F.A.N. Newsletter

We are very happy to tell you that the robin who built her nest on the mantle above our front door has produced 3 babies (see photo below). 

Photo by Hakan Tayga

We are also happy to share with you a short video that our other Robin (Robin Lewis our new EJ director) has made in which she introduces herself and explains why she believes that water fluoridation (forced dental treatment) is a classic case of environmental injustice. 

WATCH VIDEO

Robin has already started her outreach work to communities of color and low income by attending a conference organized by the group Building Equity and Alignment (BEA). The meeting was held in Detroit, Michigan from May 8-10. The purpose of the meeting was to bring funders, green groups and grassroots organizations together to build alignment with the grassroots across the environmental movement.
The principles (the Jemez principles) that inform this organization include the following: 

1. Be Inclusive

2. Emphasis Bottom up Organizing

3. Let people speak for themselves4. Work together in Solidarity and Mutuality
5. Build Just Relationships Among Ourselves

6. Commitment to Self-Transformation 

We believe that FAN’s efforts to end water fluoridation are in alignment with these principles. Moreover, FAN’s mission statement recently updated by the Board of Directors of our parent organization the American Environmental Health Studies Project, Inc (AEHSP) recognizes the need to make a special effort to get our message to low-income communities and communities of color.

FAN’s Mission Statement: The Fluoride Action Network is dedicated to protecting public health by ending water fluoridation and other involuntary exposures to fluoride. FAN is achieving these goals by educating the public, decision makers, and the media. FAN is supporting volunteers in communities affected by fluoridation and is holding government health and regulatory agencies accountable. FAN is committed to the principles of Environmental Justice and is drawing special attention to subsets in the population that are disproportionately harmed by fluoride, including low-income populations and communities of color.

Robin Lewis is the delightful and visible face of that commitment.

Both her experience and her personality put her in an excellent position to break through the dental lobby’s false but highly persistent claim that we need to fluoridate the water to help fight tooth decay in children from low-income and communities of color. The reality is the opposite: the children most likely to be hurt by fluoridation are these very same children because poor diet exacerbates fluoride’s toxicity. Specifically, the last children that need their IQ lowered are children from low-income communities because they already have so many strikes against them: these include poor diet and higher exposure to neurotoxic pollutants like lead. And low-income families are least able economically to defend themselves against exposure to fluoride via the water supply.

Meanwhile, Scottish health authorities have shown how we can effectively combat tooth decay in children – including low-income communities in Glasgow (historically notorious for poor teeth) – with their Childsmile program. This program within a decade has lowered tooth decay rates below those in fluoridated New Zealand. In the process they halved the costs of dental care for children under five. The program gets to the real cause of tooth decay – poor diet and poor dental hygiene. They are making preventive care (as opposed to drill and fill) available from professionals. Contrast this with the USA, where 80% of dentists refuse to treat children on Medicaid. FAN is not just fighting the American Dental Association’s fluoridation policy but its blatant hypocrisy on helping low-income families. If the ADA really cared about children, they would care as much about their brains as they claim to care about their teeth!  Instead of denying the relevance of the Bashash et al (2017) study the ADA should halt its promotion of fluoridation now.

Have you considered becoming a Moms2B campaigner? We need you! To find out more about FAN's efforts to warn expecting women to avoid fluoride exposure during pregnancy see our "Moms2B avoid fluoride" campaign.

Paul and Ellen Connett for the whole FAN team