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UK Against Fluoridation

Monday, December 17, 2012

FAN - DECEMBER BULLETIN #17

Before we get to the report from Israel may I encourage everyone to sign a new stop fluoridaiton petition started by Gerald Steel a lawyer from Washington state who has done great work fighting fluoridation at the legal level. The petition is on the AVAAZ.org site which has an elegant way of showing the names and countries of people signing up on a continuous basis. It is hypnotic to watch the names come in from around the world. You can sign on by clicking here. Please pass this along to everyone you can.


Fluoridation Report from Israel

By Miriam Westerman, with assistance from Betsy Ramsey

First let me introduce Betsy Ramsey, she is the daughter of the late Dr. George Waldbott, the leading opponent of fluoridation in the US from the 1950s on. Dr. Waldbott was the leading spirit behind the formation of the International Society for Fluoride Research in 1968 and the first editor of its quarterly journal Fluoride.

Betsy was one of the pioneers in the fight against fluoridation in Israel when fluoridation was introduced in Jerusalem in 1988. She was joined by Toxicologist Loty Zilverman in the Tel Aviv area and over the years I have helped where I can.




Betsy and I were privileged to attend the 26th Conference of the International Society for Fluoride Research in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2005, where we met several members of FAN including Paul, Ellen and Michael Connett, Chris Neurath, as well as Prof. Albert Burgstahler (who co-authored the book, Fluoridation The Great Dilemma with George Waldbott), Dr. Bruce Spittle (author of Fluoride Fatigue) and Dr. Susheela (a leading expert on fluorosis in India). Through participating in this event we were greatly encouraged to press forward with new vigor to win the water fluoridation battle in Israel.

We are grateful for the tremendous assistance FAN has given us over the years, with your sharing of professional articles, videos and peer-reviewed prime research publications. We have translated a good number of these into Hebrew and distributed them widely. As a result many in Israel have become aware of FAN’s excellent web site www.FluorideALERT.org .

I think we can safely say that much of your material has had a real impact on many people here, not only among the professors, doctors, dentists and other staff in the medical profession but also on the Israeli population in general.

We are especially grateful for Dr. Paul Connett’s visit to Israel in 2007. We kept him very busy: he gave lectures in key locations such as the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset), Hadassah Hospital, Givat Ram University, Tel Aviv Municipality and Haifa University.

The Professor in Public Health, Jimmy Krikun, a fellow fighter, commented to me at the Haifa University: “I organized this event for the sake of my grandchildren.” His grateful voice was in sharp contrast to others in the medical establishment that were not happy to have Paul speak in their institutions and in some cases put obstacles in our way.

We translated Paul’s power point presentation into Hebrew and this has also been useful in our educational campaign.

Our other efforts have included circulating important petitions and arranging demonstrations, one of which took place in front of the Knesset and another in front of the Prime Minister’s office. We have also had Christopher Bryson's book, The Fluoride Deception, translated into Hebrew and this has been distributed as widely aspossible.

Our co-workers have spoken out on the radio and on TV. Anti-fluoridation websites have also been started and these often use material from FAN's vast supply of articles and videos that reveal the health dangers of fluoridation.

All this information has been circulated further through hundreds of e-mails sent by concerned citizens to members of the Knesset. As a result a Knesset Health Committee was created in May of last year. The intent of this committee was to look into the whole matter of water fluoridation in Israel. The committee consisted mainly of Health Ministry officials, who strongly favored water fluoridation, but it also included a few of our co-workers, i.e. those who oppose to the law mandating universal water fluoridation in Israel in operation since1998.

These efforts culminated in the formulation of a Law Proposal forbidding fluoridation in Israel, which was raised in the Knesset and which, unfortunately, failed to pass in a very close vote. Sadly, of the 57 Knesset members who initially signed this proposal in a preliminary show of support, 15 later changed their minds in deference to party discipline during the first reading of the proposed law and this killed the proposal.

Now a new, hopeful development has arisen. The former engineer in the Ministry of Health, responsible for establishing the fluoride installations now in use in several locations in Israel, has woken up to the dangers of water fluoridation, and, as a retiree from public office, has presented his case favoring an end to water fluoridation in Israel, to the High Court on November 12, 2012. This could be an historic FLUORIDE CLASS ACTION (see details below). Helping him in this venture is a competent lawyer Dan Ashkenazi provided by the 'Izun Hozer' organization. The result of this action will not be available for another 45 days but we are eagerly waiting the response of the State Attorney.

I very much hope the above report will provide FAN with an adequate answer to your request for a brief history of the battle against water fluoridation in Israel and the contribution FAN has made to this work

Blessings to all citizens who are fighting fluoridation around the world and the best of luck for a successful outcome to FAN's current fundraising campaign aimed at bringing about the final victory in this fight.

Ria (Miriam)

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