National Plan for Phase-down to Phase-out of Amalgam towards 2030

The Minamata Convention on Mercury was ratified by Ireland in March 2019. It provides an international regulatory framework for the protection of human health and the global environment from the harmful effects of mercury. The Minamata Convention addresses all aspects related to the use of mercury including the use and management of dental amalgam.

Regulation (EU) 2017/852 was adopted by the Parliament and the Council to ensure that EU member states would uphold the goals of the Convention and it provides an ambitious roadmap towards the phase-out of industrial mercury. The Regulation is enforced in Ireland under SI 533 of 2018, which the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment signed in December 2018.

Article 10 of the Regulation sets out the rules relating to dental amalgam and includes an obligation to produce a National Plan by 1 July 2019, on the phase down of dental amalgam.

The National Plan is the mechanism for each country to outline for the EU how it intends to reduce the use of amalgam across different age groups and circumstances, in a phased way.

Ireland supports a phase down towards phase out/ban of amalgam across all age groups by 2030, as outlined in the National Oral Health Policy. An integral part of that Policy is the phase down of amalgam over the period of implementation of the policy and a number of key actions are included in the Policy towards achieving that goal.