For
release: May 22, 2014
Contact:
Laura Henze Russell, Principal, Hidden River Health Challenge, 339-364-0701
laurarussell2@comcast.net
Sen. Timilty Working for EHS 692: For Good Health, Analyze
Dental and Health Records
Sen. James Timilty (D-Walpole) filed Senate
Budget Amendment EHS 692 to ask the MA Center for Health Information and
Analysis to include dental insurance records in their health insurance database
analyses, which are used by the MA Health Policy Commission to look at trends
in chronic diseases and health care costs. Biocompatibility problems with
dental materials, and dental infections are major drivers of inflammation, the
common cause of many chronic diseases.
Rep. Louis Kafka and Sen. Brian A. Joyce each filed a bill related to
dental amalgam in 2013. They were sent to study by the Public Health Committee,
but its co-chairs welcomed a related budget amendment. Three other New England
states and CA provide some consumer information, and the FDA says state
consumer labeling does not violate preemption. The label could include a bar
code and a QR code so people can look up more product information on their cell
phones. The bills will be refiled next year.
Many legislators thought dentists stopped using amalgam years ago, and
are surprised it is still in use. Everyone has an interest in keeping people
healthy. Dental plans should be cost neutral and subject to patient protection
laws and medical necessity. MassHealth should cover alternatives to amalgam, as
Pennsylvania has for years. Paying a little more upfront for biocompatible
filling materials can forestall years of higher health care costs for
genetically susceptible children and adults. There are a half dozen common gene
types that do not clear mercury well, raising the risk of immune and
neurological damage. There are numerous studies on higher rates of chronic
diseases with amalgam, and occupational risks.
Hidden River Health Challenge is also releasing a new Issue
Brief today to make the case for action, subtitled, How
We Can Get Better & Lower Health Care Costs by Blending Old & New
Knowledge, Ending Conflicts & Rebooting the Health Sector. “It
is time to catch up with the rest of the world, put patients instead of
industry protectionism first, and end ‘conflict regulation’
and ‘conflict dentistry’ in the United States, says Laura Henze
Russell, founder of Hidden River Health Challenge.
Russell recovered from two decades of fibromyalgia and a year of
escalating medical misery which turned out to be due to a genetic glitch in
clearing mercury, which off-gases from dental amalgam. She delved into the subject
in order to recover her health, and help protect others from her fate. “It
is astounding to me that we get no labels, and have no right of written
informed consent, for installation of a dangerous neurotoxin that is considered
a medical device by the FDA,” says Russell.
Unlike the AMA which holds no patents so has no commercial and trade
interests, the ADA was assigned 83 patents in the 38 years - 1976 to the
present - in which the US patent office records are fully digitized, including
two related to dental amalgam that expired in the mid-1990s. Patents granted to
all sources on dental amalgam since 2002 are all related to mitigating its harm
to the environment.
Russell sent in-depth letters with information on new peer reviewed
journal articles on clinical trials showing harm from dental amalgam to boys
with certain gene types to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health,
EOHHS, Division of Insurance, Attorney General, and the Sharon Board of Health.
The Issue Brief is being shared with the
MA Legislature, Health Policy Commission, and stakeholders. The findings of
amalgam safety from the Children’s Amalgam Trials have been retracted.
The American Public Health Association declined in 2013 to ratify its interim
policy that amalgam is safe and effective. Nigeria is the latest nation to end
the use of dental mercury, announced May 21, 2014.
The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) filed
a lawsuit against the FDA March 5th for failing to respond to a
petition to reconsider the flawed 2009 Class II dental amalgam ruling based on
numerous errors in the FDA’s risk assessment after 54 months. The
Administrative Procedures Act requires a response within one year. IAOMT is one of three dental associations
opposed to the continued use of dental amalgam. It supports science and trains
dentists on safe removal techniques when indicated and special equipment needed
beyond a dental dam to minimize patient and staff exposure to mercury vapor.
Mercury vapor from dental amalgam, mercury from fatty fish such as tuna
and swordfish, from skin lightening creams, and from old medications such as
mercurochrome and merthiolate are different forms of a potent neurotoxin and
human exposure from all sources should be minimized.
It took Congress 14 years to pass President John F.
Kennedy’s bill to add medical devices to the FDA. Unfortunately,
Congress never instructed the FDA to require medical devices contain the kinds
of patient labels, composition information, health risks, side effects, and a
number to call to report adverse events that patients get for every
prescription drug, and for chemicals. We get labels on our Cheerios, and labels
and health warnings on toothpaste not to swallow it, but nothing on medical
devices permanently installed in our teeth. It took the FDA 33 years to classify
dental amalgam, and the risk classification is flawed, outdated, and out of
step with much of Europe and Canada, which have warnings and consent. Four
Scandinavian countries and Japan have banned its use.
There is a
growing movement for funding, running and analyzing clinical trials data by
gender, led by Dr. Paula Johnson of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and other
speakers at the Women’s Health Summit in Boston in March. FDA
Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who sat on Henry Schein’s board for six years,
disagreed, saying it would be
too expensive to reanalyze old studies, and we need to move forward. Biotech
and medical researchers confirm the need to add gene type and gender.
Russell is a social innovation entrepreneur, economist and ethicist
concerned with health and family wellbeing, an injured patient, a mother, wife
and daughter with a family tree with its share of chronic diseases. After two
decades of fibromyalgia, and a year of medical hell, Laura regained her health and
ability to work. She faces large dental costs and lost her appeals to a “great”
dental plan due to the FDA ruling that amalgam is still Class II, standard of
care for everyone. A former ocean lifeguard, she renewed American Red Cross
Water Safety Instructor, Lifeguard, and Lifeguard Trainer certifications.
Russell founded Hidden River Health Challenge: A Social Innovation
Enterprise to help people learn about the impact of genes and toxins, importance
of our own health information, share and take action. Hidden River is reaching
out to people, stakeholders, and candidates running for office to build support
for good health, integrated whole body care, and helping make chronic diseases
history.
