Berkeley Council Takes on Tooth Fillings

While competing proposals on the same topic occasionally show up as two separate items on the Berkeley City Council agenda, it seldom happens that five alternative items are presented to address a single issue.

But that's the case Tuesday when the council considers what the city should do about mercury-containing fillings in teeth.

The city's Community Health Commission has one proposal for reducing exposure to mercury in dental amalgam, and the Community Environmental Advisory Commission has another.

The City Manager's office has its own approach, while a fourth idea is offered jointly by Council members Laurie Capitelli and Linda Maio.

Councilman Jesse Arreguin, by contrast, notes the various proposals and "confusion" surrounding the topic and proposes in a fifth item that the City Council hold a workshop to help sort the issue out.

All the parties agree that mercury is a bad thing for living things to ingest and all want the city have a role in promoting greater awareness about the issue to dentists in the city and through the dentists to their patients.

The unsettled questions include not only the scientific debate over the safety of dental amalgam but also how much the city can require of dentists and how much it can merely recommend, which in turn depends in part on how much state law has exclusive jurisdiction over regulating procedures and patient warnings about dental amalgam.

Some of the differences in the various proposals before the council are described in the City Manager's report:

"Staff concurs with most of the Commissions’ recommendations; however, as described in more detail below, the Commissions’ recommendations to require specific actions by local dentists is preempted by state law. The attached resolution incorporates key points from the Commissions’ resolutions, but changes the language from 'requires' to 'urges'.

"In addition, while staff supports the CEAC (Community Environmental Advisory Commission) recommendation to 'continue educating the public' on these issues, the resolution recommended by staff limits the education to posting of arguments from both sides to City’s web pages. Staff is not qualified to educate the public or dentists on medical or dental procedures."

The Capitelli and Maio resolution is offered as a compromise among the resolutions of the two commissions and the City Manager's office.

And Arreguin's proposal would postpone consideration of any resolution by referring the issue to a council workshop.

The council's regular meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers.

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