In a new short video produced by the Fluoride Action Network, Griffin Cole, DDS–dentist and member of the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology–explains why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should ban all fluoride supplements from the market.

In January 2016, the FDA ordered a manufacturer of fluoride “supplements” to immediately cease producing these drugs because the FDA has never approved them as either safe or effective. FAN’S investigation revealed that the largest pharmacies continue to sell unapproved fluoride drugs, which not only violates the federal prohibition on introducing unapproved drugs into interstate commerce, but violates the laws of at least 17 states which prohibit the sale of any drug not approved by the FDA.

Not only are the nation’s largest pharmacies systemically violating these laws, our investigation found that their pharmacists are providing false information to inquiring customers and concerned parents about the FDA approval status of these drugs.  Listen to our audiotaped conversations with the pharmacists to hear the extent of misinformation being provided.

We have created an online social media campaign targeting one of these negligent pharmacies, and we need your help to get their attention.  Please take a minute to participate in our easy-to-use social media campaign that will allow you to quickly tweet a message to Walgreens, and post a separate message to their Facebook page.  These days, companies are much more responsive to criticism on social media, so the more comments they get, the greater the chance they will pull fluoride from their pharmacies.  Please take action now:

TELL WALGREENS TO STOP SELLING FLUORIDE SUPPLEMENTS

Please also join over 10,000 people who have signed the online petition urging the FDA to end the manufacture and sale of these drugs: https://fluoridealert.org/fda/

Help FAN continue to make educational and influencial videos, as well as work to hold government and corporate actors accountable for their roles in overexposing citizens to fluoride.  Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

Two Big Victories This Week

There were two big fluoride-free campaign victories this week, ending fluoridation for approximately 80,000 people in Australia and the U.S.

Gladstone, Australia – Councilors on the Gladstone Regional Council passed a motion to cease adding fluoride chemicals to the drinking water of more than 73,000 residents.  Councilor Kahn Goodluck introduced the motion after hearing from “a large number of people” in the region that wanted the practice to end, including local campaigners from Gladstone Area Fluoride Free and FAN Australia.  The additive will be phased out over the next 40 days.

Twenty-six Councils (including at least 50 towns) in the state of Queensland, Australia have now REJECTED fluoridation since the state reversed its mandate law in 2012.  These victories are the perfect example of what happens when fluoridation isn’t mandated and citizens are given a choice.

Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee – On Tuesday, the Northwest Utility District Commission in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee voted 6-1 to end fluoridation, which they physically turned off Wednesday morning.  The decision impacts 7,500 residents in Soddy-Daisy, Sale Creek, Falling Water, and Mowbray Mountain.  Councilors felt that fluoride was readily available from toothpaste and mouthwash, and were concerned about the significant corrosion to the water infrastructure caused by the fluoridation chemical and brought to their attention by whistleblowing water employees.

This victory continues the strong trend in Tennessee of communities ending the practice; 13 cities with over 120,000 residents have voted to stop artificial fluoridation since 2010, bringing the percentage of public water supplies in the state with added fluoride down to about 50%. The decision is also likely to influence the upcoming vote in Jonesborough, TN, paving the way for their rejection of the practice.

Paul Connett’s New Zealand Presentation

Last week FAN Senior Consultant Paul Connett, PhD was in New Zealand for a speaking and campaign tour of the country where residents are facing the threat of a fluoridation mandate.  During his visit he made a serious of presentations.  Thanks to Vinny Eastwood, who uploaded the video to YouTube, you can enjoy Connett’s presentation–Water Fluoridation: Poor Practice & Poor Science–from the comfort of your own home.  I encourage you to share this presentation with local decision-makers, neighbors, and community leaders.

WATCH CONNETT’S PRESENTATION

He Said, She Said: Science in Crisis

The next International Fluoride Free Teleconference will be held on Saturday, August 13^th at 5PM (Eastern time-U.S.).  The call will feature social science professor Brian Martin, PhD, who will discuss the battle over “scientific evidence and the struggle for scientific credibility, the exercise of professional power to suppress opponents, and the role corporate interest play in the fluoridation debate.”  Campaigners will learn how to prevail in today’s climate of perpetual scientific controversy.

REGISTER FOR THE AUGUST TELECONFERENCE

Latest Fluoride News

–Port Angeles City Council Delays Vote on Fluoride and Government (Washington)

–Houston City Council to Leave Fluoride In Water Supply (Texas)

–Legal Fees in Fluoride Case Top $90,000 Through May 31 (Alabama)

–Not Debating Fluoride—Just Want Awareness (Alabama)

–Is Water Fluoridation Helpful or Harmful (North Carolina)

–Silver Diamine Fluoride, Not a Complete Solution to Caries Risk (Arkansas)

–Judge Reluctant to Dip Toes into Water on Merits of Fluoride (New Zealand)

–Celebrity Chef’s Wife Suggests Fluoride-Free Toothpaste (Australia)

–Drinking Water Must Be Tested for Fluoride (Tanzania)

-Drinking Water Contaminated in Over 70,000 Villages (India)

–The Truth About Fluoride – Victor Zeines, DDS (New York)

–Topical Fluoride For Adults: Is an Unneeded “Profit Center” Unethical? (U.S.)

For more fluoride related media, please visit FAN’s News Archive.

Sincerely,

Stuart Cooper
Campaign Director
Fluoride Action Network

See all FAN bulletins online

Board members of Soddy-Daisy’s water system are set to vote today on whether to continue their policy of adding fluoride to the city’s water supply.

Several residents have questioned fluoride’s effectiveness and claim it is a health risk. Some of them showed up at last month’s meeting of the board of the North West Utility District, which supplies water to about 7,500 customers in Soddy-Daisy, Falling Water, Mowbray Mountain and Sale Creek, asking that the board stop adding fluoride to the water, despite assurances from several local dentists that fluoride is both safe and effective at preventing cavities.

Some residents claim fluoridation has been linked to health problems and has not been shown to be very effective in stopping cavities.

In a press release, a group called the Soddy Daisy Citizens Against Water Fluoridation said that “while fluoride in drinking water does NOT decrease rates of tooth decay, numerous studies show that these chemicals have a wide array of devastating health effects, as well as environmental and economic concerns.”

Several local dentists who were also at the meeting disagreed.

“Fluoride has been shown over the years to reduce tooth decay rates, and the best across-the-board way for people to get that is through the water system,” said Dr. Brian Schenck, president of the Chattanooga Area Dental Society, in an interview Monday. Schenck told the water system commissioners at their meeting last month he believes they should continue to inject fluoride into the water supply.

Fluoride was not recognized as a tool to fight cavities until the 1940s, when researchers tried to figure out what caused a brown stain on the teeth of people who lived in certain U.S. neighborhoods. They discovered the cause of the stain was a high level of the naturally occurring chemical fluoride in local water supplies. But they also discovered that high levels of the chemical significantly reduced dental cavities.

Health officials launched a nationwide effort to get local water systems to add fluoride to their drinking water and, by 1992, about 56 percent of the nation’s water supply was fluoridated, including 70 percent of all towns of more than 100,000 population. In Tennessee, about 54 percent of the state’s 460 water systems add fluoride to their water, including all of the water systems in the state’s four largest counties, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called the fluoridation of the water supply one of the 10 greatest public health successes of the 20th Century.

CDC researchers noted that reducing cavities also meant fewer people needed expensive dentures and dental care.

“Tooth loss is no longer considered inevitable, and increasingly adults in the United States are retaining most of their teeth for a lifetime,” the CDC noted. “For example, the percentage of persons aged 45-54 years who had lost all their permanent teeth decreased from 20 percent in 1960-1962 to 9.1 percent in 1988-1994.”

From the beginning, fluoridation has had its critics, either those who claim it is a health hazard, or others who saw a government plan to add chemicals to the water supply as a possible conspiracy.

For example, the Soddy-Daisy debate mirrors a similar one last year in Lyerly, Ga.

An online petition being circulated by the anti-fluoride residents in Soddy-Daisy claims the additive “causes cancer, impairs bone strength, impairs IQ, impairs kidneys, impairs thyroid, recedes gums, depresses heart, depresses cell growth and increases infertility.”

“My main concern is the health issue,” said Chiesa Smith, one of the residents opposing the addition of fluoride. “There is recent science showing the danger of fluoride in the body.

“Fertilizer corporations make a profit selling hazardous waste as a ‘safe and beneficial’ additive for teeth,” she said. “We do not enjoy being used as a hazardous waste dump.”

The vast majority of scientists reject those claims.

“Since 1950, opponents of water fluoridation have claimed it increased the risk for cancer, Down syndrome, heart disease, osteoporosis and bone fracture, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, low intelligence, Alzheimer’s disease, allergic reactions, and other health conditions,” CDC researchers said in a report on fluoridation. “The safety and effectiveness of water fluoridation have been re-evaluated frequently, and no credible evidence supports an association between fluoridation and any of these conditions.”

The National Cancer Institute agreed.

“After examining more than 2.2 million cancer death records and 125,000 cancer case records in counties using fluoridated water, the researchers found no indication of increased cancer risk associated with fluoridated drinking water,” researchers concluded.

From the 1950s, some critics have argued that consumers should not be forced to drink fluoridated water, but instead should be able to choose whether to protect their teeth against cavities by choosing toothpaste with fluoride.

“This is the only chemical we put in the water to treat it for medical purposes,” said water system general manager David Collett. “Is it the water company’s responsibility to be medicating with the water?”

Dentists argue that is shortsighted because many people don’t brush their teeth regularly, while fluoridation guarantees everyone will be protected against cavities even if they do nothing.

“The problem is, some children in the community would most likely miss out if the parents were making the decision to get the fluoride elsewhere,” Schenck said. “A tooth cavity cannot be ignored. It would be advantageous to prevent this rather than have to treat it. You’d have much less lost time at work or time at school, and less expense.”

The citizens’ group disagreed, arguing most of the fluoride in the water supply is wasted. Only about one percent of the water supply ends up as drinking water, the group said, while the other 99 percent is used for watering lawns, washing cars or flushing toilets and therefore has no medical impact.

In addition, adding fluoride is costly for the water system.

North West spends about $20,000 annually for fluoride, Collett said. The water system is planning a $9 million expansion and its components will be more expensive if fluoride is added to the water, Collett said.

“It is damaging to the pipes and fittings because it is an acid,” he said.

The seven commissioners are to vote on the issue at their meeting tonight.

See original report

Three months after the idea of removing fluoride from the water supply hit the table in Jonesborough, the public got to add their voices to the mix at the scheduled public hearing on the matter.

The hearing before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen yielded almost 20 speakers out of the group that filled half the Visitors Center Monday night, and some speakers came from as far away as West Tennessee to make their voices heard for the evening. Eight speakers, including several dentists and public health employees, spoke in favor of retaining water fluoridation while 10 speakers stood in favor of discontinuing the additional fluoride from the town’s water supply.

The eight proponents for added fluoride to the water supply cited health benefits, including a decrease in cavities in children, as a reason to keep adding the fluoride to the water supply. Washington County Health Department Director and Jonesborough water customer Tim Carson urged the board members to keep the fluoridated water in the town’s system, listing cost effectiveness in addition to the preventative benefits the additive has for children, especially those who may not be able to have regular dentist visits.

“The mission of the Department of Health … is to protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of the people living in this great state,” he said. “You can certainly help us accomplish this mission by doing one of the most cost-effective things you could ever do to help us protect our most vulnerable citizens — our children.”

Fluoride proponents also pointed to data that shows the benefits of added fluoride. Charles Parker, a dentist for the Washington County Health Department, said that while fluoride doesn’t remove the chance of children getting cavities completely, the added fluoride helps keep cavities at bay for children whose parents may not be able to afford to take them to the dentist. The facts add up, Parker continued, to show that added fluoride has more benefits, and that nixing fluoride from the water supply would cause a drastic rise in tooth decay.

“What fluoride has done for (children) is amazing,” Parker said. “I see kids that haven’t brushed their teeth in four or five years, but thanks to fluoride in the water, it’s prevented them a lot of pain.”

Those opposed to fluoride argued that fluoridating community water takes away their choice in drinking water without the additive. Jonesborough resident and water customer Lucas Gutierrez said that in addition to possible health risks, his concern is that added fluoridation takes away a choice that he said should be left up to the individual.

Several speakers against fluoride echoed Gutierrez’s sentiment, some going further to illustrate their concern of the possible health risks of the added fluoride in the water supply. Jonesborough resident Jay Jarman didn’t dispute the benefits fluoride has for teeth, but added that fluoride in the water supply means the public is ingesting the additive and said he failed to see the benefit in that.

“By putting it into your body, it’s not doing your body any good, it’s not doing your teeth any good,” he said.

With public input in the books, the board will continue its discussion on fluoridation at future BMA meetings before reaching a decision.

END

See also, Jonesborough BMA holds listening session on fluoride in town’s water (WJHL, July 18, 2016).

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