Some great points there on how to bring up the subject, Russ <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I too am trying to raise awareness on the issue, but it's extremely depressing. People just don't want to know. Even though they would close a school if mercury from a thermometer got on the floor, people just can't believe the same mercury is toxic in their mouth. It's weird that people believe mercury is safe in the teeth because they are told it is.

It's amazing how many people believe what they are told and just follow the crowd like sheep. I've always noticed this and have always been a black sheep, questioning everything, not doing anything because others were doing it. People just don't seem able to think for themselves. Also, they don't seem to care or think they are invincible or something. People smoke and drink a lot of alcohol, some even dabble in drugs, and then they complain when they get sick, even though everyone knows that smoking is bad. There is over 400 toxins in cigarette smoke alone, and this is released into the air, including mercury. I read that if someone put into the ground what is in cigarette smoke, they would be arrested. Yet, people smoke and around their kids, not caring that they breathe in the toxins which stay in the house. I don't understand it at all. That said, my father is a smoker (but doesn't smoke indoors), so I know how terribly hard it is to kick the habit, but he started over 40 years ago when people didn't really know about the dangers, but when I see young people light up, especially around babies, I am appalled for many reasons.

The amalgam issue gets to me really badly. I see so many people with walking sticks and other problems and the first thing that comes to my mind is mercury poisoning. I doubt all of them are poisoned, but I think of young people I've known over the years who now have MS, and can't help think it's the fillings and vaccines that did it. Never heard of MS when I was young. Now it's too common.

My grandparents both had false teeth from a young age and never had fillings, and both lived to ripe old age with little health problems. My grandfather was 86 and my grandmother 92. My other grandparents died younger, but they lived in harsher conditions - on a mountain with only a small fire for heat and no running water. Also my granded was a miner and worked with metal after that and he died at 60. He was also deaf because of the noise in the foundry he worked in.

I can't believe dentists here are still allowed to put mercury in peoples mouths and bodies. It's heartbreaking, but so few people seem to care. Thankfully it seems like the tide is changing and some countries that care more for their citizens than ours have banned it, and that gives hope that a change of government could make it illegal.