Uruguay shared its experience in phasing out dental amalgam with other Latin American countries in a regional workshop under the GEF dental amalgam project.
In 2018, Uruguay removed dental amalgam from the oral health services covered by the country’s Comprehensive Health Care Plan, and there have been no imports of dental amalgam since 2020.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), convened a meeting in Montevideo from March 4 and 5, 2026. Similar meetings will follow in Bangkok and Dakar later this year to conclude this global pilot project addressing dental amalgam.
The Minister of Public Health, Cristina Lustemberg, stated during the opening of the workshop that health policy should be guided by care and prevention, which she described as “the best tool”. She noted that reducing mercury-added products is an example of this approach.
“The sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-6) agreed to phase out dental amalgam by 2034 and requested the Secretariat to develop guidance for national action plans for phase-out,” said Eisaku Toda, Senior Programme Management Officer of the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention, in his presentation in Spanish.
“The experience of Uruguay will provide an excellent example of a national action plan,” added Toda.