Following a six-month delay, the Environmental Protection Agency on June 14 published a final rule under the Clean Water Act to control the discharge of mercury and other metals entering the waste stream from dental practices. The rule regulates dental practices that place or remove dental mercury amalgams by installing an amalgam separator.
We have had the best mercury waste separator in the world installed in our practice for over a year!
The EPA finalized the rule last December with the rule expected to take effect in January but, as CDA reported in February, a Trump administration order froze all proposed and pending federal regulations to allow for executive review.
The effective date of the rule is July 14, 2017 – 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register. The compliance date for most dentists will likely be July 2020, three years after the effective date.
We did not want to wait 3 years to protect the waste water, oceans, fish and people downstream. Our office already has the amalgam separator installed. Does your dentist? Ask?
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