TECNOLOGÍA LIMPIA APLICADA AL TRATAMIENTO Y APROVECHAMIENTO DE RESIDUOS DE AMALGAMA DENTAL

Abstract

The world problem regarding the environmental pollution due to human activities where mercury is used increases the contamination generated by the dental amalgam scraps when they are inadequately disposed. Although Colombia has clear regulations regarding this issue, the problem subsists when oral health service institutions discard down the drainpipe, incinerate or bury the amalgam scraps that they produce as a disposal method. This occurs because the regulations are unknown or because, many times, they are partially or incorrectly applied. As a solution to this situation, the Universidad de Antioquia through the research groups: Science and Biomedical Technology, Precious Materials and Pyrometallurgical and Material Researches, and the dental supplies manufacturing and marketing company New Stetic S.A., developed and implemented a eco-efficient recovery process for amalgam wastes in order to prevent any incorrect disposal that negatively impacts the environment, and to take advantage of the recovered metals by returning them to the production line. The process stages include the pyrometallurgical mercury recovery (at high temperatures) using a hermetical distiller called Retorta, and the hydrometallurgical recovery (selective recovery in watery media) of the rest of the constituent metals. The latter permits the obtainment, in an eco-efficient and self-sustainable manner, of each metal which can be taken through a refining process to be reused.