FAN Bulletin 1072: Letter from the Mayor of Selmer
FAN Bulletin 1072: Letter from the Mayor of Selmer
May 11, 2009
Below we have printed in full a letter from David Robinson, the mayor of Selmer, Tennessee, to Governor Phil Bredeson. It is a brilliant letter. What it does is to jump over the middlemen: the state health departments which act like robots when it comes to health policies directed by the US Public Health Services. State health departments are staffed by people who obey orders - particularly when it comes to the state dental directors who follow two chains of command, one from the CDC and the other from the ADA.
If we are ever to get the US to abandon fluoridation it will have to come from changes at the two ends of the chain of command, not from the middle: 1) the rank and file dentists, too busy to read the literature and 2) the highest level of government, either the Governors of states, or the President of the United States. Ultimately, it is these people at the top of the political system who can tell the health agencies to do an HONEST job. Particularly, the CDC.
While we wait for a magic bullet of leadership which insists on integrity from the bodies that are supposed to protect our health, we are left with the slow grind of educating our local doctors, dentists and other health professionals. Such education is supported with the twin barrels of our campaign: the new 29-minute DVD "Professional Perspectives on Fluoridation" and the Professionals' Statement calling for an end to fluoridation worldwide.
We know that there are many dentists and doctors out there who are opposed to fluoridation but they daren't speak out for fear of reprisals from their colleagues and their professional bodies. We have to give them the courage to speak out. Please ask them this question: What kind of country - or, what kind of profession is it - that will not allow people to speak their mind freely on any practice - let alone a practice which seeks to force a known toxic substance on every man, woman and child in the land - every day, with every glass of water they drink, regardless of whether they want to or not and regardless of how much study the individual has put into this matter?
When professionals give into the kind of pressures exerted upon them by the ADA and CDC to toe the line on such things, they are not only letting themselves down but they are letting their profession down. For doctors their oath is "First, do no harm." We say, first read and study the NRC report before you tell your patients that this practice is safe!
Remember: the great moments in history do not begin when everyone says "yes" but when a few people have the courage to say "no."
So David Robinson, thank you for your brilliant letter, and thank you for the having the courage to say "no."
And, thanks to all of you who are getting the DVD out there - for making copies - and for getting them on your local cable public access TV channel, like Dr. Jim Reeves in Lafayette, Louisiana and Jeanette Bajorek from Sacramento, California.
Paul Connett
THE LETTER FROM SELMER
PDF copy and the attachments
April 23, 2009
From: David Robinson, Mayor of Selmer, Tennessee
To: Governor Phil Bredesen,Tennessee State Capitol, Nashville, TN
Re: Complaint; Request for action; Deficiency in response from Tennessee Department of Health
Governor Bredesen,
I am writing this letter, in the form of a complaint and request for action, to your office because of the distress that I have experienced, and I presume that other community officials may also have experienced, when confronted with obtaining factual information from the Tennessee Department of Health concerning specific details pertaining to fluoridation chemicals and the duties surrounding on-going fluoridation programs.
The Town of Selmer has added fluoridation chemicals to our public water system since 1973 and taken for granted that the continued endorsement and active encouragement by the Tennessee Department of Health, for such a practice, is founded on a diligence in fact-finding that is worthy of the reliance that a small community such as ours gives to our State agency in matters of specialized knowledge.
However, in the April 3, 2009 reply to the Town of Selmer's Letter of Inquiry of March 6, 2009, the Tennessee Department of Health ignored any official courtesy to respond to specific questions, and shamefully abandoned all respect for our desire for facts rather than rhetoric or unsupportable assurances.
For someone reading the Department's reply, without any knowledge of the questions posed, there might be some consideration for the magnitude of the 22-page reply.
And there may even be some sense of appreciation for the charts that were copied from the National Research Council Report on Fluoride (which we already had), that after an hour or so of gleaning, indicates that children will be overdosed with fluoride beyond the EPA's Reference Dose (RfD) for safety (see attachment).
Yet that specific question was asked point blank, and the Department provided no direct response.
As we had already received the Department of Health's endorsement, the Department was asked to respond in the specific, and as a courtesy, to each question in its form and by number, in order to separate endorsement from fact, and provide the Town of Selmer with details that would enhance our capacity to make legislative decisions that are within our authority, rather than the State's or Department's authority, to make.
Of the 33 original questions, with an additional 11 questions submitted by representatives of the black community, only 4 questions were answered directly, with arguably two to four others answered by further deduction, rather than a declaration by the Department.
While the purpose of our Letter of Inquiry was intended to provide our Town with meaningful facts, some of which were directed to the Tennessee Department of Health's own actions, for which no other entity could appropriately reply, this egregious act of subterfuge in throwing up this 22-page smokescreen to fulfill some other agenda is even more unsettling, as it destroys confidence in the Department's credibility for information concerning other issues upon which we have relied and hope to rely on in the future.
I have posted on the Town of Selmer's web site the original letter of Inquiry, Commissioner Cooper's non-response reply, my letter to Commissioner Cooper informing her of her reply's deficiency, and a request that our Board of Aldermen and the general public read the 22-page reply from the Department, and then reconsider the questions posed and determine what the Department's answer is to each of them.
I invite you to do the same.
I suggest that anyone who approaches our Letter of Inquiry with an attitude of, "Let the facts declare themselves," will be ashamed of the Department's performance.
These were not frivolous questions. Left unanswered were such issues as:
1) Can the Department produce one single chronic toxicological study on the health and behavioral effects of continued use of the hydrofluosilicic acid we inject in our public water supply, with or without contaminants, or not? Yes, or No?
2) Can the Department identify even one population that does not have readily and economically accessible sources of significant ingestible fluoride through processed foods, beverages, and produce, or not? Yes, or No?
3) Does the Department intend to, or has the Department, informed populations identified in government documents as having increased susceptibility to adverse effects of fluoride in our community, or any community for which the Department encourages fluoridation, of the significant fluoride exposures from other-than-water sources? Yes, or No?
4) Does the Department intend to, or had the Department, notified our community, or any community for which the Department encourages fluoridation, of the contraindications and higher risks for adverse effects from fluoride ingestion that are evidenced in scientific literature for those persons with heart disease; kidney disease; thyroid dysfunction; deficiencies in calcium, magnesium, and vitamin C; diabetics; the elderly; infants; children under 6 years of age; those who are lactose intolerant; and those of Black, Native Indian, Hispanic, and Asian descent, or not? Yes, or No?
5) Can the Department provide the true cost of repairing dental fluorosis that the child or parent finds objectionable, and the true cost of removing fluoride for a whole household in order to drink, cook and bathe without further fluoride -- as carbon filtration will not remove fluoride, and distillation and reverse osmosis can not produce enough treated water on demand to shower or bathe -- and identify a provider that can perform to meet the Department's claim, or not? Yes, or No?
6) If no manufacturer of fluoridation chemicals will make a statement that their product will fulfill the claims of safety and effectiveness made by the Department, will the Department make such a claim for a specific product, and indemnify the Town of Selmer from any legal redress for adverse health effects, or not? Yes, or No?
These examples of issues that the Department did not resolve with their padded endorsement in their April 3rd reply are not intended to be a substitute for the exact questions we posed. My community, and I suggest other communities as well, deserve direct answers without the biased rhetoric.
Request for cease and desist
I therefore request that you order the Tennessee Department of Health, Commissioner Susan Cooper, and all Department staff, to cease and desist all endorsement, and active encouragement of fluoridation programs and the addition of any specific fluoridation chemical into public drinking water, until the Department can answer every one of the original questions we have posed directly, without misrepresentation of the intent and details of the questions, nor omissions of fact that are meaningful.
This is not a request that your referee or make any official decision about whether the public policy of fluoridation or its administration with specific chemicals is good or bad, but merely that the Department of Health, over which you have authority, acts with honesty and forthrightness.
I thank you in advance for your willingness to uphold the integrity of the Tennessee Department of Health for the benefit of the entire citizenry, and by extension, your own Office.
I look forward to your earliest reply,
Regards
David Robinson
Mayor, Town of Selmer
cc:
Board of Aldermen
City Attorney
Commissioner Cooper
Attachments:
March 6, 2009 Letter of Inquiry, Mr. Kevin Morris
April 3, 2009 Response for the Tennessee Department of Health
April 23, 2009 Response to Commissioner Cooper
August 20, 2007 Adverse Health Effects from Fluoride in Drinking Water by Kathleen Thiessen, PhD
###
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May 11, 2009
Below we have printed in full a letter from David Robinson, the mayor of Selmer, Tennessee, to Governor Phil Bredeson. It is a brilliant letter. What it does is to jump over the middlemen: the state health departments which act like robots when it comes to health policies directed by the US Public Health Services. State health departments are staffed by people who obey orders - particularly when it comes to the state dental directors who follow two chains of command, one from the CDC and the other from the ADA.
If we are ever to get the US to abandon fluoridation it will have to come from changes at the two ends of the chain of command, not from the middle: 1) the rank and file dentists, too busy to read the literature and 2) the highest level of government, either the Governors of states, or the President of the United States. Ultimately, it is these people at the top of the political system who can tell the health agencies to do an HONEST job. Particularly, the CDC.
While we wait for a magic bullet of leadership which insists on integrity from the bodies that are supposed to protect our health, we are left with the slow grind of educating our local doctors, dentists and other health professionals. Such education is supported with the twin barrels of our campaign: the new 29-minute DVD "Professional Perspectives on Fluoridation" and the Professionals' Statement calling for an end to fluoridation worldwide.
We know that there are many dentists and doctors out there who are opposed to fluoridation but they daren't speak out for fear of reprisals from their colleagues and their professional bodies. We have to give them the courage to speak out. Please ask them this question: What kind of country - or, what kind of profession is it - that will not allow people to speak their mind freely on any practice - let alone a practice which seeks to force a known toxic substance on every man, woman and child in the land - every day, with every glass of water they drink, regardless of whether they want to or not and regardless of how much study the individual has put into this matter?
When professionals give into the kind of pressures exerted upon them by the ADA and CDC to toe the line on such things, they are not only letting themselves down but they are letting their profession down. For doctors their oath is "First, do no harm." We say, first read and study the NRC report before you tell your patients that this practice is safe!
Remember: the great moments in history do not begin when everyone says "yes" but when a few people have the courage to say "no."
So David Robinson, thank you for your brilliant letter, and thank you for the having the courage to say "no."
And, thanks to all of you who are getting the DVD out there - for making copies - and for getting them on your local cable public access TV channel, like Dr. Jim Reeves in Lafayette, Louisiana and Jeanette Bajorek from Sacramento, California.
Paul Connett
THE LETTER FROM SELMER
PDF copy and the attachments
April 23, 2009
From: David Robinson, Mayor of Selmer, Tennessee
To: Governor Phil Bredesen,Tennessee State Capitol, Nashville, TN
Re: Complaint; Request for action; Deficiency in response from Tennessee Department of Health
Governor Bredesen,
I am writing this letter, in the form of a complaint and request for action, to your office because of the distress that I have experienced, and I presume that other community officials may also have experienced, when confronted with obtaining factual information from the Tennessee Department of Health concerning specific details pertaining to fluoridation chemicals and the duties surrounding on-going fluoridation programs.
The Town of Selmer has added fluoridation chemicals to our public water system since 1973 and taken for granted that the continued endorsement and active encouragement by the Tennessee Department of Health, for such a practice, is founded on a diligence in fact-finding that is worthy of the reliance that a small community such as ours gives to our State agency in matters of specialized knowledge.
However, in the April 3, 2009 reply to the Town of Selmer's Letter of Inquiry of March 6, 2009, the Tennessee Department of Health ignored any official courtesy to respond to specific questions, and shamefully abandoned all respect for our desire for facts rather than rhetoric or unsupportable assurances.
For someone reading the Department's reply, without any knowledge of the questions posed, there might be some consideration for the magnitude of the 22-page reply.
And there may even be some sense of appreciation for the charts that were copied from the National Research Council Report on Fluoride (which we already had), that after an hour or so of gleaning, indicates that children will be overdosed with fluoride beyond the EPA's Reference Dose (RfD) for safety (see attachment).
Yet that specific question was asked point blank, and the Department provided no direct response.
As we had already received the Department of Health's endorsement, the Department was asked to respond in the specific, and as a courtesy, to each question in its form and by number, in order to separate endorsement from fact, and provide the Town of Selmer with details that would enhance our capacity to make legislative decisions that are within our authority, rather than the State's or Department's authority, to make.
Of the 33 original questions, with an additional 11 questions submitted by representatives of the black community, only 4 questions were answered directly, with arguably two to four others answered by further deduction, rather than a declaration by the Department.
While the purpose of our Letter of Inquiry was intended to provide our Town with meaningful facts, some of which were directed to the Tennessee Department of Health's own actions, for which no other entity could appropriately reply, this egregious act of subterfuge in throwing up this 22-page smokescreen to fulfill some other agenda is even more unsettling, as it destroys confidence in the Department's credibility for information concerning other issues upon which we have relied and hope to rely on in the future.
I have posted on the Town of Selmer's web site the original letter of Inquiry, Commissioner Cooper's non-response reply, my letter to Commissioner Cooper informing her of her reply's deficiency, and a request that our Board of Aldermen and the general public read the 22-page reply from the Department, and then reconsider the questions posed and determine what the Department's answer is to each of them.
I invite you to do the same.
I suggest that anyone who approaches our Letter of Inquiry with an attitude of, "Let the facts declare themselves," will be ashamed of the Department's performance.
These were not frivolous questions. Left unanswered were such issues as:
1) Can the Department produce one single chronic toxicological study on the health and behavioral effects of continued use of the hydrofluosilicic acid we inject in our public water supply, with or without contaminants, or not? Yes, or No?
2) Can the Department identify even one population that does not have readily and economically accessible sources of significant ingestible fluoride through processed foods, beverages, and produce, or not? Yes, or No?
3) Does the Department intend to, or has the Department, informed populations identified in government documents as having increased susceptibility to adverse effects of fluoride in our community, or any community for which the Department encourages fluoridation, of the significant fluoride exposures from other-than-water sources? Yes, or No?
4) Does the Department intend to, or had the Department, notified our community, or any community for which the Department encourages fluoridation, of the contraindications and higher risks for adverse effects from fluoride ingestion that are evidenced in scientific literature for those persons with heart disease; kidney disease; thyroid dysfunction; deficiencies in calcium, magnesium, and vitamin C; diabetics; the elderly; infants; children under 6 years of age; those who are lactose intolerant; and those of Black, Native Indian, Hispanic, and Asian descent, or not? Yes, or No?
5) Can the Department provide the true cost of repairing dental fluorosis that the child or parent finds objectionable, and the true cost of removing fluoride for a whole household in order to drink, cook and bathe without further fluoride -- as carbon filtration will not remove fluoride, and distillation and reverse osmosis can not produce enough treated water on demand to shower or bathe -- and identify a provider that can perform to meet the Department's claim, or not? Yes, or No?
6) If no manufacturer of fluoridation chemicals will make a statement that their product will fulfill the claims of safety and effectiveness made by the Department, will the Department make such a claim for a specific product, and indemnify the Town of Selmer from any legal redress for adverse health effects, or not? Yes, or No?
These examples of issues that the Department did not resolve with their padded endorsement in their April 3rd reply are not intended to be a substitute for the exact questions we posed. My community, and I suggest other communities as well, deserve direct answers without the biased rhetoric.
Request for cease and desist
I therefore request that you order the Tennessee Department of Health, Commissioner Susan Cooper, and all Department staff, to cease and desist all endorsement, and active encouragement of fluoridation programs and the addition of any specific fluoridation chemical into public drinking water, until the Department can answer every one of the original questions we have posed directly, without misrepresentation of the intent and details of the questions, nor omissions of fact that are meaningful.
This is not a request that your referee or make any official decision about whether the public policy of fluoridation or its administration with specific chemicals is good or bad, but merely that the Department of Health, over which you have authority, acts with honesty and forthrightness.
I thank you in advance for your willingness to uphold the integrity of the Tennessee Department of Health for the benefit of the entire citizenry, and by extension, your own Office.
I look forward to your earliest reply,
Regards
David Robinson
Mayor, Town of Selmer
cc:
Board of Aldermen
City Attorney
Commissioner Cooper
Attachments:
March 6, 2009 Letter of Inquiry, Mr. Kevin Morris
April 3, 2009 Response for the Tennessee Department of Health
April 23, 2009 Response to Commissioner Cooper
August 20, 2007 Adverse Health Effects from Fluoride in Drinking Water by Kathleen Thiessen, PhD
###
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posted by Bill at
4:20 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you, Mayor Robinson, for addressing a concern I've had for decades. There is absolutely no good reason for adding fluoride to our water and it takes away the fundamental right to choosing what goes in my body. I want it out of my water.
By
Neva, at 13 December, 2014
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