Government Relations
Environmental Protection Agency Issues Final Ruling on Amalgam Separators
On December 15 , 2016 , the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) released a final rule requiring dental practices to install amalgam separators . However , due to an executive order issued to federal agencies on January 20 , all new and pending regulations have been frozen so that the Trump administration has the opportunity to review the regulations .
The mandate is similar to what has been issued by previous administrations , and it applies to any regulation that has not been published in the Federal Register or yet taken effect . The EPA amalgam separator rule was finalized on December 15 , but because it had not yet been published in the Federal Register , the regulation has been withdrawn . The ruling was scheduled to take effect in February , but has now been postponed . EPA will have to resubmit the rule .
Here are the key points of the ruling that was published in December which may take effect if EPA chooses to resubmit the ruling once the mandate has been lifted .
The rule closely followed ADA Best Management Practices for
Amalgam Waste ( BMP ), incorporating three of them : 1 ) Requiring the use of separators 2 ) Prohibiting the flushing of waste amalgam down a drain 3 ) Prohibiting the use of bleach or chlorine-containing cleaners that may leave the dissolution of solid mercury when cleaning-chair side traps and vacuum lines
The rule would take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register , but the compliance date for most dentists would be three years from the date of publication . Existing practices need to have amalgam separators installed in their offices within a time frame of three years , where as new constructions would be required to have separators installed immediately .
Offices that already have separators installed would not be required to immediately replace their separators , but within 10 years or the lifetime of the unit ( whichever comes first ) their separators would need to be replaced with separators that meet the standards set by the rule .
Any separators or other amalgam removal devices installed must achieve at least 95 percent removal efficiency .
Dental offices that exclusively practice one or more of the following specialties would be exempt from any rule : oral pathology , oral and maxillofacial radiology , oral and maxillofacial surgery , orthodontics , periodontics and prosthodontics .
There would also be exemptions for mobile dental units , for dental offices that do not place amalgam and only remove amalgam in unplanned or emergency situations , and for dental offices that do not discharge wastewater into a publicly owned treatment works .
Dental offices would submit a one-time compliance report indicating that they have separators installed in their offices , or that they are exempt from the ruling because they do not place amalgam and only remove in unplanned situations . A compliance report would also be submitted when there is a transfer in ownership of the practice .
Although less than one percent of mercury released into the environment from man-made sources comes from dentistry , ADA has encouraged dental offices to follow BMP in order to reduce discharges of used amalgam into wastewater . In 2007 , ADA amended its BMP to include the use of amalgam separators that comply with the International Organization for Standardization , a worldwide federation of national standards bodies .
ADA and PDA will closely monitor this issue and as more information on EPA ’ s amalgam separators rule becomes available , will disseminate that information to members .
10 MARCH / APRIL 2017 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL