In Washington a ten-organization dental coalition June 4th 2012 urged the U.S. government to oppose international mercury treaty curbs on dental amalgam.

The fourth session of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC4) to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury will convene June 27-July 2 in Punta del Este, Uruguay. INC3 was held Oct. 31-Nov. 4 in Nairobi, Kenya. INC5 will meet in Geneva, Switzerland in January 2013 to conclude treaty negotiations. The text will then be open for signature at a 2013 diplomatic conference in Japan.

“One small component of that draft binding instrument relates to dental amalgam, a dental restorative material needed to provide the most effective treatment for certain clinical situations and populations,” said the coalition letter to the U.S. Department of State. “We urge the United States to oppose any effort in these negotiations to ban or limit the availability of dental amalgam.”