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-WJLA SCRIPT-
ANCHOR LEAD:
YOU KNOW THAT LONG LIST OF LEAD-TAINTED PRODUCTS MADE IN CHINA? YOU CAN NOW ADD DENTAL WORK. MORE AND MORE DENTISTS AND DENTAL LABS ARE OUT-SOURCING THE MANUFACTURING OF BRIDGES AND CROWNS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD. SO WHAT ARE THOSE LEAD LEVELS? ARE THEY SAFE? THE I-TEAM'S ROBERTA BASKIN HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR THE ANSWERS.
ROBERTA BASKIN LEAD–IN:
WE BEGIN WITH THE STORY OF A 73-YEAR OLD WOMAN WHO BECAME SUSPICIOUS OF HER NEW BRIDGE WORK - AND FOR GOOD REASON.
STORY:
Faye Lewis / Dental Patient: “They were very uncomfortable. They hurt.”
What for Faye Lewis began as a chipped tooth became an international incident. Her bridgework fit so poorly and painfully, she couldn’t chew her food. She told her dentist what she wanted to do was chew out whoever built her bridge.
Faye Lewis: “I’d like to have them see what their work looks like in my mouth.’ And her answer to me was ‘that will be a little hard to do because they’re in China.’ God help us.”
Faye’s a grandmother…and was alert to news reports about the recall of China-made toys because of lead. Lead accumulates in the body and can affect kidneys, eyes, heart, your immune system, and lower your intelligence. Some scientists believe we’re not as smart as we could be.
Faye Lewis: “This is going in a mouth, it’s feeding into our bloodstream.”
So Faye sent her dental work to a lab for testing. The results showed there was lead.
Ricki Braswell directs the National Association of Dental Laboratories.
Ricki Braswell, National Association of Dental Laboratories: “Because you have an unregulated industry, you really don’t have standards. You don’t have standards in the domestic industry. You certainly don’t have standards in the foreign industry.”
Tony Prestipino, owner, Artifex: “That sounds pretty cheap pal.”
Tony Prestipino, owns a dental lab in Virginia. With his help, we ordered ten crowns from three labs in China.
Chinese lab representative: “I have people who do it in China for under $10.”
Tony: “Really.”
-“Yep.”
Tony: “You’re kidding me.”
-(chuckle.)
Crowns from China sell for $30-50 to dentists... who can then charge up to $1,200… to patients who don’t know they’re made in China.
Chinese lab rep: “We follow this military ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.”
Tony- “Don’t ask, don’t tell, policy? I got ya.”
Within five days the crowns arrived.
Tony: “The first thing I see is that this is a horrible color and a horrible shape.”
Tony:“This one wasn’t worth ten cents.”
These crowns had problems similar to Faye’s. They didn’t match the prescription and never would fit properly. When that happens…
Tony : “Bacteria seeps right into it. You will end up needing a root canal.”
If Faye’s bridge hadn’t fit so poorly she never would have had it removed…or tested for toxic materials. That was our next step …to test our poorly “made in China” crowns for lead.
For that we went to NSL Analytical in Cleveland.
Larry Somrack, president, NSL: “..and then we take this and we pulverize this.”
Using a sophisticated process that takes days to complete…the lab found no lead in any of the metal portion of the crowns. But in every case, lead contamination was discovered in the porcelain parts of the crown…at some very high levels.
Baskin: Were you surprised to find lead?
Somrack: Very much so. We never expected to see lead in teeth.
How high? Well…One Congressional Committee wants acceptable lead levels in toys to be reduced to a maximum of 90 parts per million. In the crowns we tested… we found lead levels more than five times higher than that: 490ppm.
Baskin: “Is that the highest that you’ve ever seen?
Somrack: “That is the highest we have seen so far.”
And the amount of dental work imported from China is higher than ever. U.S. Customs reports last year alone the number of Americans wearing dental work made in China more than doubled.
Faye Lewis: “It’s a cost factor. It’s the big dollar.”
BASKIN IN STUDIO:
IT'S THE FDA'S RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC HEALTH FROM UNSAFE DENTAL DEVICES. OFFICIALS THERE DECLINED TO BE INTERVIEWED ABOUT OUR FINDINGS, BUT SAY THEY'RE LOOKING INTO IT.
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