The project is a contribution to the National environmental quality goal "Toxic-free environment" and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation.
What is new?
We regularly update with information on what is happening in the project as well as news related to the project's purpose and objectives.
World Water Week in August 2019
The project will participate as an exhibitor during World Water Week, taking place in Stockholm between the 25-30 of August, arranged by Stockholm International Water Institute. World Water Week is the annual focal point for global water issues. About 4 000 visitors from countries all over the world will participate. Experts, practitioners, decision-makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries come to Stockholm to network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today. Hg-rid-LIFE will arrange the final conference at World Water Week. As the project is addressing to the Water Frame Directive and the aim is to minimize emission to the waste water, participating at World Water Week will be a good final of the project.
Webbased training tool
An open, free training course on how the dental industry can minimize emissions from dental amalgam has been lanuched: www.hg-rid.eu/en
You can find the right content whether you are a dental team, a service technician, environmental maintenance service personnel or from local authorities. The web based tool can give some inspiration to take a step forwards an eco-friendly dentistry. The project has developed recommendations for routines aimed at minimizing the release of mercury from dental care centers in Sweden. Hopefully the guidelines will inspire and be a support in other countries' work on developing recommendations.
The tool will support:
- Sustainability in Dental Practice Management
- Preparation for the new EU-regulations executed 2018
- Good examples how to handle the greatest environmental impact in dental clinic
- There are short video clips, interactive articles and documents with examples from Sweden.
Information at school for dental nurses
During March-May 2019 the project visited students at school for dental nurses to have a lecture about Hg-rid-LIFE and the web based training tool. The dental nurses often have the responsibility for the environmental issues at the dental clinic and can make a big difference.
Collected amount of mercury
One part of the project is to develop more efficient methods for decontaminations. 68 decontaminations at dental clinics in Praktikertjänst have resulted in 20,2 kgs of mercury. The sludge of amalgam is handled as hazardous waste. The amount of mercury from a decontaminiations varies from about 3 grams to 2.3 kgs. More decontaminations will be made in 2019.
Chart showing total amount of collected mercury.