Professionals' Statement Calling For End To To Fluoridation
Here is an excellent strategy "aimed to puncture once and for all the false claim that the only people who are opposed to fluoridation are crazy people practicing junk science. We need to get as many professionals ( medical, dental, scientific and environmental as well as water department officials) to sign this as we possibly can. This list will grow and grow over the coming months. I am confident that as the list grows it will make it easier and easier for those opposed to it (quietly, off the record) to come out and state their opposition in public."
Signers of Professionals' statement "End Water
Fluoridation Now":
Robert Anderson, PhD, New Zealand
Ernesto Burgio, Pediatrician, Vice President, Scientific Committee ISDE
(International Society of Doctors for Environment), Palermo, Italy
Albert W. Burgstahler, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, The
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Co-author with George L. Waldbott, MD,
and H. Lewis McKinney, PhD, of "Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma" (Coronado
Press, 1978) and editor since 1998 of the international quarterly journal
Fluoride, published by the International Society for Fluoride Research (www.fluorideresearch.org).
Noel Campbell, BDSc, LDS, FACNEM, FASID, Visiting Professor, Hope
Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia
Neil J. Carman, PhD, Clean air program director, Sierra Club Lone Star
Chapter, Austin, TX
Robert J. Carton, PhD, former Chief of Environmental Compliance, U.S.
Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, MD and former
president of EPA professionals' union.
Paul Connett, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, St. Lawrence
University, Canton, NY and Executive Director of the Fluoride Action Network.
Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group, Washington, DC
Pat Costner, Science Advisor, GAIA, Science Advisor, IPEN, retired Senior
Scientist, Greenpeace International
Mark Diesendorf, PhD, Director, Sustainability Centre, Sydney, Australia
Lynn Howard Ehrle, MEd, Chair, International Science Oversight Board (a
project of the Organic Consumers Association), Plymouth, MI
Michael F. Dolan, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Geosciences,
UMASS, Amherst, MA USA
Mike Godfrey, MBBS, Tauranga, New Zealand
Dorothy Goldin-Rosenberg, MES, PhD, Toronto, Canada
Robert L. Isaacson, Distinguished Professor, Binghamton University,
Binghamton, NY. Member of the 2006 National Research Council panel which
reviewed the toxicology of fluoride.
Antone G. Jacobson, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cell and
Developmental Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
David Kennedy, DDS, Past President of the International Academy of Oral
Medicine and Toxicology, San Diego, CA
Pam Killeen, co-author of the NY Times bestselling book, The Great
Bird Flu Hoax.
Dan Knapp, PhD, (Sociology) CEO of Urban Ore, Incorporated, a reuse and
recycling business in Berkeley, CA
Stephen M. Koral, DMD, Vice President International Academy of Oral
Medicine and Toxicology, Boulder, CO
Hardy Limeback, PhD, DDS, Assoc. Professor and Head of Preventive
Dentistry, University of Toronto, past president of the Canadian Association for
Dental Research, and Member of the 2006 National Research Council panel which
reviewed the toxicology of fluoride.
Mariann Lloyd-Smith, PhD, (Law) Senior Advisor, National Toxics Network
Inc., East Ballina, NSW Australia
Don Mac Auley, BDS, Dental Surgeon and Chairman of Irish Dentists
Opposing Fluoridation <http://www.idof.net/>,
Ireland
Peter Montague, PhD, Environmental Research Foundation, New Brunswick,
N.J.
Jeffrey Morris, PhD (Economics), Sound Resource Management, Olympia, WA
Alan Muller, Executive Director, Green Delaware, Port Penn, DE
Tohru Murakami DDS, PhD, former President of Japanese Society for
Fluoride Research, former Vice President of Gunma prefectural Dental
Association, Japan.
Bill Osmunson, DDS, MPH,
Robert Pocock, fluoride spokesperson for VOICE for the Irish Environment,
Dublin, Ireland.
Paul G. Rubin, DDS, MIAOMT, Seattle, WA
Ralph Anthony Ryder, Director,
Communities Against Toxics UK, Editor;
TOXCAT, Ellesmere Port, UK
Mageswari Sangaralingam (Masters in Environmental Management), Research
Officer, Consumers Association of Penang, Malaysia.
Bruce Spittle MB ChB DPM FRANZCP, Assistant Editor of the international
quarterly journal Fluoride, published by the International Society for Fluoride
Research, New Zealand
Daniel G. Stockin, MPH, Senior Operations Officer, The Lillie Center,
Inc.
Craig E. Williams, Director: Kentucky Environmental Foundation, Director:
Chemical Weapons Working Group, Recipient: 2006 Goldman Environmental Prize, KY
Mae W. Woo, DDS, Billings, MT
Mag. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Rudolf Ziegelbecker, Graz, Austria
Quotes:
Noel Campbell:
"The risk/benefit ratio based on peer reviewed research is now too high to allow
fluoridation of water."
Bob Isaacson: "The Health of the entire country is at risk as long as
fluoridation of the drinking water remains uncurbed."
Mageswari Sangaralingam: "Fluoridation is mass medication with an
uncontrolled dose, and violates the individual's right to informed consent. We
need to end the harmful practice of water fluoridation in the US and all other
countries which still add fluoride in public drinking water."
Health, Scientific and Environmental
Professionals call for an End to Water Fluoridation
Introduction:
Water fluoridation involves adding
various fluoride chemicals to the public water supply at a concentration of 1
ppm (1 part per million or 1 milligram per liter), ostensibly to fight tooth
decay. 1 ppm may seem small, but it is actually 250 times greater than the level
of fluoride in mother's milk, 0.004 ppm.
Once fluoride is put into the public water supply, the dose cannot be controlled
and it goes to "patients" without their consent, thus violating both medical
ethics and the individual's human rights. It also goes to subsets of the
population that we now know are particularly vulnerable to fluoride's toxic
effects - including the very young, the very old, the infirm, people with poor
kidney function and others with poor nutrition.
While strongly supported by the US public health establishment, most countries
have rejected this practice, including the vast majority of European nations.
They are not willing to force medication on those who do not want it, and they
feel that many health concerns have not been resolved (see
a list of official statements from various countries on this is here).
According to WHO data available online, dental health for 12 year olds in
non-fluoridated countries is as good, if not better, than those countries which
fluoridate.
These observations in countries are duplicated in studies comparing communities
within a country. Since the 1980s there has been an ever growing number of
research articles and reviews which indicate that there is little difference in
tooth decay between communities which are fluoridated and those which are not (Leverett,
1982; Colquhoun, 1984; 1985 and 1987; Diesendorf, 1986; Gray, 1987; Brunelle and
Carlos, 1990; Spencer et al. 1996; deLiefde, 1998; Locker, 1999; Armfield and
Spencer, 2004 and Prizzo et al., 2007). Any minor difference due to fluoride
status is usually dwarfed by the difference in income levels. Poverty is the
major factor related to tooth decay, not lack of fluoride.
Government officials endlessly promote fluoridation while steadfastly refusing
to publicly debate the issue, or provide the scientific evidence to support
their claims.
Professionals' statement:
We the undersigned call for an end to water fluoridation.
SEVEN recent events make action to end this practice urgent.
1. The publication in 2006 of a 500 page review of all relevant health effects
and exposure information on fluoride by a distinguished panel appointed by the
National Research Council.
EPA requested this review to determine
if a new drinking water standard is required. Contrary to almost all media
reports, the NRC report went far beyond concluding that the current
EPA standard (4 ppm) is unsafe and
should be lowered. The report identified numerous systemic health effects which
may be occurring as a result of adding fluoride chemicals to drinking water,
including decreased thyroid function, impaired glucose tolerance (pre-diabetes),
brain cell damage, kidney damage, arthritis (joint inflammation), Alzheimer?s
disease and cancer.
2. The publication in 2004 of the book
"The Fluoride Deception" by award-winning investigative reporter Christopher
Bryson. This meticulously researched
book documents that industrial interests, concerned about liabilities from
fluoride pollution and fluoride's heath effects on workers, played a significant
role in the early promotion of fluoridation in the 1950?s. Bryson also details
the brutal suppression of scientists who have challenged the establishment on
the safety of this practice.
A videotaped interview with Bryson can be accessed on Google
video here.
3. The evidence provided by the
CDC in 2005 that 32% of American children have a condition called dental
fluorosis - a discoloration and mottling of the enamel - caused by fluoride
exposure. Clearly, our children are now being overdosed with fluoride - from
water, swallowed toothpaste and many other sources. Fluoridated water is the
easiest source to eliminate.
4. The American Dental Association's distribution, on November 9, 2006, of an
Advisory to its membership recommending that fluoridated water not be
used in the preparation of infant formula due to the elevated risk of dental
fluorosis. This admission by the ADA that fluoridated water is not
appropriate for infants is reason alone for fluoridation to
be immediately halted.
5. The concession by the
CDC in 1999, and again in 2001, that the predominant benefit of fluoride in
reducing tooth decay is TOPICAL and not SYSTEMIC. In other words, to the
extent fluoride works to reduce or prevent tooth decay, it works from the
outside of the tooth, not from inside the body. Thus, it doesn?t make sense to
drink it and expose the rest of the body to the long term risks of fluoride
ingestion when fluoridated toothpaste is so readily available.
6. The publication in May 2006 of a peer-reviewed, case-controlled study from
Harvard University which showed a 5-7 fold increase in osteosarcoma (a
frequently fatal bone cancer) in young men associated with exposure to
fluoridated water during their 6th, 7th and 8th years (Bassin et al., Cancer
Causes and Control, 2006). This study was surrounded by scandal as Elise
Bassin?s PhD thesis adviser, Professor Chester Douglass, was accused by the
watchdog Environmental Working Group of attempting to suppress these findings
for several years. See video at
http://FluorideAction.net
7. The admission by federal agencies, in response to questions
from a Congressional subcommittee in 1999-2000, that the industrial grade waste
products used to fluoridate over 90% of America's drinking water supplies
(fluorosilicate compounds) have never been subjected to toxicological testing or
FDA approved for human ingestion. See:
http://keepersofthewell.org/
To bring an end to fluoridation:
We call upon Members of Congress to
sponsor and/or support a new Congressional Hearing on Water Fluoridation so that
those in government agencies who continue to support the procedure, particularly
the Oral Health Division of the
CDC, will be compelled to provide the
scientific basis for their ongoing, aggressive promotion of fluoridation with
millions of taxpayer dollars. They must be cross-examined under oath if the
public is ever to fully learn the truth about this unnecessary and harmful
practice.
We call upon local elected officials in fluoridated communities to
exercise due diligence in this matter and read the basic scientific literature
themselves. It is not enough to blindly accept assurances from biased agencies
whose reputations depend on maintaining the status quo and whose employees are
required to promote fluoridation. If you are not confident about claims that
fluoridation is safe and effective, you should not be forcing this practice on
those who don't want it and may be harmed by it.
We call upon members of the media to do a professional job investigating
this issue. Do not assume that the opposition's arguments are invalid because of
the reams of endorsements that promoters use to put your intelligence on hold.
It is irresponsible to just quote the Dr. Strangelove film and a few sentences
from each side. If author Christopher Bryson can spend 10 years researching this
issue, surely other investigative journalists can spend more than 10 minutes
sorting out fact from fiction in this matter.
We call upon State health agencies, at the very least, to use
their health networks to thoroughly publicize, at all levels, the ADA
recommendation that fluoridated water not be used in the preparation of
infant formula.
We call upon medical and dental professionals to get up-to-date on this
issue. Professionals should use their own high level education to look beyond
the outdated blanket endorsements from promoting agencies. Specifically, we call
upon them to review the NRC (2006) report and the other literature cited in the
introduction. (An
alphabetical listing of the full citations can be found here).
We call upon members of environmental and other activist groups to get
involved. In addition to health concerns, fluoridation is "pollution by
dilution" of the ecosystems with tons of industrial waste products each year.
This problem is one that's easy to end -- once we have the political will -- by
just turning off the taps. Getting that political will can be greatly
accelerated by your organization educating its membership as to the newer
developments identified above and by joining in the growing movement to end
fluoridation.
Despite 60 years of fluoridation, tooth decay remains
rampant in many long-fluoridated areas of the US. The untold millions of dollars
that are now spent on equipment, chemicals, monitoring, and promotion of
fluoridation could be much better invested on nutrition education and targeted
dental care for children from low income families who are known to suffer the
greatest amount of tooth decay. The vast majority of other countries have done
this. It is time for the US to recognize that the fluoridation program has
failed to deliver its promise, poses unnecessary risks, and
violates medical ethics and freedom of choice. Fluoridation should be ended
now.
Signed: