Nepal is the first country in Asia to announce its plan to phase out amalgam use.
Joining several other nations in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Nepal recently declared it is banning amalgam use right now in children under 15, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. Then Nepal is going further: It will finish with amalgam use, on a plan being implemented over a five-year period, as alternatives become fully available there and while it revamps dental school curriculum to focus on mercury-free filling materials instead of amalgam.
Consumers for Dental Choice salutes the government of Nepal and its Ministry of Health and Population! Nepal's decision dispels the myth that mercury-free dentistry is not possible for children – and all the people – of developing countries and lower-income areas.
This achievement was not happenstance. Shortly after the founding of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, our united umbrella coalition, identified Nepal as a one of three Asian countries where we could win a phase out. Consumers for Dental Choice contracted with the accomplished nonprofit group Center for Public Health and Environmental Development to lead the campaign. Working with our Asian colleagues, we jointly established the Asian Center for Environmental Health, headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh to coordinate our campaigns throughout the region. The Asian Center worked closely with our team in Nepal.
Seven long years of hard work, good strategy, and funding support from us meant that today we can join with our talented leaders in Nepal and at the Asian Center to announce this breakthrough on the world’s largest continent.
This breakthrough, like the European Union’s march to mercury-free dentistry, turns up the heat on FDA to end its policy of green-lighting mercury use in Americans, including children whose parents often aren't even informed that amalgam is half mercury.