USA - Letter: Get fluoride out of town water

I’m sure every one of us has been told at some time or another that fluoride is a mineral that is good for teeth and that that question was settled in the 1940s. However, there has never been a time when all scientists, dentists and doctors agreed on this. As a matter of fact, UNICEF wrote in 1999 that “… for decades we have believed that fluoride in small doses has no adverse effects on health. …. But more and more scientists are seriously questioning the benefits of fluoride even in small amounts.” Since then, hundreds of additional studies have proven that consuming fluoridated water is unsafe and ineffective.

So what exactly is this stuff we are adding to our water? Fluoridation chemicals originate as the byproducts of industry. The largest U.S. seller is Mosaic. You may remember hearing of them in the news in the past couple of years. First for a $2 billion fine from the EPA for pollution, and more recently for that huge Florida sinkhole that is pouring not only polluted waste into the Florida aquifer but water that is radioactive. But Manchester does not buy from Mosaic. We get our fluoridation chemicals from China. Pollution in China from factories that produce fluoridation chemicals is so out of control that citizens wear surgical masks.

The problem isn’t just that fluoride is a poison. It’s also corrosive and accelerates the destruction of town infrastructure and plumbing. Many studies since 1999 have proved that children living in fluoridated towns have higher lead levels in their blood and tissue. Many more prove that children in fluoridated towns also are more likely to have learning disabilities, you know the things that increase the school budgets. Both the school water tests in Manchester and Gloucester have found lead levels in some faucets above the EPA guidelines, not that any lead is safe nor do we know what’s in any glass of water from any faucet on any given day. However, we do know that fluoride in drinking water increases the amount of lead absorbed into body and brain.

Right now, there is a petition in front of the EPA from six organizations concerning the EPA’s authority under the Toxic Control Substances Act (TSCA). It includes about 300 studies proving that fluoridation damages brains. I for one am not holding my breath on the EPA action on this. In 2006, the National Research Council told the EPA that their contaminant level for fluoride was not protective of human health, and the EPA has done nothing. In 2005, 7,000 scientists in 11 EPA unions petitioned the EPA to change the contaminant level to zero, and they did nothing. In the 1990s, EPA scientists documented fluoride is carcinogenic, and the EPA edited the report.

Nobody is going to take care of us, but us. I for one do not want toxic pollution from China that damages pipes, bodies and brains added to my water supply. Do you? Tell our selectmen to get the fluoride out of our water!

Jessica McGovern

Manchester