Fw: Proxy fight! We challenge mfrs of mercury fillings

[Guest guest]

Subject: Proxy fight! We challenge mfrs of mercury fillingsDate: Sunday, December 21, 2008, 12:57 PM

Hi Folks,The latest news from Charlie Brown, National Council of Consumers for Dental Choice. Please join in and write or e-mail those people that are leading the fight to stop the manufacturing mercury fillings.Yes, you can help -- by finding shareholders to support this splendid resolution. Do you or does your pension own stock in Danaher (DHR on the stock exchanges) or Dentsply (XRAY on the stock exchanges)? Can you enlist a nonprofit group or government agency which owns stock in DHR or XRAY? Let me know. E-mail charlie@.... BrocatoVolunteer

CoorsinatorChicago, IL

Proxy fight! We challenge Dentsply & Danaher to stop mfg. mercury fillings

With the FDA advising that mercury fillings “may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetus,” www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/amalgams.html, it’s time for the manufacturers of this toxic device to switch to non-toxic alternatives.

The two largest manufacturers are Danaher (which owns Kerr), based in Washington D.C. and Dentsply, based in York, Pennsylvania. Both are publicly traded, and hence must answer (in theory) to their shareholders.

So here’s the big news: in early December shareholders filed Resolutions to each of these companies to write reports on how they could exit from making mercury-based dental products. If the companies ignore their own shareholders -- as expected -- then folks, we are going to have an old-fashioned floor fight at their annual meetings this spring.

& n bsp; Leading this fight, I am proud to say, are several Catholic religious orders, including the Sisters of Ursula and the Dominican Sisters of Hope (they have pension funds), along with Boston Common Asset Management, an employee-owned so cial investment firm, www.bostoncommonasset.com. The leaders are, respectively, Heinonen of the Sisters of Ursula and Steve Heim of Boston Common Asset Management. You can thank Sister at HeinonenV@... and Steve

Heim at sheim@..., Working with Consumers for Dental Choice to initiate this project was the Mercury Policy Project ( Bender), www.MercuryPolicy.org .

This project began via educational work ( of me) by Dr. Mark of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, www.environmental-justice.org -- the leading state organization20focused on environmental injustice. Earlier this year, Consumers for Dental Choice recognized Mark as Nonprofit Advocate of the Year. Dr. enlisted Dr. Rich Liroff of the Investor Environmental Health Network, www.iehn.org, who in turn broadcasted an appeal for help to his

membership.

Sister points to the growing injustice of who still gets mercury fillings. Although we all used to get them, increasingly -- according to an NAACP witness testifying before the old Burton committee of Congress -- we have “choice for the rich and mercury for the poor.” If those with both money and knowledge get mercury-free dentistry, so should everyone.

Yes, you can help -- by finding shareholders to support this splendid resolution. Do you or does your pension own stock in Danaher (DHR on=2 0the stock exchanges) or Dentsply (XRAY on the stock exchanges)? Can you enlist a nonprofit group or government agency which owns stock in DHR or XRAY? Let me know.

Charlie

20 December 2008

G. Brown, National Counsel

Consumers for Dental Choice

316 F St., N.E., Suite 210, Washington, DC 20002

Ph. 202.544-6333; fax 202.544-6331

charlie@..., www.toxicteeth.org

Working for mercury-free dentistry

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