The last bite

Going up in smoke

Even with the British summer weather up to its usual tricks and variations it seems a sad time of the year to consider the pros and cons of cremation. But not if you live and work in Barnsley where the local council has just increased its fees by £18 per person to cover the cost of adding mercury filters to their crematoria.

Apparently by 2013 all UK crematoria will have to have the mechanisms fitted as a result of the evaporation of mercury from amalgam restorations. No doubt this is a legacy of the 'heavy-metal' generation that Prof Jimmy Steele's report on the NHS highlighted so well. The fall-out from fillings has been known about for years and so to some extent it is surprising that the politicians haven't latched onto it before. In the same way that certain goods now carry a green levy to cover the environmental cost of their eventual disposal, why not a similar premium on the humble amalgam? While it might be yet another inducement for patients to move towards tooth coloured materials, has anybody (no pun intended) or any body, investigated the by-products of incinerating composite resins or even titanium for that matter? Come back Steptoe, all is forgiven.