Businesses have to deal with the environment. The Establishments and activities Decree BES (IAB BES) and the Ministrial regulation establishments and activities BES (RIA BES) lays down environmental rules for all businesses in the Caribbean Netherlands.

Dental care

In a dental practice, amalgam may be discharged with the waste water during dental operations. Amalgam contains components that are harmful to the environment: silver, mercury, tin copper and other metals. This waste water should therefore not be discharged untreated.

On this page:

Explanation of the activity

When placing, removing or replacing dental fillings with mercury-containing amalgam, waste water with amalgam may be released. This waste water should not be discharged untreated. In order to minimise or prevent these adverse effects, environmental rules apply. In addition to these rules especially for dental pratices, additional rules can apply, for example for waste, energy saving and  air conditioning installations.

Where to find the rules

The rules for dentists are set out in Chapter 2 and in Section 3.3.1 of the ministrial regulation establishments and activities BES (RIA BES). Further rules are included in an Island Ordinance.

Type of business

The requirements of this activity apply to type 2 establishments.

Notification

For this activity, you must notify to the public entity no later than 4 weeks before starting up or changing your business. You can read the information you need to submit on the notification page.

Which rules apply

Waste regulations

The business activities of dental practices release waste. For example plastic packaging of dental supplies. You need to collect waste separately. This applies in any case to cardboard and paper, plastic, aluminum and glass. You need to make sure that the area on which the dental practice is located remains clean from waste. You do this by disposing the waste from the establishment as often as necessary to a collector designated by the public entity.

Waste water regulations

Waste water from the dental practice is disharged onto the public waste water system or a suitable waste water treatment facility. If the waste water contains amalgam, the waste water must first be passed through an amalgam separator before it can be discharged. The amalgam separator shall remove at least 95 % of the amalgam particles from the waste water.

Energy saving

All energy-saving measures must be implemented that have a payback period of up to 5 years. This only needs to be done when the use of electricity is more then 20.000 kWh per year from the public grid. This means, for example, that LED lighting to light points are installed.

Checklist

Pay close attention to the following topics when starting and carrying out this activity:

  • did you make a notification?
  • does the amalgam separator have a retention level of at least 95 % of the amalgam particles?
  • do you have air conditioning?

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