Mercury is one of the most serious environmental toxins and even though amalgam was banned in 2009, most dental clinics still emit mercury.
In order to minimize emissions of mercury Praktikertjänst has, in cooperation with Sweden Recycling and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, initiated a project which has received financial support from LIFE - EU’s financial instrument supporting environmental, nature conservation and climate action projects throughout the EU. Through this project, we take our responsibility for a sustainable society.
The project's main purpose is to minimize emissions of mercury from dental clinics in Sweden and eventually the rest of the EU.
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.
A questionnaire for inventing the handling of amalgam and mercury waste in dental care in EU countries outside Sweden has been sent out. The survey can be found here.
Another part of the project is to develop more effective methods for decontamination. Praktikertjänst has collected 8.3 kg of pure mercury after only 18 decontaminations within the project. The amount of mercury collected from remedies varies, from about 50 grams to almost 1.8 kilograms. More decontaminations will be made in 2018 and early 2019.
Visit our web-based tool. It contains an open, free training course on how the dental industry can minimize emissions from dental amalgam. There are short video clips, interactive articles and documents with examples from Sweden.
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