| During the last six months, progress on the NH Dental Project: "Reducing PBT's in the Health Care Sector" has surpassed expectations. The NH Dental Society (NHDS) and the New Hampshire Pollution Prevention Program (NHPPP) partnership have created a working relationship to communicate and disseminate valuable information to the NH dental community.
The following activities have been completed:
-Created and mailed a dental survey to 950 NH dentists
-Developed dental project web page
-Collected vendor list of dental amalgam recycling facilities
-Drafted dental outreach documents
-Attended NH Dental Society Annual Meeting in May 2001
-Worked with DES' Hazardous Waste Compliance Bureau to propose hazardous waste rule change for mercury amalgam
The dental survey had an enormous response from the dental community. Over 400 dentists or 42 percent responded to the survey. Results of the survey include:
-243 dentists use both amalgam and composites
-39 dentists only use composites
-50 dentists only use amalgam
-173 dentists currently recycle waste amalgam
-271 dentists dispose of x-ray fixer solution as hazardous waste
-225 dentists dispose of fluorescent bulbs in solid waste
Based on survey results, NHDS focused newsletter articles on proper disposal of fluorescent bulbs, recycling of x-ray fixer solution, and a proposed hazardous waste rule change for mercury amalgam.
DES, NHDS, and NH Small Business Development Center will continue to develop and distribute outreach documents for dentists. The American Dental Association Annual Meeting was held in October 2001 in Kansas City, MO, and some of the information from the meeting will be included in forthcoming outreach documents. |
