It's a landslide. The California Assembly voted 75 to 1 to direct Medi-Cal (Medicaid) to stop forcing mercury fillings on California's low-income families. The bill by Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Los Angeles), A.B. 999, will allow the patient and dentist to choose the filling.

Probably the cruelest aspect of organized dentistry’s pro-mercury agenda is forcing low-income children and pregnant women to get mercury fillings. For low-income families, as Emmitt Carlton of the NAACP testified before Congress last month, it’s "mercury fillings or no fillings."

If the bill becomes law (it must still pass the Senate), Medicaid patients may seek out mercury-free dentists to do their fillings! Mercury-free dentists -- generally forced out of Medicaid systems because they won’t put mercury in children’s bodies -- may now participate! Indeed, Dr. Terecita Dean of San Francisco and Carol Arana of the American Academy of Biological Dentistry submitted testimony that participation by mercury-free dentists will add to choices for low-income consumers.

With overwhelming support in California, the nation’s trendsetter state, this vote may signal a shift in Medicaid across the country -- and with private insurance systems as well.

With Pete Conaty marshalling our forces, a broad coalition of health, consumer, environmental, clergy, and senior citizen groups endorsed Assemblyman Horton’s bill. The California Dental Association (CDA) also endorsed it and worked hard for its passage -- marking the second time this year that CDA has broken with the ADA. The first was signing the Proposition 65 warnings and sending them to every dentist in the state, after settling the case filed by Shawn Khorrami. The warnings say amalgam "causes exposure to mercury, a chemical known to the state of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm."

In addition to our Coalition for Mercury-Free Dentistry, support came from

** Sierra Club of California (whose lobbyist Bill Magavern testified)

** NAACP of California (whose lobbyist Sheron Wright also appeared)

** California Nurses Association

** National Black Nurses Association, and the Council of Black Nurses--Los Angeles

** Physicians for Social Responsibility--Los Angeles

** Center for Environmental Health (Oakland)

** International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology

** American Academy of Biological Dentistry

** Preventive Dental Health Association

** Baptist Pastors/Ministers Conference of Los Angeles & Surrounding Areas

** Congress of California Seniors

** California Citizens for Health Freedom

** Redwood Coast Regional Center.

We are particularly grateful to the nurses organizations, such as the CNA and the Black Nurses Association, for recognizing the health issues surrounding mercury fillings. As dedicated workers on the front-line of health care, they are acutely aware of the dangers posed by exposure to mercury. Also, I want to recognize the continuing work of Frank Cuny, who brought the Congress of California Seniors into the coalition in addition to the group he heads, California Citizens for Health Freedom.

You can thank Assemblyman Jerome Horton, assemblymember.Horton@assembly.ca.gov, , who chairs the California Black Caucus, as he prepares to push A.B. 999 through the Senate.

Charlie Brown

June 9, 2003