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Dental Offices to Install Mercury Waste Recycling Systems Starting with 2009 Openings

Official:Amending Chapter 9-3100 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Use of Mercury in Dentistry," by requiring dental offices to install, operate and maintain separator systems that permit the recycling of mercury waste, adding definitions and making certain technical changes, all under certain terms and conditions.

Sponsor: Councilmember Reynolds Brown

Introduced: January 24, 2008

: Committee on the Environment

environment government public health

No one voted on this bill

This bill was introduced in the 2008–2011 Council term and when that term ran out. The public record shows no committee vote and no floor vote at any stage, so no member of Council ever went on record for or against it.

That is not unusual here. Of the 8,465 bills introduced between 2000 and 2025, 1,624 lapsed without a single recorded vote. Ninety percent of bills that became law carry a roll call. Three percent of lapsed bills do. How this works.

Plain-Language Summary

This bill requires dental offices in Philadelphia to install and maintain systems that remove mercury waste from their water treatment, starting with offices opening after January 1, 2009.

What This Bill Does

AI-written. Every figure is checked against the bill text.

Requires dental offices in Philadelphia to install an amalgam separator system that removes dental amalgam particles from wastewater.
Requires dental offices to install the separator system in accordance with the manufacturer's requirements.
Imposes a deadline for dental offices opening after January 1, 2009, to install the separator system prior to beginning operations.
Imposes a deadline for dental offices with operations in existence prior to January 1, 2009, to install the separator system by January 1, 2010.