September 30, 2015
The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) has delivered a 100-page report to the Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group entitled “Water Fluoridation and Environmental Justice” outlining the dangers posed by this practice to poor families and communities of color. Since 1962 officials at the U.S. Public Health Service have known that Blacks are disproportionately harmed by fluoride with higher rates of dental fluorosis (permanent damage to the enamel) rates compared to Whites. But for over 40 years they hid this information from communities of color.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, FAN discovered that in 2005, 58% of Blacks had dental fluorosis compared to 32% of Whites.
The heart of the problem is that no Federal agency accepts responsibility for the safety of this program. Instead the Division of Oral Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has become a “rogue elephant” blindly promoting fluoridation, denying any harm and failing miserably to provide any warnings to communities of color of their vulnerabilities. This has prompted Civil Rights leaders to call for Congressional hearings.
According to FAN’s director, Paul Connett, PhD, “The situation has become much worse now that it is clear that fluoride is an endocrine disruptor and is neurotoxic. There are 45 studies that fluoride at modest levels lowers IQ in children (www.FluorideAction.net/issues/health/brain ).”
In 2015 the Department of Health & Human Services announced a lowering of the fluoride level in fluoridation programs. However, even at the new level of 0.7 ppm, bottle-fed infants in fluoridated communities receive approximately 100 times more fluoride than a breast-fed infant.
FAN is seeking from the multi-agency group support for 5-step community-based plan (along the lines of programs from Scotland and Denmark), which not only protects teeth, but by emphasizing better nutrition –especially lowered sugar intake - fights obesity and improves the overall health and well-being of children from poor families and communities of color, without forcing them to drink fluoridated water.
As a first step FAN urged the multi-agency group to call upon the EPA’s Office of Water to determine a safe reference dose for fluoride that would protect all children –including the most vulnerable - from a lowered IQ. Such a determination would make adding fluoride to public water unthinkable.
Sign-on to FAN's Submission
If
you are a scientific or public health professional would you please
consider signing your name in support of FAN's submission to the US
Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group?
Below is the current cover page text along with the original signers. If you would like to sign-on, then please email your name, degree, and position to paul@fluoridealert.org
With your help we can ensure FAN's submission and this issue get the attention from the Federal government they deserve.
WATER FLUORIDATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The following commentary was submitted to the U.S. Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group (EJ IWG) on Sept 25, 2015.This commentary was prepared by Neil Carman, PhD, Ellen Connett and Paul Connett, PhD with contributions from other members of the FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK (FAN), including David Kennedy, DDS, Chris Neurath, John Graham (UK) and Tara Blank.
The following individuals and organizations support the sentiments and arguments presented in the Executive Summary and the supporting document:
Audrey Adams, Board member, Washington Action for Safe Water, President, King County Citizens Against Fluoridation, Washington
Kenji Akiniwa, General Secretary, The Japanese Society for Fluoride Research, Japan
Phillip Alexander, Fluoride Free Charlotte, North Carolina
American Environmental Health Science Project, Inc. (AEHSP), Essex Junction, Vermont
Arkansas Citizens For Safe Drinking Water
Cynthia Baghi, MSc, Fluoride Free Bedford, Bedford, UK
James S. Beck, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Medical Biophysics, University of Calgary, Canada
Jane Beck, BSc MBBS, Thames, NZ
Ruth Bednar RHN, RNCP, Muskoka Citizens Opposing Fluoridation, Gravenhurst, Ont., Canada
Tara Blank, PhD, Ridgefield, Washington
Jane Bremmer, Chair, Alliance for a Clean Environment, Western Australia
Pat Buckley, Fluoride Free Wellington, New Zealand
Jeannie Burlsworth, Chairman Secure Arkansas
Mary Byrne, National coordinator, Fluoride Free New Zealand
Stephen Byrne, member of Fluoride Free Water, Ireland
Anna Maria Caldara, author and activist, Bangor, Pennsylvania
Cara L. Campbell, Chair, Ecology Party of Florida
Suzie Canales, Citizens For Environmental Justice, Corpus Christi, Texas
Neil Carman, PhD, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter (for I.D. purposes only), Austin, Texas
Paul Carr, Chairman, Fluoride Free Cumbria, England
Liesa Cianchino, Concerned Residents of Peel to End Fluoridation, Peel, Ontario, CanadaClean Water California
Stuart Cooper, Fluoride Free New Hampshire
Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
Todd M. Davison, Fluoride Free Nebraska
Michael F. Dolan, PhD, Public Notice on Water Fluoridation, Amherst, MassachusettsRev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley, Pastor Emeritus, Providence Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta GA
Michael Finley, Fluoride Free Illinois
Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-founder & President, National Vaccine Information Center
Fluoride Free Thames, Thames, NZ
Fluoride Free Anniston, Anniston, AlabamaFluoride Free Bedford, Bedford, UK
Barbara Gall, Massachusetts
John Graham, UK.
Clint Griess, Safe Water San Francisco and International Fluoride Free TeleconferenceMerilyn Haines, BAppSc, Fluoride Action Network Australia Inc
Crystal Harvey, State coordinator, Arkansas Citizens for Safe Drinking Water
Mary Hilary, Member of Fluoride Free Ireland
Emeritus Professor C. V. Howard, MB. ChB. PhD. FRCPath., Nano Systems BiologyCentre for Molecular Bioscience, University of Ulster, Coleraine, UK
Regina Imburgia, Fluoride Action North Texas, Dallas, Texas
Lynn Jordan, New Zealand Health Professionals Opposing Fluoridation
Charles Keil, PhD, activist, author and music maker, Lakeville, Connecticut
Hilton Kelley, Executive Director, CIDA Inc., 2011 Goldman Prize winner, Port Arthur, Texas
Barry S. Kendler, PhD, FACN, CNS.
David Kennedy, DDS, Fluoride Information Officer for the International Academy of Oral Medicine and ToxicologyKing County Citizens Against Fluoridation, Washington
Carol Kopf, MS, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
Dan Knapp, PhD, sociologist and CEO, Urban Ore, Inc., Berekely, California
Hardy Limeback, PhD, DDS, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto
Stan Litras BDS BSc, convenor Fluoride Information Network for Dentists, NZ
John Lusk, MSc., PhD, President, Citizens Against Fluoridation Inc., Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia
Chuck Matzker, Fluoride Free Framingham, Framingham, Massachusetts
Donna Mayne, Fluoride Free Windsor, Ontario
Howard W. Mielke, PhD, Department of Pharmacology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LouisianaMoms Against Fluoridation
Peter Montague, PhD
Jeffrey Morris, PhD, Environmental Economist, Sound Resource Management, Olympia, Washington
Rick North, Clean Water Oregon
Rae Nadler Olenick, Fluoride Free Austin, Austin, TexasOrganic Consumers Association
Bill Osmunson DDS, MPH
Laura Pressley, PhD, Austin, Texas
Jay Sanders, Clean Water California, San Francisco, California
Nestor B Shapka, BSc, DDS, President of the Canadian Council of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Joan Seeman, Denver, Colorado
Diane Sprules, BSc, MSc., Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada
Daniel Stockin, MPH, The Lillie Center for Energy and Health Studies, Ellijay, Georgia
Eric Turk, PhD
Unifor Durham Regional Environment Council, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
Bridget Eileen Walsh, Denver, Colorado
Joy Warren, BSc. (Hons) Environmental Science, Coordinator of West Midlands Against Fluoridation, UKWashington Action for Safe Water, Washington
Raymond R. White, PhD, City College of San Francisco
Worldwide Alliance to End Water Fluoridation
Sandra Young, MD, Medical advisor, Secure Arkansas
Sincerely,
Stuart Cooper
Campaign Manager,
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