FAN Bulletin #500

Feb 26, 2006.

Dear All,

Back from Burlington. I gave the afore-mentioned presentation to a rather small audience in city hall (about 30) on Friday evening (not really a good time to get people to come to a serious talk). However, those who came were very attentive and asked many detailed questions.

As you can imagine I had some pretty strong things to say about the editorial which appeared in the Burlington Free Press on February 22. Like many other poorly informed editorial writers, this editor continues to pump the propaganda argument that fluoride is good for poor kids. I corrected this. I also corrected the editor’s suggestion that Harvard University is reviewing Bassin’s thesis, when in actual fact what Harvard is supposed to be doing is investigating whether Bassin’s thesis adviser (Professor Chester Douglass) deliberately concealed her findings from both the scientific community and his government funders. I also pointed out that Bassin’s thesis has been accepted for publication in the journal “Cancer Causes and Control” a Harvard based peer-reviewed publication listed on PubMed. There was a reporter there from the Burlington Free Press and it will be interesting to see if the gross errors in the editorial are corrected before the vote on March 7.

I was particularly impressed by the people who are organizing this effort to get fluoride out of Burlington’s water. Most of them are young but there are also a few seasoned campaigners. They seem to be taking the atititude that this is the beginning of a rather long camapign - and that if they don’t succeed this time around, they will try again. Neither they, nor the issue, is going to go away. Meanwhile, they have already done a great job designing and distributing lawn signs and pamphlets as well as placing avertisements in local newspapers and on the radio (Alex singing his song “Get it Out!). They have also organized regular banner waving actions on prominent street corners during rush hour. It was really encouraging to hear how many people tooted their horns as they drove past. Win or lose in Burlington there is no question that other efforts around the country (and beyond) will benefit from some of the high quality educational material being generated in this Burlington campaign.

Before we left Burlington on Saturday morning, Ellen, Michael and I had time to go door-to-door hand-delivering their excellent brochure. It has been some time since I have gone door-to-door on anything! Between them the band of stalwarts running this effort hope to cover most of the town - despite the freezing weather. It remains to be seen whether this dogged human effort will be enough to offset the avalanche of expensive pro-fluoridation advertizing which will hit the press over the next few days.

Paul Connett