DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) CEO Camille Kostelac-Cherry to implement a two-pronged approach to reduce mercury discharges from dental offices.
Together, the agencies will collect stored elemental mercury from dental offices statewide for recycling and will conduct a review of the voluntary use of best-management practices for reducing amalgam wastes in dental offices. The program is being launched as a three-month trial in 16 eastern Pennsylvania counties before being implemented on a statewide basis.
In January 2004, DEP kicked off its Mercury Reduction Initiative, a comprehensive strategy to reduce mercury in the environment. Two components of the initiative apply to dental offices: collection of elemental mercury and best management practices for mercury-bearing amalgam wastes.
Dentistry switched from elemental mercury to amalgam capsules about 25 years ago. Previously, dentists mixed the amalgam for fillings using elemental mercury. As a result, many dental offices still have containers of excess elemental mercury stored in their offices. Through surveys conducted in 2001 and 2004, PDA has identified approximately 1,062 pounds of elemental mercury ready for collection from dental offices across the state.
Although use of elemental mercury has become obsolete, mercury compounds still are commonly used in dental practices. Mercury makes up approximately 50 percent of the amalgam used in dental offices for fillings. Amalgam particles are a potential source of mercury not only in wastewater, but also in groundwater, streams and rivers. Pennsylvania has approximately 8,000 dentists discharging to about 920 publicly owned water treatment works, according to a press release from the DEP.
The review of amalgam waste best management practices will allow DEP to ascertain the number and percentage of dental facilities voluntarily implementing these practices. The data will be used as a basis to determine whether future regulatory action is warranted to reduce the amount of mercury entering the environment through wastewater discharges.
In addition to this action with the Pennsylvania Dental Association, the Rendell administration is calling for tougher national mercury rules. In March, Pennsylvania filed a petition challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of standards to regulate mercury emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants as a hazardous air pollutant.
DEP currently is considering a petition for rulemaking to regulate mercury in Pennsylvania. The department expects to report back to the state Environmental Quality Board at an upcoming meeting this summer.
Additionally, DEP launched the Pennsylvania Mercury Automobile Switch Removal Program last November. This voluntary program is expected to recycle 600 pounds of mercury over the next two years from end-of-life vehicles.