Just for you Autismas!! Finally a Democrat I can respect!! XXXXX for Diane Watson D-CA

Put a bow on this one and it'll be all I could want for Christmas! God Bless Diane Watson!!

From the World Wide Web:

Dear friends:

November 5th marks a new day for our movement.

United States Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-Calif) is holding a news conference in Los Angeles to announce a bill with these three goals:
1) No mercury amalgam for children under 18, or for pregnant women, or for nursing mothers - effective July 1, 2002; and
2) Health warning for all - effective July 1, 2002; and Are you ready for this one --
3) A phase out of all amalgam use, for anyone in the USA, in five years!

The Watson bill is, truly, a great bill ("colossal," as Boyd Haley would say). It provides exactly what we need, and can be our rallying point. It shifts the debate from WHETHER to abolish amalgam to WHEN to abolish amalgam. Remember that theme.

Understand two key points:
- This is a federal bill. If passed, it applies throughout the United States!
- But it is only a bill, a proposal for a new law.

There are 435 Members of the United States House of Representatives. Roughly half are Republican, half Democrats. The process of a bill becoming a law is generally quite a battle. But we are ready!

This step takes huge courage by Congresswoman Watson. Undoubtedly, the ADA and its minions in politics and the corporate world will unleash an attack on her. But throughout her path-breaking careers, she has stuck to the courage of her convictions. Her career has been a series of firsts. For example, she was the first African-American woman in the California state senate. We know her as the author of the Watson law (California), the first state law in the country to require disclosure of the risks of mercury dental fillings. Before being elected to Congress, she also served as a United States Ambassador. Now, she is taking a revolutionary step to protect our children, our environment, and (though most of them don't know it yet) America's dentists and dental employees.

Here is what you can do THIS WEEK, no matter where you live in the Americas:

THANK CONGRESSWOMAN WATSON!

Tell her your story, as a consumer, victim health provider, environmentalist.
Letters are better than e-mails, and mailed letters are better than faxes.

-- 1st choice: Mail. (Because of mail problems in Washington, D.C.,
recommend you write her at her local office in her home district)
The Honorable Diane Watson, United States House of Representatives
5100 Goldleaf Circle, Suite 208, Los Angeles, CA 90056

-- 2nd choice: Fax:
The Honorable Diane Watson, United States House of Representatives,
Washington DC 20515 - fax 202.225-2422 or 323.292-1836

-- 3rd choice: e-mail
Diane.Watson@m...
(Put your full mailing address, not just e-address, on the e-mail.)
Go, go, go - write, write, write! This week!

Some upcoming dimensions of what we are doing:
* After her bill gets a number, we would urge you to write your Congressman or Congresswoman and seek support of this bill. We'll be in touch.
* Nothing stops you from continuing to work at the state level on state laws. We have a federal system. Maybe you can get a law passed in your state stopping amalgam use even sooner!
* A new coalition is being formed mainly for the purpose of lobbying. Consumers for Dental Choice may not do a substantial amount of lobbying, under its legal structure.

You can bet the ADA will fight hard to protect its Seal of Acceptance program, a cash machine courtesy of product manufacturers. Rejecting a public health role, the ADA chooses to serve as the lobbyist for the amalgam manufacturers -- thus working against the physical and mental health of even its own member dentists.

They have the money; we have the people. Sometimes, the people win. For example, the California Dental Board is history because the Board served as water carrier for he ADA and its anti-consumer policies. In 2001 our message and our grassroots team overwhelmed the ADA and the ADA.

We whipped the ADA in California. Now it's time to do the same in Washington DC!

Hail Congresswoman Watson!

Charlie Brown
Nov. 4, 2001
REP. DIANE WATSON TO INTRODUCE BILL TO END USE OF MERCURY IN DENTAL FILLINGS

WHO:
Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), community leaders, anti-Mercury consumer and environmental activists

WHAT:
Press conference to announce Rep. Watson's bill to end the use of the dangerous toxin Mercury in dental fillings

WHERE:
DWP Building, 4030 Crenshaw (at MLK Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA

WHEN:
Monday, November 5 at 1:30 p.m.

WHY:
So-called "silver" fillings are composed mainly of Mercury, a highly toxic material. Mercury is being removed from ALL other health care uses. Scientists agree that poisonous Mercury vapors constantly emit from fillings and can enter the brain and other organs.

BACKGROUND

Congresswoman Watson has a long record of working for disclosure of the risks of Mercury-based dental fillings. While a California State Senator in 1992, Rep. Watson authored a first-of-its-kind law that required the state Dental Board to issue a "fact sheet" on the risks of Mercury. Similar laws have since been adopted in Arizona and Maine.

In California over the past six months, the issue of Mercury-based dental fillings has become a subject of major controversy (see coverage at www.toxicteeth.net). In June, consumer groups filed suit against the American and California Dental Associations for deceptively calling mercury-based fillings "silver" and for secretly accepting payments from Mercury amalgam manufacturers while endorsing their product as safe.

In September the California Legislature voted to abolish the Dental Board and replace it with an entirely new Board, largely because of its refusal for nearly ten years to adopt a Fact Sheet that properly warned of the dangers of Mercury fillings. Governor Davis signed the bill into law earlier this month (along with a bill outlawing Mercury thermometers), saying "Mercury is a persistent and toxic pollutant that bioaccumulates in the environment..."

"It is no longer a question of if, but when, Mercury dental fillings will be history," said Congresswoman Watson. "Mercury has been -- or is being -- removed from all other health care uses, including in thermometers, vaccines and disinfectants. "It is politically and medically untenable to be removing Mercury from all other medical uses and at the same time continuing to place it in peoples' mouths."

Mercury poses a particular risk to children and pregnant women, as well as other subpopulations (e.g. people with kidney disease or who wear braces). A 1999 government report (by the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry of the United State Public Health Service) says that the Mercury vapors from fillings go to the brain, which puts a child's developing brain at the most risk. The report further states that the Mercury goes through the placenta into the developing embryo and that it goes through the mother's breast milk into the baby.

While the American Dental Association still supports using Mercury fillings (and in fact receives a fee from Mercury amalgam manufacturers for endorsing their product), there is increasing opposition to the continued use of Mercury among dentists and other dental professionals. For example, smaller groups such as the Carmel-based American Academy of Biological Dentistry and the Orlando-based International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology support an end to Mercury amalgam.