EPA Standards for Dental Amalgam Waste The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have closely monitored and tested the effects of mercury and its use in the dental industry for many years. Since the early 1990s, these agencies have been researching the link between human and environmental health issues and mercury that originated in dental offices as dental amalgam [uh-mal-gum]. Dental amalgam is a dental filling material that contains a mix of 50% mercury, plus a powder containing silver, tin, copper, and other metals. It has been used for over 150 years to fill cavities caused by tooth decay in hundreds of millions of patients around the world.