ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 2, 1997                  TAG: 9703030079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT BURKE THE (FREDERICKSBURG) FREE LANCE-STAR

DENTIST LIKES DOING HIS LITTLE BIT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

USED SILVER FILLINGS contain some mercury. A Fredericksburg dentist makes sure none of it goes into the sewer system.

Like most dentists, Wayne Whitley has seen plenty of silver fillings. He's taken plenty out, too.

But it's what he does with the filling material afterward that separates him from most of his colleagues.

Whitley's office in Fredericksburg is equipped to collect the used silver filling - called amalgam - and safely store it.

Amalgam contains small amounts of mercury, which, if absorbed in sufficient amounts, can cause acute and chronic health effects, some potentially fatal. Whitley said he is trying to keep the mercury from reaching the environment.

``We are supposed to be stewards of our planet and of whatever the good Lord has given us,'' he said. ``You have to do what you can do.''

Mercury is used in amalgam because it bonds together other metals. Dental chairs commonly have a small trap that collects bits of amalgam from the suction tube dentists use.

Whitley's chairs have traps too, slightly larger, that take months to fill. The water holding the fine particles is piped to a second device in his office, where much of the remaining amalgam is removed.

Dental Recycling North America of New York City installed the system. It recovered 3.4 ounces of mercury from amalgam collected at Whitley's office over nine months, company official Marc Sussman said. There's just one other dentist in the state with the same equipment.

Whether this is even necessary at all depends on whom you talk to. Sussman argues that mercury from amalgam will contaminate the environment if put in landfills or piped to waste-water treatment plants.

Dentists' groups say that's not so.

``There is absolutely no science at all that indicates this is a problem,'' said Bill Zepp, director of the Virginia chapter of the American Dental Association. ``Mercury used in dental amalgam and as it's currently disposed is not creating a problem ... it doesn't break down that way.''

The ADA recommends dentists limit how much amalgam goes into waste water and recycle whatever is collected, Zepp said.

There are no rules requiring dentists to recycle, and they could simply toss the amalgam in the trash, Zepp said. Much of the profession's response to the issue is driven by concern over public perceptions, he said.

``Organized dentistry, through the ADA, has taken a very cautious stand on it because people hear `mercury' and get very concerned,'' he said. ``I think the profession has really tried to stay on top of it and yet not jump to moving too fast.''

Even though Zepp and others discount any risk, some dentists' groups are responding to environmental pressures. In 1995, dentists' groups for Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., agreed to educate dentists on reducing the amounts of amalgam washed into the sewer system after the EPA declared the Potomac River had too much mercury.

Whitley believes the profession is slowly moving toward more caution in handling mercury.

Leasing the recycling equipment costs Whitley $124 a month, and the cost likely discourages others from using it, he said.

The dental recycling company has 100 clients nationwide out of about 110,000 dentists. Recycling amalgam could grow if incentives were offered to reduce the cost, he said.

LENGTH: Medium:   72 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. 1. Dr. Wayne Whitley, a Fredericksburg dentist, 
          collects and recycles silver fillings. The material contains small 
          amounts of mercury. 2. This device collects water retrieved when 
          fillings are extracted, then removes the amalgam.