Quecksilber reviews

Quecksilber - The Strange Story of Dental Amalgam

Below are some independent reviews of Quecksilber. 

Click on a Pink Link

Assoc Prof Murray Vimy

Dr David Kennedy DDS

TOWNSEND LETTER for DOCTORS & PATIENTS

Pink Disease Support Group

Medical Veritas Journal

Coalition for Mercury-Free Dentistry

Nexus Magazine

Vaccination Information South Australia

Heather Thiele
Founder
Pink Disease Support Group

I watched this documentary with much interest, as I am one of the thousands of Australian babies who suffered from acrodynia (pink disease) in the first half of last century.

Pink disease was a form of mercury poisoning/sensitivity to the mercurous chloride (calomel) used as the preservative in babies teething or soothing powders sold in Australia from the late 1800's until the mid 1900's. Victims of this condition suffered many of the classic mercury poisoning symptoms of toxic epidermal necrosis (burning, itchy rash which was followed by the skin dying and peeling off flesh), sucking and chewing of fingers including self amputation or mutation, photophobia, ataxia, atonia, digestive problems, peripheral neuropathy, reddish pink palms of hand and soles of feet (hence name of pink disease), anaemia, loosening of teeth, convulsive seizures, elevated pulse rates, profuse sweating, abnormal skin and muscle sensations, lung problems often leading to bronchopneumonia, and anorexia.

Many hundreds of babies died from the effects of suffering pink disease, particularly bronchopneumonia. Those who survived have suffered life long problems from being exposed to mercury at such a critical age. Our physical organs, emotions and nerves were damaged beyond repair before they were able to be developed in many cases. For example, the adrenal glands do not fully develop until age 18 months in a child, and by this time our adrenal glands were irreparably damaged. Over 30% of those who had pink disease suffer from bronchiectasis, a serious lung disease in which the bronchi of the lungs widen irreversibly.

I formed a support group for pink disease survivors and their families in 1989, and have over 2,000 cases on record.

Amongst pink disease sufferers, any further exposure to mercury can exacerbate already present symptoms and endanger our health dramatically. The worst scenario is a pink disease sufferer who has had amalgam fillings placed in their mouths! Many pink disease sufferers have decayed teeth. Fortunately, I had all my teeth removed at age 10 and have dentures.

I could relate to many of the mercury poisoning symptoms in the DVD. As you said "mercury is mercury is mercury", and I would add, "mercury poisoning is mercury poisoning is mercury poisoning".

In particular, I have a terrible sense of position of both my body and hands. For example, it takes me ages to line up a clothesline, the clothes and the pegs to hang out clothes. I have to have a rope hanging down from the ceiling of my car port to be able to have a guide to park the car in the correct place. I am hopeless with any locks, catches, car seat catches etc. I go to open a door, but miss the catch by inches. I drift when walking and often bump into walls and doors. I cannot cope with verbal instructions at all and have to write "everything" down. This is known as "thinking in pictures" (Temple Grandin). I found the DVD very easy to comprehend and remember as it had the main points printed on the TV screen as well as being spoken.

I have many unique issues including emotional and cognitive ones, such as being very sensitive to criticism and being easily confused when situations or people change such as a person changing hair colour, which many of us pink disease have in common and you mentioned on the DVD as being symptoms of mercury poisoning. It was a great comfort to hear and see this written down as classic mercury poisoning symptoms!

In spite of all this, I lead a busy and fulfilling life full of wonderful and positive experiences. I work a 60 hour a week family business, established the support group and now act as treasurer to the group as well as contributing to it, have a busy personal life which includes 4 grandchildren and lots of hobbies. I also am recognized as an amateur authority on mercury poisoning by many of the people in the credits at the end of the DVD.

Thank you for mentioning pink disease in your DVD. I noticed you used the picture of the powders I sent you many years ago!

One recent situation which alarms me is the rise in the number of young people who have both amalgam fillings and piercings around their mouths and tongues. What an electrical "disaster" they are creating. I am sure they will all be diagnosed with MS, Parkinson's disease, dementia or similar by the time they turn 30. Your DVD should be shown in every school in Australia to discourage both amalgams and piercings.

Congratulations on having the courage to do this DVD.

Best wishes from

Heather Thiele
Founder
Pink Disease Support Group
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Review for Medical Veritas Vol 2 Issue 1 April 2005
by M Primero B.Sc., M.Sc.Soc.
http://www.imedva.com/

DVD Review
Quecksilber
By Dr. Robert Gammal
Produced by La Mmag productions 2004
Sydney, Australia
Available in PAL or NTSC DVD
58 minutes running time
Website:
http://www.quecksilber.net
Enquiries: info@quecksilber.net

Statements from the rear cover:

The argument that dental amalgam is a safe and effective filling material has been challenged since the time of its introduction. It is well known that mercury is highly toxic and that continuous exposure to mercury may seriously affect health. This documentary explores the scientific evidence. Protocols exist for the safe removal of amalgam fillings. Quecksilber is for everyone to understand.

For many years, Australian dentist Dr. Robert Gammal has stood out amongst professional colleagues for his position of questioning and dissent to the use of mercury amalgam in dental fillings. His articulations of this dissent seem to have been largely ignored by the Australian dental and medical authorities, whose strongest positions of retort to his claims appears to have been to merely assert the safety of mercury amalgams, without recourse to evidence as much as to their own authority. After years of this sort of bureaucratic avoidance of the issues, Dr. Gammal hits back at the institutional inertia with even more substantial argument, this time in the form of a DVD entitled "Quecksilber: The Strange Story of Dental Amalgam."

Clearly and concisely argued, Quecksilber is quite a damning indictment of the continued use of mercury amalgams in the human body. This DVD is both a heavily researched and referenced work. It is quite unusual for a work in video format to be presented with so many references, but Gammal's mandate is no ordinary one either: and such referencing is to be expected when going into battle against the heavyweight 'dental establishment', no matter what the communications medium. Fortunately, the referencing does not interrupt the flow of argument. Major citations are often placed on screen whilst the arguments are being presented, and the very long scrolling of detailed references is viewable at the end of the DVD, or as an altogether separate chapter.

A look at the credits will make it apparent that a substantial part of this DVD is actually produced by Gammal himself, and here he is to be congratulated for his technical skills in computer graphics as much as for his expertise regarding the scientific issues in question: and perhaps even more importantly, for his obvious passion regarding 'medical veritas'.

Quecksilber begins with a swift turning of the tables, as Gammal explains his title and points out that the original "quacks" were actually those who used "quecksilber" --or quicksilver-- as a dental amalgam filling. This is an important point to revisit in today's world, considering that those who now implement mercury in various forms of treatment are actually the same groups that most quickly attempt to portray those other than themselves as "the quacks".

After a brief excursion into the history of amalgam use, Quecksilber rapidly gets down to the business of indicating how toxic mercury is to the human body. It presents evidence arguing that mercury does not remain an hermetically or somehow mystically enclosed captive of dental amalgam, but rather that it readily vaporises and easily spreads to all parts of the body, wreaking a much anticipated damage along the way. Tragically, the unborn human is one of the main victims of the mercury amalgam filling. Dentists who use mercury amalgam are themselves in an endangered position, and this DVD should be mandatory viewing for every recipient of a dental qualification. If this were to be the case, I envisage that there would be many more "bio-compatible" dental surgeries in existence. The ramifications for the environment are also quite sombre, and should alarm anyone with even a modicum of respect for the health of the planet.

Many years ago I set out on my own journey to get a number of mercury amalgams removed from my own mouth. It was a difficult experience, to say the least. I found it an impossibility to find a dentist that was even familiar with the dissident literature. Those that I met were at best reluctant, if not overtly hostile to my request to remove "perfectly good" mercury amalgams, and to replace them with composite material. One of the more "mercurial" dentists tried to equate the toxicity of petrochemical based composites with mercury amalgam. The hostile irrationality and emotional cognitive dissonance that this dentist exhibited to me may have been symptoms of the numerous psychological side effects due to mercury poisoning, which Quicksilber also details. Indeed, my personal journey would have been far easier and less toxic, had there been a few dentists around at the time that were privy and receptive to the information that Gammal now makes readily accessible in Quicksilber.

This DVD is of course not just a 'must view' for dentists, but for anyone who has in place, or has considered getting mercury dental amalgams; or for anyone who has family members or friends with them. It is especially important for pregnant women or those with intentions of future childbirth to see this DVD before they conceive: for if they choose to heed the warnings given by Quecksilber, the detoxification process takes time to implement.

Upon a viewing of Quecksilber it becomes obvious that the field of knowledge regarding the use of dental amalgams in dentistry is full of conflict and contradictions. The technical assertions in Quecksilber are wide-ranging, and directly cite scientific literature, government legislations, international and national organisations, or the specifications and warnings of mercury amalgam manufacturers themselves. Quecksilber highlights many pertinent points relevant to its argument, and effectively redresses the imbalance in information presently received by the consumer of dentistry products and services.

One such interesting judgement is Proposition 65 of The Superior Court of California in 2003, which now requires dentists in that state to display a sign stating:

Dental Amalgam used in many dental fillings causes exposure to mercury - a chemical known to the state of California to cause birth defects and other reproductive harm.

A somewhat amusing and yet thought provoking moment in the DVD is provided by Australian medical establishment mouthpiece, Professor Wayne Dwyer. Quecksilber quotes a statement made by Dwyer that effectively states that to believe in mercury toxicity is to believe in a massive conspiracy. Gammal sets this statement within the context of this DVD without further direct comment, and the economy of words here lends much to the poignancy conveyed by the presentation of it. Quecksilber leaves us to think about how our paternalistic medical system can possibly adhere to the ideology of mercury safety, in the face of not only very significant counter-evidences of danger, but also in the presence of much safer and technically more advanced, superior alternatives. The DVD goes some way towards answering this indirectly in its reference to vested interests via patents held on mercury amalgams. It may not be conspiracy: but whatever it is, the DVD makes it clear that there is a massive divide between medical consensus and what could normally be appreciated as common sense.

In a DVD of such gravity, it is refreshing to see something of a bright side presented, as Gammal discusses safe mercury amalgam removal and the use of readily available and safer alternative dental filling materials.

In my overall viewing of Quecksilber, many more questions sprang to mind. For one, could the Dental Establishment even adequately answer the charges brought upon them? The answers we come up with to this question may lead us to our own conclusions regarding why professional dental bodies in many parts of the world have chosen to most frequently 'stonewall' mercury amalgam dissidents, rather than properly addressing their very pertinent and crucial concerns.
As hard-hitting documentaries rapidly become the intellectual staple diet of an increasing body of disenfranchised and disillusioned consumers, and the
means of producing these 'docos' become ever more accessible, such independent productions are set to flourish. This increased freedom of
information should hopefully lead to an environment where condescending elite bodies can no longer rest on their authoritarian laurels, and where
medical veritas stands a chance of taking centre stage in everyone's minds.

-MKP
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Vaccination Information South Australia

www.visainfo.org.au

Quecksilber is a fabulous video for anyone who wants a fully referenced ,scientific, factual history of mercury and the devestating effects it can have on your health.  Why is mercury treated as toxic waste everywhere except in the human mouth?  Mercury has no place in the human body - not in vaccines, not in dentistry.

This video will answer all your questions and inform and educate you on mercury and its dangers.  You will feel empowered to make the decisions you want to make for your own health and that of your family.

Jane Leonforte
Vice President Vaccine Information South Australia - VISA

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