How To Fight Water Fluoridation In Your City

Still entrenched in the political framework of public health today is the idea that artificially fluoridating public water supplies prevents tooth decay and lessens the overall costs associated with dental treatments. This flawed ideology dates back to about the 1930s when the aluminum mining and smelting industries concocted a way to dispose of their unwanted fluoride chemical byproducts by pushing them on the unsuspecting masses as a remedy for tooth decay.

Though science has never backed up this and many other claims made by the pro-fluoride lobby, fluoridation remains a blindly-accepted public health measure throughout America today. And yet at the same time, things are also starting to change as citizens, health officials, and former fluoride advocates learn the facts about fluoride and begin spreading the truth (http://www.esterrepublic.com/Archives/dyates2.html).

Hundreds of North American communities have axed fluoride from their water supplies in recent decades (http://www.fluoridealert.org/communities.aspx), and many more are in a position to follow suit if science can ultimately break the political stronghold that is holding on for dear life to the fluoride myth.

Some practical ways you can help fight water fluoridation in your own community
• Send information about fluoride's dangers to your local city council members and mayor. City councils are often the ones who decide whether or not to fluoridate, or continue fluoridating, municipal water supplies. Taking the time to present information at local council meetings and directly with council members can go a long way in ending fluoridation, which is exactly what happened last year in Fairbanks, Alaska.

• Contact your local environmental board and express opposition to fluoride, and also request a fresh investigation into the science behind fluoridation. Many areas continue to fluoridate their water supplies simply because that is what they have always done. But gaining a fresh perspective from an independent fluoride investigation committee can be an effective solution for reforming public consensus on the fluoride issue.

This approach was successful in Juneau, Alaska, where a fluoride commission was established specifically to study the science behind fluoride and compile a report for the city council to review. Based on the commission's findings, it was recommended to the council that the city stop fluoridating its water supply, which came into effect in 2007 (http://www.juneau.org).

• Hand out fluoride literature to your friends, family, neighbors. Most people have no idea that the fluoride chemicals added to their water have been designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a toxic waste product responsible for causing bone fractures, dental fluorosis, and other conditions (http://water.epa.gov). They also likely do not know that the official Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for sodium fluoride, a common fluoride additive, lists the chemical as carcinogenic, as well as mutagenic, and toxic to bodily organs and the reproductive system.

"All our thyroids are screwed up," says Dr. Ted Norris, who holds a Ph.D. in neuro-endocrinology, about the consequences of fluoride exposure. "[Fluoride] causes chronic obesity. It causes fatigue. It causes depression. It causes lack of energy, and that's not even to get into the osteosarcomas and the hip replacements. It's devastating. I think it's worse than lead. It's a shame."