Perspectives on the Minamata Convention and dental amalgam waste management in South Africa

The Minamata Convention on Mercury (MCM), a pivotal multilateral agreement, is dedicated to controlling human sources of mercury environmental release. Due to their unique properties, mercury and its compounds were extensively used in products and industrial processes. Human activities have escalated atmospheric mercury levels by 450%, causing severe environmental and life-threatening consequences. The MCM focuses on restricting mercury mining, phasing out and phasing down mercury use in products and processes, controlling environmental emissions and regulating small scale gold mining. Dental amalgam restorative material is the only product subject to a phase-down approach through the prevention of dental caries, research for alternative restorative materials, and waste management practices. The increasing understanding of mercury’s health and environmental impacts has led to restricting dental amalgam use in pregnant women and children, phase-out in several countries, and cessation of the marketing of dental amalgam by some manufacturers. This perspective delves into the current approaches to managing dental amalgam waste and proposes improvements to dental amalgam waste management practices in South Africa.