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Conference News And EPA Letters-Report 6

Bulletin #635

July 27, 2006

Dear All,

Two of FAN’s major events are converging: the FAN conference (July 28- August 1, Canton, NY) begins tomorrow and the deadline for letters to Stephen Johnson (August 4) is rapidly approaching.

THE FAN CONFERENCE

Today some of our eary birds have already set off for Canton for the beginning of the conference on Friday evening (see schedule at http://www.FluorideAction.net). David Kennedy and Jeff Green have already taken off in their two seater plane from San Diego; Deanna Havens has arrived from Kansas; Dan Stockin has left on his 1000 mile drive from Tennessee and sometime today Taylor Moore will be leaving Joliet, Illinois on his marathon journey, via Chicago and Toronto using train, bus (spoke to him on the bus vai his cell phone) and car!

So many things have been going right for us over the last few days, it was fairly inevitable that fate would deliver us a bad blow and it did last night. We received a phone call from Dr. Jennifer Luke that her mother has had a stroke and she had to return to the UK immediately. So very sadly we will not have her talk or what promised to be a most interesting interaction with Kathleen Thiessen and Dr. Robert Isaacson on fluoride’s impact on the endocrine system and the brain. But first things first, our prayers go out to Jennifer with the hope that her mother quickly recovers from her stroke.

Fortunately, we have such an incredible line up of speakers, including three authors of the vitally important NRC report, that our conference still promises to be a major event. A point which was recognized by Ralph Nader this week (see the Nader letter below with the last remaining typo - mine not Nader’s - removed; Action instead of Acrion!).

ONLINE LETTERS TO STEPHEN JOHNSON

And now for some really exciting news. We thought that Tuesday was fantastic with 451 letters going into the EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson (see letter at http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 and reprinted below), but yesterday we almost doubled that total with 801 letters! Here is the sequence of daily totals in the six days since this effort started:

Friday 42

Saturday 49

Sunday 60

Monday 145

Tuesday 451

Wednesday 801

By 3:30 pm today we had reached a magnificant total of 1776 and the state, province and country totals are listed below in alphabetical order. Letters have now been sent from all 50 states.

It is very hard to believe that we can keep this momentum going - but if there is anything else you can do to help please do so. Has every friend, family member, colleague at work sent in the letter (it is simple, quick and crucially important: go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 )? Can you think of any other email list to which you can have access?

Yesterday, for most of the day the letters were being sent in at an approximate rate of one a minute! They were going in so fast that the software sometimes found it difficult to cope. And again, they are not just coming in from one state, they are coming from all over the nation.

Thanks for all you are doing to generate more letters on this issue. It is heartwarming this end seeing the results of your efforts as them come in.

Paul Connett

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The ONLINE letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson

(go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 to add your name to this letter)

Dear EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson:

I am deeply concerned about a new fluoride-based pesticide (sulfuryl fluoride) that EPA is allowing to be sprayed on all processed foods and a broad assortment of raw food. While EPA’s decision may benefit the bottom line of Dow AgroSciences, it does not protect the public health, or the public interest.

The public expects EPA to employ the best science available in its approval of pesticides. However, it is apparent that this did not happen with sulfuryl fluoride. Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences recently concluded that the safety standard used by EPA to approve sulfuryl fluoride is, in fact, not safe at all.

Moreover, as the NAS report makes clear, and as is evident by the growing number of children with dental fluorosis, many Americans are being OVER-exposed to fluoride. There is no safety margin for additional fluoride exposures that will result from sulfuryl fluoride. I am particularly concerned for susceptible subsets of consumers, including children, people with kidney disease, people with excess thirst (e.g. diabetics, athletes, and laborers) and people with nutrient deficiencies.

Finally, as Director of EPA, I would like you to investigate why EPA increased the allowable dosage for infants and children not once, but twice, during its approval process for sulfuryl fluoride. In direct violation of the Food Quality Protection Act, these manipulations have left our children ten times less protected than adults.

For these, and the many other reasons detailed in the petition to EPA, I urge you to revoke all food-based uses of sulfuryl fluoride.

Please add my comments to the docket #: EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0174 and EPA-HQ-OPP-2003-0373.

Go to http://actionstudio.org/?go=2367 to add your name (and comments) to this letter

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1776 letters sent to Stephen Johnson as of 3:30 pm July 27

Here’s the breakdown by state, province and country in alphabetical order:

AK - 5
AL - 7
AR - 21
AZ - 46

CA - 216
CO - 54
CT - 17
DC - 1
DE - 1
FL - 123
GA - 56
HI - 25
IA - 21
ID - 13
IL - 32
IN - 14
KS - 23
KY - 10
LA - 3
MA - 46
MD - 18
ME - 7
MI - 40
MN - 34
MO - 30
MS - 2
MT - 12
NC - 36
ND - 2
NE - 5
NH - 23
NJ - 63
NM - 9
NV - 12
NY - 92
OH - 40
OK - 14
OR - 80
PA - 52
RI - 3
SC - 12
SD - 4
TN - 15
TX - 89
UT - 41
VA - 24
VT - 17
WA - 106
WI - 38
WV - 10
WY - 3

Guam - 1

Other countries

CANADA
Alberta - 4
British Columbia - 4
Manitoba - 2
Nova Scotia - 3
Ontario - 22
Quebec - 7

Australia - 18
France - 1
India - 1
Malaysia - 1
New Zealand - 5
UK - 15

Unidentified - 14

________________________________________

Statement from Ralph Nader

July 25, 2006

I would like to encourage both citizens and scientists to attend the Second
Citizens’ Conference on Fluoride to be held in Canton, NY, from July 28 -
August 1, 2006.

The decision to fluoridate is one that ultimately only the people in the
jurisdiction can make. There is an old Roman adage - “whatever affects all
should be decided by all.” Instead, in many instances the decision is taken
from the people and made by administrators or city councils saturated with
one-sided arguments and what has become a rigid scientific ideology by the
U.S. Public Health Service.

On any public health issue, we have to keep the doors open to what Alfred
North Whitehead once called “options for revision.” Foreclosing such options
leads to little continuing scientific reaserch. The U.S. Public Health
Service closed its mind over 50 years ago. Nonetheless, more scientists are

opting for open minds and more data is forthcoming to warrant ground for a

broader public re-examination.

Tooth decay is not contagious. Even the advocates of fluoridation have
declared the substance relevant only to youngsters. So why is the entire
drinking water supply fluoridated for the entire population with its
variable risks and its variable doses and its variable intakes and the often
ignored question of the total fluoride intake from all sources in a
particular community? Why is ingestion for all preferable to topical
applications for the few?

Attendance of scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
three of the National Research Council’s panel members, among others, makes

the Fluoride Action Network’s conference more than ordinary. The NRC’s

review of the EPA’s safe drinking water standards and the Harvard study on
fluoridation and osteosarcoma this past May provide contemporary material
for opening the public debate further and deeper.

The scientific method should reject the ossified ideology of fluoridation as
an “acquired characteristic” to be intoned. It should be an entrenched
proposition to be examined. May this conference do so with the open mind
that is the essence of the scientific attitude and the underlying principles

of democratic decision-making in the open.

Signed

Ralph Nader

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