effective
July 1.<br><br>"I am very frustrated with this board
and their direction, in that they have repeatedly not
adhered to the law that was put in place nine years ago,"
Figueroa said. "Just to go against everything we're been
trying to do is just unconscionable."<br><br>And
attorneys within the Department of Consumer Affairs are
looking at what actions it can take against the board.
Options include supporting a separate Figueroa bill that
would gut the board.<br><br>"It's kind of like having a
wayward child who's taken the car keys without permission
-- and we're still the parents," department
spokesman Mike Luery said.<br><br>Neacy called the moves
drastic and defended the board against accusations that
it protects industry and ignores consumer
interests.<br><br>"Every dental board member is well aware that we are
there to protect the public, and we are not industry
puppets," Neacy said.<br><br>Charles Brown, a Washington,
D.C., attorney who sued the American and California
dental associations on Tuesday, in part to force
disclosure of the mercury content of silver fillings, said
it was unclear how the feud would turn
out.<br><br>"It's certainly a tense battle," Brown
said.<br><br>Anti-mercury activists worry that the toxic metal poses a risk
to dental patients when used in amalgam fillings,
which also contain silver, copper and tin. Mercury
exposure can cause cancer, birth defects and nerve damage.
However, scientific studies on the effects of mercury in
amalgam -- a term that refers specifically to alloys of
mercury -- have been largely inconclusive.<br><br>Still,
activists, politicians and officials say dental patients
deserve full disclosure about the metal's use in dental
fillings.<br><br>"The nickname 'silver' is deceptive and should not be
used," wrote Rep. Diane Watson in a letter to Neacy and
the board. The Los Angeles Democrat wrote the 1992
fact sheet law while still a state
senator.<br><br><a
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