bigstockphoto_about_to_have_filling_845674.jpgSo, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s tomato investigators are back to square one, it seems. Nearly 900 people have become ill, and the investigators are even suggesting the cause may not be tomatoes at all.

How about if the agency simply admitted, “We don’t know. We’re stumped. Maybe we just need to start over and look at the entire food supply with a fresh mind.”

Instead, as Henwhisperer points out following my previous post, there are complaints about how tough it is to trace products back to the farm, and there are frequent allusions to the need for bar codes for fruits and veggies—a real great way to help smaller farms remain competitive.

The danger of going back to square one and using it as an opportunity to change your perspective, of course, is that you may find you were going in the completely wrong direction to begin with. That seems to be what’s happening, very quietly, on the dental front, with the explosive issue of conventional dental fillings, or dental amalgams.

The FDA has had some study groups re-visiting the question of whether the mercury contained in amalgams that nearly all of us have in our mouths may be dangerous.

For years and years, patients who raised that possibility have been ridiculed. I know I have. I raised it with my long-time dentist several times in recent years, and each time he snickered as he told me, “There’s absolutely no scientific evidence that they are a problem.” The third or fourth time was the last time, as I moved my business to a dentist who refuses to use amalgams—not an easy person to find in the Boston area three years ago.

Just a few weeks ago, very quietly, the FDA posted on its web site a “Questions and Answers on Dental Amalgam,” and, lo and behold, the language has changed considerably from the line most dentists, dental associations, and the government long offered.

Indeed, Houston, we may have a problem. It states, “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses. When amalgam fillings are placed in teeth or removed from teeth, they release mercury vapor. Mercury vapor is also released during chewing. FDA’s rulemaking…will examine evidence concerning whether release of mercury vapor can cause health problems, including neurological disorders, in children and fetuses.”

If you click on a link from a 2006 meeting of dental experts, you see that the panel wanted to “Consider informed consent for patients receiving amalgam” and “Consider labeling changes restricting its use in pregnant women and children.”

Bottom line, the FDA is now saying many of us are walking around with poison in our mouths.

Who knows what might happen if they allow honest re-examination of the problem of food-borne illness. (Thanks to Pete Gasper for forwarding me information on dental amalgams.)