Press Release 008

#008 26th April 2001 For immediate release.

JUSTICE SOON FOR CHEMICALLY ABUSED CHILDREN?

On Wednesday, 25th April, 2001, a new report from the Canadian government claimed that fluoridation in water probably does more harm than good.

Author of the report for the Canadian Government, Dr David Locker stated: "No Canadian studies provide evidence that water fluoridation is effective in reducing (tooth) decay in contemporary child populations,"

For over 30 years, the children of Birmingham, UK, have been exposed to a toxic chemical deliberately added to water - usually hexafluorosilicic acid (aka: hydrofluorosilicic acid, and other variations). This undemocratic and totalitarian measure has already been blamed for causing a condition known as dental fluorosis. As a consequence, exposed populations are likely to see large numbers of casualties.

As well as being an extremely toxic and corrosive chemical, hexafluorosilicic acid is also being blamed for increases of lead in children's blood, leading to an increased risk of diminished learning abitlity - amongst other risks.

Hexafluorosilicic acid is also associated with cancer and other neurological dysfunctions, as well as a range of other maladies.

IT IS NOW TIME THAT THE COMMUNITIES EXPOSED TO THIS DANGEROUS TOXIC CHEMICAL, AND IT'S VARIANTS, BE ALLOWED TO DRINK WATER THAT HAS NOT BEEN ADULTERATED BY THIS POISON.

THE MOST AFFECTED POPULATIONS ARE IN THE WEST MIDLANDS AND THE NORTH-EAST OF ENGLAND.

IN THE WEST MIDLANDS, AN OVER 3 MILLION (est.) ARE DRINKING FLUORIDATED WATER. OF THIS NUMBER, APPROXIMATELY, AROUND *1.5 MILLION WILL HAVE DENTAL FLUOROSIS (*based on the findings of the NHS-sponsored scientific review of water fluoridation, 1999-2000)

ENDS.

Canadian study: Stop fluoridation in water

4/25/2001 Big news out of Canada: a new report from the Canadian government claims that fluoridation in water probably does more harm than good. Report author Dr. David Locker, a professor of dentistry at the University of Toronto, suggests that the best solution is to cease fluoridation.

"No Canadian studies provide evidence that water fluoridation is effective in reducing (tooth) decay in contemporary child populations," says Locker, author of the 2001 "Benefits and Risks of Water Fluoridation," prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Health Canada.

He says that current studies support the view that dental fluorosis has increased at a rate of 20-75 percent in communities where the water is fluoridated and by 12-45 percent in communities with non-fluoridated water. Current fluoridation studies are flawed, reports Locker. Fluoride's alleged beneficial effects are topical; ingested fluoride causes fluorosis.

Dental fluorosis -- white spotted, yellow or brown permanently stained and sometimes pitted teeth -- can only be hidden with expensive cosmetic dentistry not usually covered by insurance.

Sodium fluoride and silicofluorides are added to 62 percent of U.S. and 40 percent of Canadian water supplies to mimic the natural calcium-fluoride community water sources like that of the Southwest United States, where researchers, in the early 1900's, found an epidemic of brown-stained teeth that were curiously decay resistant. They assumed that fluoride, which caused the stained teeth, was the cavity fighting agent.

In the late 1940's, officials started adding artificial fluoride to many U.S. drinking waters to improve America's dental health. A 1981 survey hinted they were already on the wrong track. This National Institutes of Health Survey reported that cavities were still lowest in the Southwest region. Thirty years of artificial fluoridation across the U.S. should have leveled off decay rates, but that hasn’t happened.

"We believe the calcium and other well-known bone and teeth building minerals in the water and soils was responsible for lower decay rates -- not the fluoride," says lawyer Paul Beeber, resident, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. "Fluoridation is a huge dangerous mistake.”

According to Beeber, silicofluorides were never tested for safety in humans or animals, either alone or together with other water additives. "Astonishingly, silicofluorides are the fertilizer industry's waste product and contain trace amounts of contaminants such as arsenic, mercury, lead and more,” he says.

Other findings from the Canadian government report include:

Efforts are required to reduce (fluoride) intake among the most vulnerable age groups, children aged 7 months to 4 years..." Data on the effect on health and well-being of the relatively small decrease in caries rates in children and adolescents currently achieved by water fluoridation is non-existent. Water fluoridation, infant formulas, fluoride supplements and fluoride toothpaste are risk factors of dental fluorosis. The simplest way of reducing the prevalence of fluorosis in child populations is to cease to fluoridate community water supplies. In the United States, J. William Hirzy, Ph.D., will testify in Sacramento, CA, today before the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee in support of the California Fluoride Product Quality Control Act – A.B.1565 – on behalf of the union that represents all of the toxicologists, biologists, chemists, physicians and other scientists and professionals at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hirzy is expected to provide background information on the decision by the union of EPA professionals to request a moratorium on all fluoridation based on his testimony before the June 29, 2000, U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Arsenic, Radon and Fluoride.

Citing evidence from the Congressional investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Science in 1999 and 2000 that reveals that no government agency has performed a risk analysis on the specific fluoride-releasing compounds that are used in 90 percent of the nation's fluoridation programs, Hirzy is expected to point out that no fluoride product, including fluoride drops, tablets, and vitamins intended for ingestion for the purpose of controlling tooth decay, has ever been approved for safety and effectiveness by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Myron Coplan, co-author of two studies published in 1999 and December 2000 that evaluated lead levels in the blood of 280,000 children in Massachusetts and 151,000 children in New York, will also provide testimony.

Coplan, a registered professional chemical engineer, and co-author, Roger Masters, Ph.D., head of the Dartmouth Foundation for Neuroscience and Society, were provided a grant from the EPA's Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training and by the Earhart Foundation, which integrates scientific discoveries in neuroscience, environmental chemistry, and human behavior.

Their studies showed a doubling of the incidence of the danger level of 10 micrograms per deciliter of lead in children's blood when silicofluoride and hydrofluosilicic acid (fluoride-releasing compounds) from the phosphate fertilizer industry are present in the public drinking water compared to sodium fluoride or no fluoride additives.

Authored by California Assembly Member Dennis Mountjoy, A.B.1565, requires that the California Department of Health Services only certify those specific fluoride-releasing compounds intended for addition to the public water supply for which a risk assessment by a government agency has been performed, an evaluation of effectiveness for health claims has been approved by the FDA, and assurances that the compound will contain no contaminants that exceed the Public Health Goals for those contaminants.

By Sandy Smith ssmith@verticalnet.com