EU Parliament has presented its draft report about revising the EU Mercury Regulation.

On 14 July, the European Commission formulated its plan to ban the use of dental amalgam in the European Union (EU) from 2025 through its proposed regulation to revise the EU Mercury Regulation. Dental amalgam - a filling material made from mercury alloys - is used in dental treatments and it is one of the last remaining forms of mercury usage in the EU.

Rapporteur proposes ban from 2027 - two years later than that proposed by the Commission

MEP Marlene Mortler (EPP, DE), the rapporteur of the draft regulation, has presented her draft report to the European Parliament. It calls for a ban as from 1 January 2027, two years later than that proposed by the European Commission. The rapporteur said in her report that appropriate transitional periods must be granted so that doctors can complete the necessary training and national health insurance systems can adapt their reimbursement policies accordingly.

In addition to extending the ban by two years, Mortler is also calling for a report from the European Commission that will include an assessment of the socio-economic impact it will have on patients. Mortler would also like the European Commission’s report to include the consequences arising from dentists changing over to mercury-free fillings and the resulting developments in reimbursement systems for healthcare. The rapporteur called for a corresponding Commission study to be presented in June 2025.

DSV calls for smooth implementation by 2030

DSV has positioned itself with an opinion about the revision of the EU Mercury Regulation. In principle, DSV welcomes the aim of improving environmental and health protection. DSV believes that the timetable should be reconsidered and it should not take place until 2030 in order to ensure a smooth implementation of the ban on dental amalgam. Finally, the ban has contractual and supply policy implications in some Member States. In Germany, it is causing a fundamental health policy discussion about co-payment-free fillers in healthcare. They are part of the SHI catalogue of benefits, which needs to be further maintained.

In the European Parliament, the vote on the draft report in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) is scheduled for 11 January 2024. In the Council, the dossier will be dealt with by the Council's environment working group.

Background:

Mercury can seep into the environment despite precautions such as mandatory amalgam separators and pre-dosed and encapsulated use in dental practices. The focus here is on the crematoria. Under current conditions, mercury emissions in crematoria have been increasing for years. They could be avoided through the use of exhaust gas reduction technologies. However, there is no EU-wide regulation covering this, so member states have not taken a standardised approach.

In Germany, around 47 million dental fillings were billed to the statutory health insurance funds in 2021. Of these, 1.4 million were amalgam fillings - a share of about 3.2 per cent. The consumption of dental amalgam is strongly declining throughout the EU, as well as in Germany. This is mainly due to the implementation of an international treaty - the Minamata Convention. The Minamata Convention entered into force on 16 August 2017 and has so far been ratified by the EU and 143 countries, including all EU Member States. It has been implemented through the Mercury Regulation (EU) 2017/852 since 1 January 2018. Since then, dental amalgam has been banned in the EU for deciduous teeth, children under 15 years of age and pregnant and breastfeeding patients.