Optimizing the procedure for mercury recovery from dental amalgam.
Braz Oral Res
; 22(2): 119-24, 2008.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-18622480
Mercury, as any other heavy metal, may cause environmental damages due to its accumulation and biotransformation. Dental offices, whether private or institutional, use dental amalgam as a restorative material on a daily basis. Dental amalgam is composed of mercury (50%), silver (30%) and other metals. Approximately 30% of the amalgam prepared in dental offices (0.6 g per capsule) are wasted and inadequately discarded without any treatment. Methods for mercury recovery have been proposed previously, using high temperatures through exposure to direct flame (650 degrees C), long processing time, and hazardous reagents as potassium cyanide. The purpose of this study was to develop a method to replace the direct flame by an electrical mantle in the process of mercury recovery. Results showed an average mercury recovery of 90% from 2 kg of amalgam after 30 minutes of processing time, thus optimizing the procedure. The proposed modifications allowed a significant reduction in processing time and a mercury recovery with high purity. The modified process also provided minimization of operator exposure to physical, chemical and ergonomic hazards, representing a technological advance compared to the risks inherent to the original method. It also provided environmental health and economy of energy resources by replacing a finite energy source (fossil and organic) by a more environmentally appropriate electric source, resulting in significant improvement of the procedure for mercury recovery from dental amalgam.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Eliminação de Resíduos de Serviços de Saúde
/
Resíduos Odontológicos
/
Gerenciamento de Resíduos
/
Amálgama Dentário
/
Exposição Ambiental
/
Mercúrio
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
America do sul
/
Brasil
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Braz Oral Res
Assunto da revista:
ODONTOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2008
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Brasil
País de publicação:
Brasil