How to combat mercury emissions from dental clinics.

Metallic mercury released into aquatic environments is transformed into methyl mercury. This is accumulated in fish, often reaching hazardous levels in top predators such as shark, tuna, northern pike and perch requiring fish consumption advisories for populations at risk. Since sizable amounts of metallic mercury are released from dental offices each year into the waste water systems, many countries now require amalgam separators to be installed. In Sweden the efficiency of this environmental protection is supposed to be 99 %, as stated by the manufacturers. Recent investigations, though, have pointed out that the efficiency of the most commonly used separators of sedimentary type is far less. But there are ways to greatly improve the efficiency.