The issue: Safety of mercury tooth fillings.

The federal Health Department's review of mercury fillings has a gap in credibility, after the latest dust up over the controversial dental material.

Opponents of the material -- including a Calgary medical researcher -- have quit the stakeholders' committee advising Health Canada on whether restrictions are warranted on the mercury amalgam fillings.

Now the committee, according to a copy of its position paper obtained by the Herald, is recommending to Health Canada that there's no scientific evidence to warrant restricting the fillings in the vast majority of dental patients.

But the process used to reach that decision didn't achieve true consensus, or agreement among all stakeholders, says a key player, Health Canada consulting scientist Mark Richardson.

The committee's position is only ``the consensus opinion of the dental industry, the CDA (Canadian Dental Association) and its representatives and the provincial dental health officers that were there,'' Richardson said in an interview Monday.

Richardson's scientific report for Health Canada recommends limiting amalgam fillings to one in children, three in teens and four in adults, to minimize exposure to mercury -- a toxic heavy metal.

But amalgam proponent Derek Jones, a dental materials professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, insists that the stakeholders' committee unanimously rejected Richardson's report as unscientific.

Jones said the committee's advice to Health Canada ``is there will be no limit placed on the number of amalgam fillings.''

However amalgam opponent Murray Vimy, a Calgary dentist and local university medical researcher, accuses Jones of misrepresenting what transpired at the meeting.

``There's no consensus,'' stressed Vimy, adding that although he resigned from the committee prior to final voting, amalgam opponents never voted at any time to reject Richardson's report or his recommended limits.

Health Canada's entire consultation process ``ended up being a sham,'' Vimy said.

Amalgam opponents did acknowledge, during a committee straw vote, that some of Richardson's calculations were ``less than perfect,'' said Elke Babiuk of Calgary. She has resigned as the Health Action Network Society's representative.

But opponents made it clear they still wanted -- and still demand -- limits on the fillings to safeguard people's health, she said. ``Obviously the Canadian Dental Association and the dental materials industry had a hidden agenda.''

``It was really shameful,'' agreed Pollution Probe representative Susan Sang, who's also recommending her group pull out. Also quitting are the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, and the Dental Amalgam mercury Syndrome group.

Federal health officials have said the committee's position will be significant in developing new government policy -- expected by the summer.

MARK LOWEY, Southam Newspapers

Calgary Herald February 20, 1996

Also make sure to read these books: Poison in Your Teeth: Mercury Amalgam (Silver) Fillings...Hazardous to Your Health! and Mercury Detoxification by Tom McGuire