Newspaper Articles
Newspaper Articles
This section includes a few Newspaper Articles on the topic of Fluoridation. One is from our own Master Herbalist, David Christopher.
This is a recent article that clearly explains why the Salt Lake and Davis County officials in Utah want to rid themselves of any and all liability.
Hundreds of Children Poisoned by Tap Water
By Saidou Arji
14/01/2001
Inter Press Service
NIAMEY, Jan 14 (IPS) - The Societe Nigerienne des Eaux (SNE), Niger's water company, is being sued because hundreds of children in Tibiri, 720 kilometres from Niger's capital, Niamey, were poisoned by grossly elevated rates of fluoride in the town's water.
The children, ranging in age from 15 months to 14 years, contracted skeletal fluorosis, a disease which causes deformities of the bones, according to medical sources.
The children suffer symptoms ranging from stiffness of the joints, arthritic-like symptoms and chronic joint pain, to calcification of the vertebral column, crippling spine and joint deformities, muscle wasting, and neurological defects. Mottling of the teeth is a less serious form of the disease that comes from ingesting lower levels of fluoride (dental fluorosis).
According to Dr. Moussa Koini, who has written a medical dissertation on the topic, the disease is caused by drinking water containing too much fluoride.
Water samples taken in Tibiri from SNE facilities show that the water contains 4.77 to 6.6 milligrams per litre, instead of the maximum 1.5 milligrams recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Out of the 425 recorded cases of children with fluorosis in Tibiri, there are 262 boys and 162 girls, a proportion of 61.79 to 38.21 percent. The age bracket most affected is the three to seven-year-old group. There are 62 three-year-olds and 55 six year olds affected. Sixty-eight percent of the victims are five-year-olds.
According to Dr. Koini, crippling skeletal fluorosis affects mostly children. There have been no reported cases of adults in Tibiri contracting the disease. This is due, he said, to the fact that growing children absorb more fluoride than do adults. Adults can become ill with the disease, but they would need to have drunk heavily fluoridated water for more than 20 years.
Skeletal fluorosis is a very disabling disease. Hadjia Kande, a mother whose two youngest children are paralysed, says life is a daily burden.
''Look at my children. Neither one of them can even go to the toilet by himself. I need to provide them with constant attention, so I can't regularly get to my job at the cotton mill.''
One of the children, 13-year-old Salissou, expressed how sad he is. ''I'm afraid to drink water from any source, even well water. Look at the state I'm in, it's really a shame,'' he said.
Although it disables both boys and girls, the disease is even worse for girls as it can have grave consequences for childbearing.
Dr. Koini explained that ''if there are outgrowths around the pelvic area, girls can have difficulty giving birth and may have to have Caesarian sections because of an inability to deliver vaginally,'' he stated.
The origins of the Tibiri tragedy date back to 1983, when the first waterworks was built. The first cases of the illness appeared 10 years later, when many children fell ill.
The Tibiri children's tragedy has produced a hue and cry from the public, especially human rights groups who specialise in these types of issues.
The Nigerien Association for Human Rights (ANDDH) has recruited a panel of lawyers to defend the victim's interests. During a recent press conference, the ANDDH chairperson, Khalid Ikhiri, who is also a chemist at the University of Niamey, emphasised the importance of pursuing this matter through the courts so that the children can receive monetary compensation for the damages they have suffered.
''Fluoride poisoning is fatal. Those children will be disabled for the rest of their lives. Every movement they make is painful, and as a result, they cannot engage in the normal play and other activities of children their age,'' he added.
Ikhiri's intention in filing suit against the SNE is also to end the impunity that the company has always enjoyed. ''The SNE needs to answer for this tragedy since it's their mission to provide the public with pure drinking water,'' he said.
Confronted by the indignation the Tibiri affair has aroused and by press condemnations, the director of the SNE, Seyni Salou, declared that the elevated fluoride rate uncovered in Tibiri's water cannot be pinned on his operation. He said that the standard tests for water purity are regularly performed on all samples.
However, Salou did acknowledge that fluoride is not normally tested for in the standard tests generally performed on drinking water. ''There is rarely a high rate of fluoride in naturally occurring sources. The case of Tibiri is an exception.''
Salou recalls that drilling for water in Tibiri's substratum took place in 1983 by the Water Office. The SNE did not yet exist at that time.
''At the time this operation was turned over to us, nowhere was it ever mentioned in the technical documents that there was fluoride in the water.''
''Naturally, we continued to distribute water until the health services advised us in 1988 that there was an outbreak of bony lesions among Tibiri's children. We did every possible analysis of the water, even the most farfetched, and finally figured out that the tap water contained a great deal of naturally occurring fluoride,'' Salou stated.
The SNE director believes that more studies still need to be done to be sure that the only cause of the problem is the fluoride. He thinks that the evidence is not yet conclusive. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the ANDDH is in its rights to pursue a suit since the laws of Niger allow for it.
More than compensation for the victims, the provision of healthy water for Tibiri's citizens is today's priority. The SNE has confirmed that they have taken steps to bring down the fluoride level to 1.6 milligrams per litre.
Salou indicated that there are permanent changes to be made. Among them is a new water project in the neighbouring town of Maradi. The technical studies have already taken place with help from the Chinese, and work on the new supply project is expected to begin in February 2001.
''Bringing in water from Maradi is the only possible solution because there is fluoride even in Tibiri's groundwater,'' Salou added.
The government has asked Niger's development partners, most notably UNICEF, to provide assistance to the victims. UNICEF says that a Finnish organisation is ready to finance a community assistance project for Tibiri's children.
The goal of this project, which should begin in the first quarter of 2001, is to provide therapeutic assistance to the sick children, which will be based on nutritional remedies, physical rehabilitation, and orthopaedic correction.
Salmeye Bebert, the director of child welfare, added that the project will help research the exact scope of the disease and will determine the source of pollution of Tibiri's water.
Niger's infant mortality rate of 274 per 1,000 in 1998 was one of the highest in the world.
Fluoridation Gets Flushed on Election Day
NEW YORK
Nov. 12, 2001
PRNewswire
The following press release was issued today by the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation:
Voters on November 6, 2001, rejected fluoridation in several U.S. cities despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by fluoridation proponents in public relations campaigns. This adds to a growing list of cities that rallied against adding the claimed cavity-fighting fluoride to their water supplies.
According to newspaper accounts:
* On election day, Worcester, Massachusetts, residents renounced fluoridation for the fifth time since the 1950's. Fluoridation proponents refused to debate but spent $400,000 trying to win this referendum. The victorious opposition spent only $5,196.
* Modesto, California, citizens rejected fluoridation for the second time, shunning a $1 million grant offered by Fluoridation 2000, a statewide group, to cover the cost of fluoridation equipment. Fluoridation proponents outspent opponents by over 10 to l.
* Flagstaff's, Arizona, electorate decisively turned down fluoridation for the third time via mail-in ballots.
* Sixty two percent of Sutherlin, Oregon, voted against fluoridation on election day.
* In Gilbert, Arizona, opponents of fluoridation, inspired by these victories, plan to attack fluoridation again, which is slated to start in Gilbert at the end of the month.
"People who study the issue, themselves, find out fluoridation's health risks far exceed any possible benefits and deprives individuals of their choice to be medicated," says Paul Connett, Ph.D., Coordinator, Fluoride Action Network and Professor of Chemistry, St. Lawrence University, N.Y. "If your community fluoridates and you want it stopped, call us. We can help you."
Some other places defeating fluoridation this year:
* January 2001 -- Willamina, Oregon, City Council says "no" to fluoride.
* March 2001 -- Norridgewock, Maine, votes down fluoridation.
* April 2001 -- City residents of McPherson, Kansas, rejected a fluoridation proposal by a nearly 5-to-1 ratio. It was their third vote against fluoridation.
* May 2001 -- Brewster, Massachusetts, said no thanks to fluoride in the town's water systems.
* May 200l -- Harper, Kansas, citizens successfully petitioned against fluoridation.
* June 2001 -- Eureka Springs, Arkansas, city officials followed water customers' advice and rejected fluoridation.
* August 2001 -- Woods Cross, Utah, City Council said no thanks to fluoridation after a citizens' group presented them with a petition to opt out of a countywide fluoridation plan.
* September 2001 -- Goldendale, Washington, council members unanimously rejected any proposal to add fluoride to the city's water supply.
* October 2001 -- Centerville, Utah, City Council decided against fluoridation.
* October 2001 -- White Salmon, Washington, City Council rejected fluoridation.
In other countries:
* March 2001 -- Japan's Assembly of Kanra-machi, Gunma Prefecture, rejected a fluoridation proposal.
* April 2001, Onehunga, New Zealand, voted two to one against fluoridation.
* October 2001 -- Voters in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, ended 40 years of fluoridation.
On election day, 2000, 14 communities voted down fluoridation.
SOURCE New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
CO: New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
ST: New York
IN: HEA
SU: LEG
11/12/2001 08:59 EST
Dentists to sue over continued flouridation of drinking water
By Fionnuala Quinlan
October 22, 2001
The Irish Examiner
A GROUP of Irish dentists are to sue the Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, for continuing to fluoridate drinking water.
The dentists, who are breaking ranks with the Irish Dental Association, plan to lodge papers with the High Court after handing a letter of protest into the Dáil on Friday.
The move comes as the Forum on Fluoridation - set up by the minister to examine both sides of the fluoride argument - completes its report, due to be published by the end of the month. The forum was branded a “rubber-stamping exercise” by the dentists planning to sue the Government.
The group of 20 - Irish Dentists Opposing Fluoridation - maintain that health authorities have not fulfilled their obligation under the 1960 Health Act to carry out regular surveys into the health effects of fluoridation.
Spokesman Dr Don MacCauley said the department had never carried out a comprehensive survey, although international research has linked fluoridation to cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, hip fractures and thyroid disorders. A study published in American medical journal NeuroToxicity found that fluoride exposure could produce lower IQ levels in children.
Up to 50% of Dr MacCauley’s teenage patients have dental fluorisis - which has been linked to fluoridation - which creates white spots or lines on teeth and causes tooth enamel to chip, he said.
The agent used, hydrofluosilic acid, is a waste component of the fertiliser industry and contains traces of chromium, mercury, arsenic and lead, according to Dr MacCauley.
Ireland is now the only country in Europe to insist that drinking water be fluoridated, although nine county councils, two corporations and seven urban district councils have voted to end fluoridation.
Dr MacCauley said the group opposed fluoridation because medication is being administered without consent, the public has not been fully informed of the risks and side effects and fluoridation causes dental fluorisis.
Kildare-based GP Andrew Rynne is taking a separate case against the Government and the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) on the grounds that, although fluoride is a medicine, it is not licensed by the IMB.
A Health Department spokeswoman said all the issues raised by Dr MacCauley had been covered by the Forum on Water Fluoridation. However, she declined to comment on the contents of the report in advance of its publication.
Utah a national leader by not fluoridating
Written by David W. Christopher M.H.
The Daily Herald
Provo, Ut.
Sunday, June 4, 2000
Utahns consistently reject fluoride because we cut through the enormous endorsements and weigh the facts. We are not behind the times, but ahead of the 60 cities that bucked the system and rejected fluoride in the 1990's. We're unique because we vote. Most cities are fluoridated by executive order.
The task of unmasking this fluoride farce is monumental. Utah being the least fluoridated state is pivotal. If we can withstand the onslaught of federal, state, industrial, and of course medical pressure, Utah can send a clear message to Washington that like Europe and the majority of the world we will not be a part of the biggest hoax perpetrated on America since it's inception. One lemming bucking the crowd will be noticed by other States who then might finally call for congressional hearings ferreting out the perpetrators of this insidious practice of dumping toxic waste into our drinking water under an EPA loophole.
Is fluoride toxic? Science shows fluoride is more toxic than lead (Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products-1984) The majority of fluoride is captured into ponds from EPA required smokestack scrubbers and sold untreated to municipalities. The technical name is fluorosilicic acid, and yes it is a toxic waste that can totally dissolve any cement barriers.
Is fluoride a cumulative toxin? Of course it is; that's how it's supposed to work. It attaches to the calcium in bones. That is why dentists apply it to your teeth. However, when you drink it in water it enters the blood stream and attaches to the first bones it comes in contact with. Does fluoride cause hip fractures? Yes. Hip fractures were caused inadvertently in a study designed to prove fluoride prevented osteoporosis. In the trials elderly women were given 75 mg. per day of sodium fluoride and compared to a control group. The study ended abruptly with the horrifying discovery that fluoride caused these fractures. In light of this study another study looked at low levels of fluoride in drinking water at the optimal level of 1 ppm. Hip fractures were 27% higher in women and 41% higher in men living in Brigham City, the largest fluoridated community in Utah, compared to non-fluoridated Logan and Cedar City. These studies were verified in five additional studies including the French study (JAMA 1995; 273:775) that showed an 86% increase in hip fractures in fluoridated communities. Additionally, Toronto which has been fluoridated for 35 years has twice the hip fractures as Quebec which has never been fluoridated.
Is fluoride absolutely safe? Of course not! There are more than 500 peer reviewed studies documenting adverse effects of fluoride ranging from cancer to brain damage. Tragically all of these studies will be dismissed as non conclusive by a medical system which has a predetermined mind set that fluoride is safe and effective.
Should we vote on it? By the initiative process, yes. If they can't get enough signatures? Then no, and quit wasting our time. How many times? I guess until they join our side!
David Christopher
Spanish Fork, Utah
Prominent researcher apologizes for pushing fluoride
By Barry Forbes,
The Tribune, Mesa, AZ
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Reproduced with permission
"Why'd you do it, Doc? Why'd you toss the fluoride folks overboard?"
I had just tracked down Dr. Hardy Limeback B.SC., Ph.D. m Biochemistry, D.D.S., head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry for the University of Toronto, and president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research. (Whew.)
Dr. Limeback is Canada's leading fluoride authority and, until recently, the country's primary promoter of the controversial additive. In a surprising newsmaker interview this past April; Dr. Limeback announced a dramatic change of heart. "Children under three should never use fluoridated toothpaste," he counseled. "Or drink fluoridated water. And baby formula must never be made up using Toronto tap water. Never."
Why, I wondered? What could have caused such a powerful paradigm shift?
"It's been building up for a couple of years," Limeback told me during a recent telephone interview. "But certainly the crowning blow was the realization that we have been dumping contaminated fluoride into water reservoirs for half a century. The vast majority of all fluoride additives come from Tampa Bay, Florida smokestack scrubbers. The additives are a toxic byproduct of the super-phosphate fertilizer industry."
"Tragically," he continued, "that means we're not just dumping toxic fluoride into our drinking water. We're also exposing innocent, unsuspecting people to deadly elements of lead, arsenic and radium, all of them carcinogenic. Because of the cumulative properties of toxins, the detrimental effects on human health are catastrophic." A recent study at the University of Toronto confirmed Dr. Limeback's worst fears. "Residents of cities that fluoridate have double the fluoride in the hip bones vis-à-vis the balance of the Population. Worse, we discovered that fluoride is actually altering the basic architecture of human bones."
Skeletal flourish is a debilitating condition that occurs when fluoride accumulates in bones, making them extremely weak and brittle. The earliest symptoms?
"Mottled and brittle teeth," Dr. Limeback told me. "In Canada we are now spending more money treating dental fluorosis than we do treating cavities. That includes my own practice."
One of the most obvious living experiments today, Dr. Limeback believes, is a proof-positive comparison between any two Canadian cities. "Here in Toronto we've been fluoridating for 36 years. Yet Vancouver-which has never fluoridated-has a cavity rate lower than Toronto's." And, he pointed out, "cavity rates are low all across the industrialized world including Europe, which is 98% fluoride free. Low because of improved standards of living, less refined sugar, regular dental checkups, flossing and frequent brushing. Now less than 2 cavities per child Canada-wide,' he said.
"I don't get it, Doc. Last month, theca Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ran a puff piece all across America saying the stuff was better than sliced bread. What's the story?"
"Unfortunately," he replied, "the CDC is basing its position on data that is 50 years old, and questionable at best. Absolutely no one has done research on fluorosilicates, which is the junk they're dumping into the drinking water."
"On the other hand," he added, "the evidence against systemic fluoride intake continues to pour in."
"But Doc, the dentists"
"... have absolutely no training in toxicity," he stated firmly. "Your well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of misinformation from public health and the dental association. Me, too. Unfortunately, we were wrong."
Last week, Dr. Hardy Limeback addressed his faculty and students at the University of Toronto, Department of Dentistry. In a poignant, memorable meeting, he apologized to those gathered before him.
"Speaking as the head of preventive dentistry, I told them that I had unintentionally mislead my colleagues and my students. For-the past 15 years, I had refused to study the toxicology information that is readily available to anyone. Poisoning our children was the furthest thing from my mind."
"The truth," he confessed to me, "was a bitter pill to swallow. But swallow it I did."
South of the border, the paradigm shift has yet to dawn. After half a century of delusion, the CDC, American Dental Association and Public Health stubbornly and skillfully continue to manipulate public opinion in favor of fluoridation.
Meantime, study after study is delivering the death knell of the deadly toxin. Sure, fluoridation will be around for a long time yet, but ultimately its supporters need to ready the life rafts. The poisonous waters of doubt and confusion are bound to get choppier.
"Are lawsuits inevitable?" I asked the good doctor. "Remember tobacco," was his short, succinct reply.
Welcome, Dr. Hardy Limeback to the far side of the fluoride equation.
It's lonely over here, but in our society loneliness and truth frequently travel hand m hand.
Thank you for the undeniable courage of your convictions.
This section includes a few Newspaper Articles on the topic of Fluoridation. One is from our own Master Herbalist, David Christopher.
This is a recent article that clearly explains why the Salt Lake and Davis County officials in Utah want to rid themselves of any and all liability.
Hundreds of Children Poisoned by Tap Water
By Saidou Arji
14/01/2001
Inter Press Service
NIAMEY, Jan 14 (IPS) - The Societe Nigerienne des Eaux (SNE), Niger's water company, is being sued because hundreds of children in Tibiri, 720 kilometres from Niger's capital, Niamey, were poisoned by grossly elevated rates of fluoride in the town's water.
The children, ranging in age from 15 months to 14 years, contracted skeletal fluorosis, a disease which causes deformities of the bones, according to medical sources.
The children suffer symptoms ranging from stiffness of the joints, arthritic-like symptoms and chronic joint pain, to calcification of the vertebral column, crippling spine and joint deformities, muscle wasting, and neurological defects. Mottling of the teeth is a less serious form of the disease that comes from ingesting lower levels of fluoride (dental fluorosis).
According to Dr. Moussa Koini, who has written a medical dissertation on the topic, the disease is caused by drinking water containing too much fluoride.
Water samples taken in Tibiri from SNE facilities show that the water contains 4.77 to 6.6 milligrams per litre, instead of the maximum 1.5 milligrams recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Out of the 425 recorded cases of children with fluorosis in Tibiri, there are 262 boys and 162 girls, a proportion of 61.79 to 38.21 percent. The age bracket most affected is the three to seven-year-old group. There are 62 three-year-olds and 55 six year olds affected. Sixty-eight percent of the victims are five-year-olds.
According to Dr. Koini, crippling skeletal fluorosis affects mostly children. There have been no reported cases of adults in Tibiri contracting the disease. This is due, he said, to the fact that growing children absorb more fluoride than do adults. Adults can become ill with the disease, but they would need to have drunk heavily fluoridated water for more than 20 years.
Skeletal fluorosis is a very disabling disease. Hadjia Kande, a mother whose two youngest children are paralysed, says life is a daily burden.
''Look at my children. Neither one of them can even go to the toilet by himself. I need to provide them with constant attention, so I can't regularly get to my job at the cotton mill.''
One of the children, 13-year-old Salissou, expressed how sad he is. ''I'm afraid to drink water from any source, even well water. Look at the state I'm in, it's really a shame,'' he said.
Although it disables both boys and girls, the disease is even worse for girls as it can have grave consequences for childbearing.
Dr. Koini explained that ''if there are outgrowths around the pelvic area, girls can have difficulty giving birth and may have to have Caesarian sections because of an inability to deliver vaginally,'' he stated.
The origins of the Tibiri tragedy date back to 1983, when the first waterworks was built. The first cases of the illness appeared 10 years later, when many children fell ill.
The Tibiri children's tragedy has produced a hue and cry from the public, especially human rights groups who specialise in these types of issues.
The Nigerien Association for Human Rights (ANDDH) has recruited a panel of lawyers to defend the victim's interests. During a recent press conference, the ANDDH chairperson, Khalid Ikhiri, who is also a chemist at the University of Niamey, emphasised the importance of pursuing this matter through the courts so that the children can receive monetary compensation for the damages they have suffered.
''Fluoride poisoning is fatal. Those children will be disabled for the rest of their lives. Every movement they make is painful, and as a result, they cannot engage in the normal play and other activities of children their age,'' he added.
Ikhiri's intention in filing suit against the SNE is also to end the impunity that the company has always enjoyed. ''The SNE needs to answer for this tragedy since it's their mission to provide the public with pure drinking water,'' he said.
Confronted by the indignation the Tibiri affair has aroused and by press condemnations, the director of the SNE, Seyni Salou, declared that the elevated fluoride rate uncovered in Tibiri's water cannot be pinned on his operation. He said that the standard tests for water purity are regularly performed on all samples.
However, Salou did acknowledge that fluoride is not normally tested for in the standard tests generally performed on drinking water. ''There is rarely a high rate of fluoride in naturally occurring sources. The case of Tibiri is an exception.''
Salou recalls that drilling for water in Tibiri's substratum took place in 1983 by the Water Office. The SNE did not yet exist at that time.
''At the time this operation was turned over to us, nowhere was it ever mentioned in the technical documents that there was fluoride in the water.''
''Naturally, we continued to distribute water until the health services advised us in 1988 that there was an outbreak of bony lesions among Tibiri's children. We did every possible analysis of the water, even the most farfetched, and finally figured out that the tap water contained a great deal of naturally occurring fluoride,'' Salou stated.
The SNE director believes that more studies still need to be done to be sure that the only cause of the problem is the fluoride. He thinks that the evidence is not yet conclusive. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the ANDDH is in its rights to pursue a suit since the laws of Niger allow for it.
More than compensation for the victims, the provision of healthy water for Tibiri's citizens is today's priority. The SNE has confirmed that they have taken steps to bring down the fluoride level to 1.6 milligrams per litre.
Salou indicated that there are permanent changes to be made. Among them is a new water project in the neighbouring town of Maradi. The technical studies have already taken place with help from the Chinese, and work on the new supply project is expected to begin in February 2001.
''Bringing in water from Maradi is the only possible solution because there is fluoride even in Tibiri's groundwater,'' Salou added.
The government has asked Niger's development partners, most notably UNICEF, to provide assistance to the victims. UNICEF says that a Finnish organisation is ready to finance a community assistance project for Tibiri's children.
The goal of this project, which should begin in the first quarter of 2001, is to provide therapeutic assistance to the sick children, which will be based on nutritional remedies, physical rehabilitation, and orthopaedic correction.
Salmeye Bebert, the director of child welfare, added that the project will help research the exact scope of the disease and will determine the source of pollution of Tibiri's water.
Niger's infant mortality rate of 274 per 1,000 in 1998 was one of the highest in the world.
Fluoridation Gets Flushed on Election Day
NEW YORK
Nov. 12, 2001
PRNewswire
The following press release was issued today by the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation:
Voters on November 6, 2001, rejected fluoridation in several U.S. cities despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by fluoridation proponents in public relations campaigns. This adds to a growing list of cities that rallied against adding the claimed cavity-fighting fluoride to their water supplies.
According to newspaper accounts:
* On election day, Worcester, Massachusetts, residents renounced fluoridation for the fifth time since the 1950's. Fluoridation proponents refused to debate but spent $400,000 trying to win this referendum. The victorious opposition spent only $5,196.
* Modesto, California, citizens rejected fluoridation for the second time, shunning a $1 million grant offered by Fluoridation 2000, a statewide group, to cover the cost of fluoridation equipment. Fluoridation proponents outspent opponents by over 10 to l.
* Flagstaff's, Arizona, electorate decisively turned down fluoridation for the third time via mail-in ballots.
* Sixty two percent of Sutherlin, Oregon, voted against fluoridation on election day.
* In Gilbert, Arizona, opponents of fluoridation, inspired by these victories, plan to attack fluoridation again, which is slated to start in Gilbert at the end of the month.
"People who study the issue, themselves, find out fluoridation's health risks far exceed any possible benefits and deprives individuals of their choice to be medicated," says Paul Connett, Ph.D., Coordinator, Fluoride Action Network and Professor of Chemistry, St. Lawrence University, N.Y. "If your community fluoridates and you want it stopped, call us. We can help you."
Some other places defeating fluoridation this year:
* January 2001 -- Willamina, Oregon, City Council says "no" to fluoride.
* March 2001 -- Norridgewock, Maine, votes down fluoridation.
* April 2001 -- City residents of McPherson, Kansas, rejected a fluoridation proposal by a nearly 5-to-1 ratio. It was their third vote against fluoridation.
* May 2001 -- Brewster, Massachusetts, said no thanks to fluoride in the town's water systems.
* May 200l -- Harper, Kansas, citizens successfully petitioned against fluoridation.
* June 2001 -- Eureka Springs, Arkansas, city officials followed water customers' advice and rejected fluoridation.
* August 2001 -- Woods Cross, Utah, City Council said no thanks to fluoridation after a citizens' group presented them with a petition to opt out of a countywide fluoridation plan.
* September 2001 -- Goldendale, Washington, council members unanimously rejected any proposal to add fluoride to the city's water supply.
* October 2001 -- Centerville, Utah, City Council decided against fluoridation.
* October 2001 -- White Salmon, Washington, City Council rejected fluoridation.
In other countries:
* March 2001 -- Japan's Assembly of Kanra-machi, Gunma Prefecture, rejected a fluoridation proposal.
* April 2001, Onehunga, New Zealand, voted two to one against fluoridation.
* October 2001 -- Voters in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, ended 40 years of fluoridation.
On election day, 2000, 14 communities voted down fluoridation.
SOURCE New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
CO: New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
ST: New York
IN: HEA
SU: LEG
11/12/2001 08:59 EST
Dentists to sue over continued flouridation of drinking water
By Fionnuala Quinlan
October 22, 2001
The Irish Examiner
A GROUP of Irish dentists are to sue the Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, for continuing to fluoridate drinking water.
The dentists, who are breaking ranks with the Irish Dental Association, plan to lodge papers with the High Court after handing a letter of protest into the Dáil on Friday.
The move comes as the Forum on Fluoridation - set up by the minister to examine both sides of the fluoride argument - completes its report, due to be published by the end of the month. The forum was branded a “rubber-stamping exercise” by the dentists planning to sue the Government.
The group of 20 - Irish Dentists Opposing Fluoridation - maintain that health authorities have not fulfilled their obligation under the 1960 Health Act to carry out regular surveys into the health effects of fluoridation.
Spokesman Dr Don MacCauley said the department had never carried out a comprehensive survey, although international research has linked fluoridation to cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, hip fractures and thyroid disorders. A study published in American medical journal NeuroToxicity found that fluoride exposure could produce lower IQ levels in children.
Up to 50% of Dr MacCauley’s teenage patients have dental fluorisis - which has been linked to fluoridation - which creates white spots or lines on teeth and causes tooth enamel to chip, he said.
The agent used, hydrofluosilic acid, is a waste component of the fertiliser industry and contains traces of chromium, mercury, arsenic and lead, according to Dr MacCauley.
Ireland is now the only country in Europe to insist that drinking water be fluoridated, although nine county councils, two corporations and seven urban district councils have voted to end fluoridation.
Dr MacCauley said the group opposed fluoridation because medication is being administered without consent, the public has not been fully informed of the risks and side effects and fluoridation causes dental fluorisis.
Kildare-based GP Andrew Rynne is taking a separate case against the Government and the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) on the grounds that, although fluoride is a medicine, it is not licensed by the IMB.
A Health Department spokeswoman said all the issues raised by Dr MacCauley had been covered by the Forum on Water Fluoridation. However, she declined to comment on the contents of the report in advance of its publication.
Utah a national leader by not fluoridating
Written by David W. Christopher M.H.
The Daily Herald
Provo, Ut.
Sunday, June 4, 2000
Utahns consistently reject fluoride because we cut through the enormous endorsements and weigh the facts. We are not behind the times, but ahead of the 60 cities that bucked the system and rejected fluoride in the 1990's. We're unique because we vote. Most cities are fluoridated by executive order.
The task of unmasking this fluoride farce is monumental. Utah being the least fluoridated state is pivotal. If we can withstand the onslaught of federal, state, industrial, and of course medical pressure, Utah can send a clear message to Washington that like Europe and the majority of the world we will not be a part of the biggest hoax perpetrated on America since it's inception. One lemming bucking the crowd will be noticed by other States who then might finally call for congressional hearings ferreting out the perpetrators of this insidious practice of dumping toxic waste into our drinking water under an EPA loophole.
Is fluoride toxic? Science shows fluoride is more toxic than lead (Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products-1984) The majority of fluoride is captured into ponds from EPA required smokestack scrubbers and sold untreated to municipalities. The technical name is fluorosilicic acid, and yes it is a toxic waste that can totally dissolve any cement barriers.
Is fluoride a cumulative toxin? Of course it is; that's how it's supposed to work. It attaches to the calcium in bones. That is why dentists apply it to your teeth. However, when you drink it in water it enters the blood stream and attaches to the first bones it comes in contact with. Does fluoride cause hip fractures? Yes. Hip fractures were caused inadvertently in a study designed to prove fluoride prevented osteoporosis. In the trials elderly women were given 75 mg. per day of sodium fluoride and compared to a control group. The study ended abruptly with the horrifying discovery that fluoride caused these fractures. In light of this study another study looked at low levels of fluoride in drinking water at the optimal level of 1 ppm. Hip fractures were 27% higher in women and 41% higher in men living in Brigham City, the largest fluoridated community in Utah, compared to non-fluoridated Logan and Cedar City. These studies were verified in five additional studies including the French study (JAMA 1995; 273:775) that showed an 86% increase in hip fractures in fluoridated communities. Additionally, Toronto which has been fluoridated for 35 years has twice the hip fractures as Quebec which has never been fluoridated.
Is fluoride absolutely safe? Of course not! There are more than 500 peer reviewed studies documenting adverse effects of fluoride ranging from cancer to brain damage. Tragically all of these studies will be dismissed as non conclusive by a medical system which has a predetermined mind set that fluoride is safe and effective.
Should we vote on it? By the initiative process, yes. If they can't get enough signatures? Then no, and quit wasting our time. How many times? I guess until they join our side!
David Christopher
Spanish Fork, Utah
Prominent researcher apologizes for pushing fluoride
By Barry Forbes,
The Tribune, Mesa, AZ
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Reproduced with permission
"Why'd you do it, Doc? Why'd you toss the fluoride folks overboard?"
I had just tracked down Dr. Hardy Limeback B.SC., Ph.D. m Biochemistry, D.D.S., head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry for the University of Toronto, and president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research. (Whew.)
Dr. Limeback is Canada's leading fluoride authority and, until recently, the country's primary promoter of the controversial additive. In a surprising newsmaker interview this past April; Dr. Limeback announced a dramatic change of heart. "Children under three should never use fluoridated toothpaste," he counseled. "Or drink fluoridated water. And baby formula must never be made up using Toronto tap water. Never."
Why, I wondered? What could have caused such a powerful paradigm shift?
"It's been building up for a couple of years," Limeback told me during a recent telephone interview. "But certainly the crowning blow was the realization that we have been dumping contaminated fluoride into water reservoirs for half a century. The vast majority of all fluoride additives come from Tampa Bay, Florida smokestack scrubbers. The additives are a toxic byproduct of the super-phosphate fertilizer industry."
"Tragically," he continued, "that means we're not just dumping toxic fluoride into our drinking water. We're also exposing innocent, unsuspecting people to deadly elements of lead, arsenic and radium, all of them carcinogenic. Because of the cumulative properties of toxins, the detrimental effects on human health are catastrophic." A recent study at the University of Toronto confirmed Dr. Limeback's worst fears. "Residents of cities that fluoridate have double the fluoride in the hip bones vis-à-vis the balance of the Population. Worse, we discovered that fluoride is actually altering the basic architecture of human bones."
Skeletal flourish is a debilitating condition that occurs when fluoride accumulates in bones, making them extremely weak and brittle. The earliest symptoms?
"Mottled and brittle teeth," Dr. Limeback told me. "In Canada we are now spending more money treating dental fluorosis than we do treating cavities. That includes my own practice."
One of the most obvious living experiments today, Dr. Limeback believes, is a proof-positive comparison between any two Canadian cities. "Here in Toronto we've been fluoridating for 36 years. Yet Vancouver-which has never fluoridated-has a cavity rate lower than Toronto's." And, he pointed out, "cavity rates are low all across the industrialized world including Europe, which is 98% fluoride free. Low because of improved standards of living, less refined sugar, regular dental checkups, flossing and frequent brushing. Now less than 2 cavities per child Canada-wide,' he said.
"I don't get it, Doc. Last month, theca Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ran a puff piece all across America saying the stuff was better than sliced bread. What's the story?"
"Unfortunately," he replied, "the CDC is basing its position on data that is 50 years old, and questionable at best. Absolutely no one has done research on fluorosilicates, which is the junk they're dumping into the drinking water."
"On the other hand," he added, "the evidence against systemic fluoride intake continues to pour in."
"But Doc, the dentists"
"... have absolutely no training in toxicity," he stated firmly. "Your well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of misinformation from public health and the dental association. Me, too. Unfortunately, we were wrong."
Last week, Dr. Hardy Limeback addressed his faculty and students at the University of Toronto, Department of Dentistry. In a poignant, memorable meeting, he apologized to those gathered before him.
"Speaking as the head of preventive dentistry, I told them that I had unintentionally mislead my colleagues and my students. For-the past 15 years, I had refused to study the toxicology information that is readily available to anyone. Poisoning our children was the furthest thing from my mind."
"The truth," he confessed to me, "was a bitter pill to swallow. But swallow it I did."
South of the border, the paradigm shift has yet to dawn. After half a century of delusion, the CDC, American Dental Association and Public Health stubbornly and skillfully continue to manipulate public opinion in favor of fluoridation.
Meantime, study after study is delivering the death knell of the deadly toxin. Sure, fluoridation will be around for a long time yet, but ultimately its supporters need to ready the life rafts. The poisonous waters of doubt and confusion are bound to get choppier.
"Are lawsuits inevitable?" I asked the good doctor. "Remember tobacco," was his short, succinct reply.
Welcome, Dr. Hardy Limeback to the far side of the fluoride equation.
It's lonely over here, but in our society loneliness and truth frequently travel hand m hand.
Thank you for the undeniable courage of your convictions.
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