FAN - Alert

A resolution has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that seeks to recognize artificial water fluoridation as a “vitally important public health initiative,” and to solidify congressional support of the practice for its 70^th anniversary.

House Resolution 416 is entitled “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives recognizing community water fluoridation as one of the great public health initiatives on its 70^th anniversary.”  The resolution was created by the American Dental Association (ADA), and introduced by Idaho Representative Mike Simpson, who is a dentist and recipient of more than $74,000 in political contributions from the dental community over just the past two years.  Throughout his time in Congress he has received nearly $100,000 from the American Dental Association alone.  Rep. Simpson has also received over $70,000 from fluoride additive distributor JR Simplot Co., nearly $80,000 from Ch2m Hill (engineering firm that designs and builds water facilities and fluoridation injection equipment), over $68,000 from fluorinated pesticide producer FMC Corp, and over $54,000 from the sugar industry. (See contributions)

Fellow dentists and original co-sponsors, Rep. Brian Babin and Rep. Paul Gosar, have also received massive donations from the dental community recently.  Babin has been paid $120,216, and Gosar $98,850 by dentists and dental industry associations since 2013.  In fact, each of the 15 co-sponsors have received massive donations from the dental community, totaling $439,766 since April of 2013.

The resolution has been introduced and referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.  While a resolution is purely a ceremonial instrument, and does not have the force of law, if passed it will certainly become another oft-repeated talking point and media attention grabber.

We urge you to tell your Congressal Representative that this is not the time to praise fluoridation, but to end it.  The simplist and quickest way to convince them that this is the case is to urge them to watch Jeremy Seifert's new film, "Our Daily Dose," which was released on Tuesday (Oct. 20^th).  

Many Reps will have little idea that HR416 has been engineered through corporate donations and not through sound science, and their endorsement will prove embarrassing when more and more of their constituents find out the truth.