Status of scrap (recyclable) dental amalgams as environmental health hazards or toxic substances.

This article presents information garnered after an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1987 of dentists and others who had sold scrap dental amalgam to refiners who had "arranged for the disposal or treatment ... of hazardous substances," and were responsible for adverse consequences associated with their subsequent management and refining. Information about the health hazard status of scrap dental amalgams was obtained by: interviews with toxicologists, review of published lists of toxic and hazardous materials, and survey of biomedical publications (1977 through 1987) concerning toxicity or health hazards associated with dental amalgams. The conclusions were that scrap dental amalgam is not: a waste substance to be disposed of, but is a product of commercial value; identified or regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the US Public Health Service, or the Centers for Disease Control as an environmental health hazard or toxic substance; identified by toxicologists and persons responsible for solid waste regulation as a toxic substance or environmental health hazard; nor proved by scientific study to be toxic or hazardous in the manner and form in which it is collected and stored by dentists and subsequently sold to metal refiners.