USA - Durango

Letters to the Editor

Vote to end water fluoridation on April 4

Saturday, March 18, 2017 3:02 PM

Naturally occurring calcium fluoride (CaF2) is not the same as sodium fluoride (NAF) or fluorosilic acid (H2SiF6). Misleading the public by misrepresenting calcium fluoride and the chemical/toxic waste substance sodium fluoride as being the same and having the same alleged benefit to teeth is ethically irresponsible.

The city website, durangogov.org/fluoride, lists the sodium fluoride documents for the material safety data sheet guidelines and testing results. The Univar safety data sheet states warnings such as, “danger, toxic if swallowed, contact poison control if ingested. Can cause irritation to skin, mucous membranes, risk of nervous problems, burns and risk of convulsions. Heating can cause release of hazardous gas.”

The Solvay product safety summary document reveals exposure to high concentrations or long-term exposure to low concentrations of sodium fluoride can cause fluoride poisoning with stomach pain, weakness, convulsions, collapse and death. It immediately contradicts this to state: “The above side effects do not occur with the concentration of sodium fluoride typically used in water for preventing cavities in teeth.”

One could conclude that the lower concentrations of sodium fluoride that can cause harm could equate to the lower concentrations added to our water, and the 60 years of water fluoridation could equate to the long-term exposure to lower concentrations that can cause harm.

What precise lower concentrations cause harm? How many days, weeks or years determine long-term exposure? The Scientific World Journal, vol. 2014, article ID 293019 states, “The inability to control individual dose renders the notion of an optimum concentration obsolete.”

Because sodium fluoride is used in food preservatives, insecticides, pesticides and water fluoridation, one cannot control the actual concentration of fluoride a person is ingesting and can exceed the recommended lower concentrations considered safe.

No amount of an accumulative toxic poison is safe or good for our teeth. In 2014, The Lancet, the world’s oldest medical journal, classified fluoride as a neurotoxim. A lie told long enough does not make it truth. Vote for fluoridation of our water to end on April 4.

Cheri Jones

Durango