Accelerating global transition to mercury-free oral health care

Dakar — Health and environment policymakers and professionals from Africa, Asia and Latin America are stepping up efforts to phase out mercury-containing oral filling products and make oral healthcare much safer and more sustainable.

The more than 75 specialists from the 3 areas are collecting in Senegal from 19 to 22 October for an occasion integrating an African sub-regional workshop with the international closing conference of the GEF-7 Phasing Down Dental Amalgam Project. The conference comes one year after the 6th conference of the Conference of the Parties (COP-6) to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, kept in 2025, at which Parties chose to phase out oral amalgam by 2034. Nations are now working to turn that dedication into nationwide action.

Oral amalgam has actually been utilized in fillings for more than 175 years and consists of about 50% essential mercury by weight. Mercury can be launched when fillings are put or eliminated and when the resulting waste is gotten rid of, polluting water and soil. The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Oral Health Action Plan 2023– 2030 go for 90% of nations to have actually phased down or phased out oral amalgam by 2030. Since 2024, nevertheless, just 13% of nations in the WHO African Region had actually reached this target, compared to 31% worldwide.

The GEF-7 job is moneyed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and carried out by WHO, with technical support from the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership. It supports nations in lowering their usage of oral amalgam and handle mercury-containing waste in an ecologically sound method.

Senegal is among the job’s 3 pilot nations, along with Thailand and Uruguay. Its experience reveals that the shift is attainable. After a nationwide evaluation of practices and requirements, Senegal reinforced coordination in between the health and environment sectors and established a good-practice guide. It trained oral health specialists in mercury-free and less intrusive oral healthcare and in options to oral amalgam. To keep mercury out of wastewater, it set up 13 amalgam separators as part of a pilot and enhanced the collection, storage and management of mercury-containing waste. Through the Specific International Programme (SIP) of the Minamata Convention, Senegal dealt with Burkina Faso and Togo to establish and technically verify nationwide regulative instruments on mercury and mercury-added items, consisting of arrangements on oral amalgam.

“Mercury-free oral healthcare begins in daily practice. By developing experts’ abilities, promoting appropriate options and evaluating brand-new options, we are laying long lasting structures for our oral health services,” stated Dr Codou Badiane Mané, Head of the Oral Health Division, Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, Senegal.

“As Africa’s only pilot nation, Senegal has actually utilized this experience to check options that connect oral health, ecologically sound management of mercury-containing waste, and more powerful guideline. Hosting the task’s closing conference in Dakar uses a chance to share these lessons and motivate other African nations to speed up the shift to mercury-free oral healthcare that safeguards both human health and the environment,” stated Dr Pathé Dieye, National Focal Point for the Minamata Convention on Mercury, Ministry of the Environment, Senegal.

Throughout the conference, individuals will examine the task’s outcomes and go over guideline, options to amalgam, labor force training and waste management. West African nations will determine top priority nationwide actions to speed up the removal of mercury from health systems. A field see to health centers and a waste management website will reveal the services being piloted in Senegal.

“The experience of Senegal and the other pilot nations shows that international dedications can be equated into concrete action on the ground, while providing useful lessons to assist other nations accelerate their own shifts,” stated Mr Ludovic Bernaudat, Head of the GEF Chemicals and Green Chemistry Unit, Chemicals and Health Branch, UNEP.

The closure of the GEF-7 task marks a shift, not an end. The 3 pilot nations will combine their outcomes and check out chances for cooperation and scale-up as nations work towards the 2034 phase-out due date.

Dr Benido Impouma, Director, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases Cluster, WHO Regional Office for Africa, highlighted the wider significance of the effort: “The shift far from oral amalgam is changing oral health systems. Experiences from Senegal and other pilot nations show that ending making use of mercury in oral healthcare can enhance avoidance, enhance care quality and advance universal health protection for all. WHO will continue to work together with UNEP and assistance nations in executing the Minamata Convention, while broadening access to safe, reliable and inexpensive oral healthcare and advancing much healthier, more ecologically sustainable health systems throughout Africa.”

Discover more:

WHO– Oral healthcare and the environment (effort page): https://www.who.int/initiatives/oral-health-care-and-the-environmentWHO Regional Office for Africa– Oral health (subject page): https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/oral-health

UNEP– GEF-7 Phasing Down Dental Amalgam Project (task understanding center): https://www.unep.org/phasedowndentalamalgam