Earth Day is about holding to our intentions of being good stewards of the environment. It’s a trust that we hold for the generations to come
Everyone wins when environmental health is respected and safeguarded
Each time the healthy balance of our environment is downgraded and environmental health on the planet suffers, quality of life becomes more difficult to sustain. As a San Diego holistic dentist I see a responsibility to the environment as well as to my patients. When green dentistry acts as a monitor of dentists’ environmental footprint, the impact of our profession on the oceans, for example, can be softened.
One important way for dentistry to go green is to filter out dental metals before they get into the water system. The filter that does this is called an amalgam separator. It is only mandated in a few states, and California is not one of them. Since the filters are pricey- around $1000,00, dentists often don’t volunteer to install them. Ask your dentist if he or she has an amalgam separator.
Amalgam separators are used to filter out dental metals before they get into the water system.
This blog was launched as a celebration of Earth Day 2009 and to showcase the video on ocean conservation we created for Encinitas Environment Day that year. We are giving our blog a new look in honor of Earth Day 2011.
Some exceptional videos are available to mark this year’s event. Above is one from Greenpeace, an organization that has been championing conservation since 1971. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Greenpeace’s now has an Earth Day network in 41 countries.
As a San Diego Holistic Dentist concerned with a healthy lifestyle for all,
I was appalled to see this email from an organic farmer:
I need your help!
As many of you know I raise Organic Beef. My life style choice to be a
Farmer/Rancher is being threatened by Monsanto. I just took action
calling on Secretary Vilsack and President Obama to reject the approval
of Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa and protect the integrity of organics. Approving
GMO alfalfa will destroy the integrity of and access to many organic foods,
as well as the livelihoods of thousands of organic farmers.
The approval of GMO alfalfa is only days away and the Obama administration
needs to hear from you and all of your friends who care about organics. It is
outrageous to risk the contamination of the organic dairy and Beef industry
simply for Monsanto’s corporate profits.
Please take a moment to let Vilsack and President Obama know that you care
about organic integrity by following this link from Food Democracy Now! Then
please pass this on: http://bit.ly/dSmtq3. Every voice counts!
The right to clean, healthy food and a safe water supply are part of our birthright
as Americans. Even vegans and vegetarians will want to take action to prevent
any corporate monopoly of our food chain.
At the California Dental Association convention that met in San Diego this weekend, we encountered Teena Marie of Precious Metals, Ltd. Teena does a service for the environment by recycling dental scrap metal. She reminded us that she’d provided dental metals that were imaged in our 2009 video on conservation. Created for Encinitas Environment Day, the video can be found here: http://www.dentistrygoesgreen.com/?m=200907.
Teena is passionate about protecting the environment and so are many dental office workers she encounters on her rounds. We were stunned to learn that many dentists are not interested in recycling dental scrap metals. To this end we promised to deliver an update of our video and get the message out… Recycling dental scrap metal is just plain common sense because it is a simple thing we can do to protect our environment. Find out how San Francisco is mandating greater responsibility from dental offices at http://www.dentistrygoesgreen.com/?m=200907. Then ask your local dentist if the office has an amalgam separator and play a part in making sure that dentistry goes green.
As a San Diego Holistic Dentist, I am pleased to report that Californians for Green Dentistry launched an initiative to ban dental mercury on July 29, 2010, The pilot project, to create mercury-free dental zones in California. was begun in the city of Costa Mesa, in Orange County.
On October 19th, 2010 Costa Mesa City Council passed the Monahan Resolution, named for Councilman Gary Monahan, the first of it’s kind in the US. Monahan, who has an autistic son, has championed the Resolution to improve environmental health. Hopefully we can look forward to similar enlightened poltical action here in our own community.
Here is the next part of the EMF series looking into cell phone use and environmental health. Cell phones were characterized on the show by Dr. Sanjay Gupta as a “non-ionizing, microwave-producing device”. One viewer commented that cell phones may be the cigarettes of the 21st century:
According to Dr. Masur, who lectured yesterday at the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, there were 4.6 billion cell phone users worldwide as of 2009. Some of them may be wondering about the effects of EMF’s. Based on Dr. Masur’s line of thinking, if there are dental amalgams (silver fillings) present and frequent cell phone use, there will be a synergistic effect between the mercury in the filling/s and radiation from the phone that will promote free radical damage.
The following video of a Larry King show on the topic of cell phones was aired in May of 2008.
Earlier today Dr. Charles Masur MD spoke at the annual conference of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine in La Jolla on the synergistic effects of electromagnetic fields and heavy metals on the body’s inability to prevent free radical damage. Dr. Masur outlined seven of the 275 hazardous materials monitored by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a division of the CDC. Mercury from fish and dental amalgams was third on the list.
He also discused electromagnetic hypersensitivity, a syndrome that the World Health Organization (WHO) has characterized as “a variety of non-specific symptoms…. The symptoms most commonly experienced include dermatological symptoms (redness, tingling, and burning sensations) as well as …(fatigue, tiredness, concentration difficulties, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitation, and digestive disturbances).” More information is available at the WHO web page: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs296/en/index.html
One of Dr. Masur’s main concerns was amount of exposure from “dirty electricity”. There is a resonance between high frequency radio waves from sources like power lines and the fields generated by common household appliances and electonic devices when residential currents have not been properly grounded with copper. Even when there is proper grounding, there is still electromagnetic “smog” created by the home’s electical grid. This type of pollution was also discussed in Dr. Robert Becker’s book Cross Currents.
A 2006 interview with Dr. George Carlo discusses the damaging effects of EMF’s on environmental health, specifically cell phone use. According to Dr. Carlo, the numbers of people exhibiting health conditions specifically caused by ongoing cell phone use will be ‘unprecedented’. As of 2006, 1.9 billion people were using cell phones. Today, according to the United Nations, that number has grown to 5 billion. Will EMF pollution begin to cause electromagnetic sensitivities, as a kind of “second hand smoke”?
A public meeting regarding a new cell phone tower in Olivenhain prompted us to investigate the local impact of EMF’s. In the entire U.S. the impact of electromagnetic fields here in San Diego is second only to that of Washington D.C.
The Encinitas Planning Commission liaison explained to our office that the new tower was in compliance with FCC regulations and would not need an environmental impact study. A local MD had made a presentation during the summer as to how another tower scheduled to be built in Leucadia would impact the health of one of his patients, as well as that of others with electromagnetic sensitivities. However the Commission’s legal counsel did not see any legal reason to delay that tower, or to further investigate environmental health issues concerning the new one.
The aide did say that Commission would be willing to schedule a special presentation by this doctor, however the likelihood of any outcomes being affected appear slim to none.
We will be exploring this issue in some depth over the next weeks. Check out the video below:
The Mayor of Fairfax in Northern California talks about environmental issues like recycling and waste managment, and discusses the environmental impact of plastics in the ocean. These are aspects of environmental health that every commmunity must solve on a local level.
