Australia Daily Telegraph spouting rubbish
Scare tactics: How anti-fluoride activists push their fear mongering on local councils
AS personal pleas go, this was hard to ignore: In September 2013, as Lismore Council was once again debating whether to go ahead with fluoridating the town’s water supply, a local mother wrote an impassioned plea to Mayor Jenny Dowell, begging her not to go ahead.
Fluoride would harm the town’s children, she wrote, because it caused: “dental fluorosis (now recognised as an adverse health effect not merely a cosmetic one) ... skeletal fluorosis … possible neurological damage, including lowered IQ … hypothyroidism, impaired fertility, diabetes and obesity ... impaired immune system functioning.”
And that was just the start.
“We were inundated, I got hundreds of emails, it seemed coordinated, some of the wording was the same and there was a petition with names from all over the world,” Cr Dowell says now.
“It was an orchestrated network, not just locally, and it was quite intimidating,”
The two groups that were most vociferous against Lismore’s fluoridation, she said, were called Queenslanders for Safe Air Food and Water and the Fluoride Action Network.
The same pattern has arisen at other councils considering fluoride. A Sunday Telegraph investigation has demonstrated both groups have inundated councillors with emails, both directly and through residents who quote from their material.
In response to our Bite Back campaign, federal Health Minister Sussan Ley says she will push the states for reform.
BITE BACK: CAMPAIGN TO GET FLUORIDE IN ALL AUSTRALIAN TOWNS
Queenslanders for Safe Air Food and Water and the Fluoride Action Network are closely linked, but the latter is one of the most active anti-fluoride lobby groups globally.
It’s not just a collection of parents: this is a highly organised, sophisticated lobby with tax-free charity status that claims victory for pulling fluoride out of communities across the world.
FAN provides a blueprint on how to agitate and they are experts at disseminating horror stories, most of which have been disproved by mainstream science.
FAN is headed up by retired American chemistry professor Paul Connett who wrote a non-peer-reviewed paper called 50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoride.
FAN also employs Connett’s wife Ellen and his son. The FAN website holds out the hat for tax-free donations.
IRS documents show an income of $258,706 in donations in 2013.
Prof Connett is the executive director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project, of which IRS figures show there are only four employees and most costs go on wages.
In February, activists in Australia paid for Prof Connett to travel to Australia.
They hired PR firm AC Agency, whose clients include Ardmona, Target and Australian Women’s Weekly, to publicise Connett’s visit for a forum on fluoride.
“Leading international expert to conduct Australia’s first water fluoridation public forum,” the release said.
The PR agent cited fluoridation as a hot topic because “Pete Evans has spoken out against water fluoridation as a concerned parent, and there have been a number of cities in Australia that have decided to stop fluoridating”.
The forum was boycotted by dentists and health officials because the panel was stacked with anti-fluoridation activists.
In an email to The Sunday Telegraph, Professor Connett confirmed his expenses were paid by Australia activists.
“My expenses were shared by anti-fluoridation activists in Brisbane, Perth and NSW ... I received no honorarium.”
Professor Connett boasts on the website that FAN has helped many communities end fluoridation: “Since 1990, over 300 communities in the United States and Canada have rejected water fluoridation schemes.”
The site has a ‘how to’ segment called “seven ways you can end fluoridation”.
Dr Michael Foley, from the Australian Dental Association’s Oral Health Committee, said 20 Queensland councils had pulled out of fluoridation since 2012 because of scare campaigns run by anti-fluoride activists like FAN.
The website claims: “FAN’s Professionals Statement to End Water Fluoridation has been signed by over 4000 medical, dental, scientific, and environmental professionals.”
But the list contains 621 chiropractors, 174 naturopaths and 72 acupuncturists.
On the FAN advisory board is Queenslander Ailsa Boyden, from the Fluoride Action Network Australia. Boyden is also an anti-vaccination campaigner.
The sister organisation is called Queenslanders for Safe Water Air and Food, headed up by Merilyn Haines.
Dr Foley said the groups had close ties to anti-vaccination groups.
“Many are the same people and they twist evidence, use emotive arguments and it will raise enough doubts, it’s dreadful but that’s how they do it,” Dr Foley said.
One of FAN’s biggest donors is alternative health practitioner Joseph Mercola, an anti-vaccination activist whose ‘wellness’ site Mercola donated $25,000 to FAN this year.
I don't think the editor of the Daily Telegraph (Australia) likes us.
lots of comments including our absent friend Steven Slott DDS
Why do they keep trying to make out Dr Connett does all this for money? He certainly didn't get paid by us when he came over to the UK quite a few times to help stop the threat of fluoridation in Southampton.
Nys Cof has left a new comment
My longer comment has been censored out so far. This is it:
This is peanuts compared to the money the fluoridationists pour into strategy, PR and more
The American Dental Association is newly spending 1/2 million dollars on a social media campaign to make people ignore the growing science which shows fluoridation is ineffective and harmful. They are holding a birthday bash this month for fluoridation to plan more strategy - both legislative and other.
The billion dollar PEW foundation is pouring millions of dollars into fluoridation schemes at local and state levels. They bought PR agencies and lobbyists to go into Arkansas and convince novice legislators to pass a fluoridation mandate law without consulting with the residents. Some cities actually voted down fluoridation several times before the mandate. Now water companies who don't want to fluoridate are being forced to spend money they don't have on a chemical their residents don't want and will eventually filter out anyway - wasting gobs of money. All this without even examining local children to see if they were already getting adequate fluoride intake from foods, beverages and dental products.
In April 2014, Pew Charitable Trusts contracted with ASTDD (Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors) to provide survey and data-analysis services, report writing, database development and maintenance, and serve as a fiscal agent for The Pew Children’s Dental Campaign, with the goal of: ... 2) Conducting a study and writing a report on the cost of fluoridating different-sized communities across the U.S. 3) Developing and maintaining a database to track community water fluoridation rollback attempts. http://www.astdd.org/docs/astdd-annual-report-2014-april-2015.PDF
According to a presentation being made on November 2, 2015, American Public Health Association annual meeting "Recently PEW initiated widespread efforts to educate the public, providers and policy makers about the benefits of community water fluoridation. PEW’s effort is the most significant ever to be undertaken in the US..." https://apha.confex.com/apha/143am/webprogram/Paper338978.html
Yet, PEW persistently misinforms the public about fluoridation http://fluoridealert.org/content/bulletin_12-06-13/
Pew hired Salter Mitchell a PR firm to teach them strategy
Matt Jacob PEW's PR guy is now with the Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) Matt Jacob travels all over the country delivering fluoridation promotion strategy to dental hygienists, water employees and others in return for free continuing education credits. Anyone known to be opposed to fluoridation are disinvited, kicked out or never allowed in the first place.
He set up a website that not only teaches strategy to fluoridationists but gives them sample letters to the editor, "say this not that" talking points, sample speeches to give before legislative bodies and more.
A freedom of information request recently received from the New York State Department of Health reveals that the American Academy of Pediatrics handles a fluoridation rapid response team that notifies members when new fluoridation articles are published that need pro-fluoridation comments
The US Centers for Disease Control isn't responsible for determining safe level of fluoride, according to their own website, but they hired a PR agency to tell you what level is safe.
Sometimes called liars for hire, PR agencies just share what they are told to share.
Billions of dollars are wasted on the promotion, instigation, implementation and continuation of water fluoridation. You really need to show your readers just how much money is poured into pro-fluoridation campaigns. Look at Portland Oregon for starters.
By the way, I don't get paid and I'm fully vaccinated (as if any of that matters)
AS personal pleas go, this was hard to ignore: In September 2013, as Lismore Council was once again debating whether to go ahead with fluoridating the town’s water supply, a local mother wrote an impassioned plea to Mayor Jenny Dowell, begging her not to go ahead.
And that was just the start.
“We were inundated, I got hundreds of emails, it seemed coordinated, some of the wording was the same and there was a petition with names from all over the world,” Cr Dowell says now.“It was an orchestrated network, not just locally, and it was quite intimidating,”
The two groups that were most vociferous against Lismore’s fluoridation, she said, were called Queenslanders for Safe Air Food and Water and the Fluoride Action Network.
The same pattern has arisen at other councils considering fluoride. A Sunday Telegraph investigation has demonstrated both groups have inundated councillors with emails, both directly and through residents who quote from their material.
In response to our Bite Back campaign, federal Health Minister Sussan Ley says she will push the states for reform.
BITE BACK: CAMPAIGN TO GET FLUORIDE IN ALL AUSTRALIAN TOWNS
Queenslanders for Safe Air Food and Water and the Fluoride Action Network are closely linked, but the latter is one of the most active anti-fluoride lobby groups globally.
It’s not just a collection of parents: this is a highly organised, sophisticated lobby with tax-free charity status that claims victory for pulling fluoride out of communities across the world.
FAN provides a blueprint on how to agitate and they are experts at disseminating horror stories, most of which have been disproved by mainstream science.
FAN is headed up by retired American chemistry professor Paul Connett who wrote a non-peer-reviewed paper called 50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoride.
FAN also employs Connett’s wife Ellen and his son. The FAN website holds out the hat for tax-free donations.
IRS documents show an income of $258,706 in donations in 2013.
Prof Connett is the executive director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project, of which IRS figures show there are only four employees and most costs go on wages.
In February, activists in Australia paid for Prof Connett to travel to Australia.
They hired PR firm AC Agency, whose clients include Ardmona, Target and Australian Women’s Weekly, to publicise Connett’s visit for a forum on fluoride.
“Leading international expert to conduct Australia’s first water fluoridation public forum,” the release said.
The PR agent cited fluoridation as a hot topic because “Pete Evans has spoken out against water fluoridation as a concerned parent, and there have been a number of cities in Australia that have decided to stop fluoridating”.
The forum was boycotted by dentists and health officials because the panel was stacked with anti-fluoridation activists.
In an email to The Sunday Telegraph, Professor Connett confirmed his expenses were paid by Australia activists.
“My expenses were shared by anti-fluoridation activists in Brisbane, Perth and NSW ... I received no honorarium.”
Professor Connett boasts on the website that FAN has helped many communities end fluoridation: “Since 1990, over 300 communities in the United States and Canada have rejected water fluoridation schemes.”
The site has a ‘how to’ segment called “seven ways you can end fluoridation”.
Dr Michael Foley, from the Australian Dental Association’s Oral Health Committee, said 20 Queensland councils had pulled out of fluoridation since 2012 because of scare campaigns run by anti-fluoride activists like FAN.
The website claims: “FAN’s Professionals Statement to End Water Fluoridation has been signed by over 4000 medical, dental, scientific, and environmental professionals.”
But the list contains 621 chiropractors, 174 naturopaths and 72 acupuncturists.
On the FAN advisory board is Queenslander Ailsa Boyden, from the Fluoride Action Network Australia. Boyden is also an anti-vaccination campaigner.
The sister organisation is called Queenslanders for Safe Water Air and Food, headed up by Merilyn Haines.
Dr Foley said the groups had close ties to anti-vaccination groups.
“Many are the same people and they twist evidence, use emotive arguments and it will raise enough doubts, it’s dreadful but that’s how they do it,” Dr Foley said.
One of FAN’s biggest donors is alternative health practitioner Joseph Mercola, an anti-vaccination activist whose ‘wellness’ site Mercola donated $25,000 to FAN this year.
I don't think the editor of the Daily Telegraph (Australia) likes us.
lots of comments including our absent friend Steven Slott DDS
Why do they keep trying to make out Dr Connett does all this for money? He certainly didn't get paid by us when he came over to the UK quite a few times to help stop the threat of fluoridation in Southampton.
Nys Cof has left a new comment
My longer comment has been censored out so far. This is it:
This is peanuts compared to the money the fluoridationists pour into strategy, PR and more
The American Dental Association is newly spending 1/2 million dollars on a social media campaign to make people ignore the growing science which shows fluoridation is ineffective and harmful. They are holding a birthday bash this month for fluoridation to plan more strategy - both legislative and other.
The billion dollar PEW foundation is pouring millions of dollars into fluoridation schemes at local and state levels. They bought PR agencies and lobbyists to go into Arkansas and convince novice legislators to pass a fluoridation mandate law without consulting with the residents. Some cities actually voted down fluoridation several times before the mandate. Now water companies who don't want to fluoridate are being forced to spend money they don't have on a chemical their residents don't want and will eventually filter out anyway - wasting gobs of money. All this without even examining local children to see if they were already getting adequate fluoride intake from foods, beverages and dental products.
In April 2014, Pew Charitable Trusts contracted with ASTDD (Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors) to provide survey and data-analysis services, report writing, database development and maintenance, and serve as a fiscal agent for The Pew Children’s Dental Campaign, with the goal of: ... 2) Conducting a study and writing a report on the cost of fluoridating different-sized communities across the U.S. 3) Developing and maintaining a database to track community water fluoridation rollback attempts. http://www.astdd.org/docs/astdd-annual-report-2014-april-2015.PDF
According to a presentation being made on November 2, 2015, American Public Health Association annual meeting "Recently PEW initiated widespread efforts to educate the public, providers and policy makers about the benefits of community water fluoridation. PEW’s effort is the most significant ever to be undertaken in the US..." https://apha.confex.com/apha/143am/webprogram/Paper338978.html
Yet, PEW persistently misinforms the public about fluoridation http://fluoridealert.org/content/bulletin_12-06-13/
Pew hired Salter Mitchell a PR firm to teach them strategy
Matt Jacob PEW's PR guy is now with the Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) Matt Jacob travels all over the country delivering fluoridation promotion strategy to dental hygienists, water employees and others in return for free continuing education credits. Anyone known to be opposed to fluoridation are disinvited, kicked out or never allowed in the first place.
He set up a website that not only teaches strategy to fluoridationists but gives them sample letters to the editor, "say this not that" talking points, sample speeches to give before legislative bodies and more.
A freedom of information request recently received from the New York State Department of Health reveals that the American Academy of Pediatrics handles a fluoridation rapid response team that notifies members when new fluoridation articles are published that need pro-fluoridation comments
The US Centers for Disease Control isn't responsible for determining safe level of fluoride, according to their own website, but they hired a PR agency to tell you what level is safe.
Sometimes called liars for hire, PR agencies just share what they are told to share.
Billions of dollars are wasted on the promotion, instigation, implementation and continuation of water fluoridation. You really need to show your readers just how much money is poured into pro-fluoridation campaigns. Look at Portland Oregon for starters.
By the way, I don't get paid and I'm fully vaccinated (as if any of that matters)
posted by Bill at
9:49 AM
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