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# FDA Challenged on Amalgam by 50 Groups
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-challenged-on-amalgam-by-50-groups/
- Published: 2018-04-18T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T23:59:37.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5141256

A coalition of 50 environmental, public health, and children’s rights groups is calling on FDA to “bring its policies FDA in line with the federal government as a whole” and to “publicly advise a phase down of the use of mercury amalgams with the goal of phasing out entirely” over a two-year period. The call comes in a paper called the “[Chicago Declaration](https://tinyurl.com/Chicago-Declaration?ref=fdaweb.com)” unveiled at a University of Illinois news conference called by World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry president **Charlie Brown** who told the media that “Starting July 1, the European Union bans amalgam for children under 15; the U.S. needs to act too.”

FDA has been dragging its feet on amalgam regulation for at least 16 years, and published a [controversial final rule in 2009](http://www.fdaweb.com/login.php?sa=v&aid=D5112365&searchWords=Amalgam&cate=S&stid=%241%24ZB..uU4.%24Ho26ErRObcGn8SMetAaTq%2F) classifying it safe and effective as a Class 2 medical device. It was immediately attacked by dental experts for misinterpreting published literature. FDA’s action set the agency apart from other federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency that have supported international action against mercury. According to the Chicago Declaration, the U.S. was the first country to ratify the 128-nation Minamata Convention that last August required “each nation to reduce all incidental and purposeful uses and releases of mercury, including from dental amalgam,” which the declaration says is the source of 35-57% of all U.S. mercury use. Amalgam, it says, “pollutes the environment’s air, water and soil through an estimated 28.5 metric tons of all dental mercury used in 2010.”