FAN Bulletin 797

April 18, 2007

Dear All,

The first victory was not for ourselves but for our friends at the Environmental Working Group. Actually this victory was for anyone who is interested in securing integrity in government. EWG achieved a stunning success when the NTP fired a firm of consultants which represented chemical industry interests while operating in an office supposedly protecting our health! EWG was the first to expose this gigantic conflict of interest. Well done Richard Wiles, Ken Cook and all the others at EWG. Thank God we have at least one group in Washington which is genuinely looking after the public interest! See EWG’s release from yesterday. Please congratulate Richard Wiles et al. at richard@ewg.org

The second victory is the news of yet another town that has halted fluoridation –Beach Haven, NJ - this one after 45 years of living with the practice! See the story below. Please congratulate all the local officials as well as the Commissioners who made this decision (email address listed after the article). They need to hear from people who appreciate their integrity and courage and to hear further arguments as to why they should resist the onslaught that they will now get from the pro-fluoridation dental lobby. You might tell them that the best response to these zealots who think that the teeth are more important than our brains, bones, thyroid gland and our kidneys is to explain why the health effects documented in the 500 page NRC(2006) report can be safely ignored. Do they really think it is safe to give a bottle fed baby 250 times more fluoride than is present in mothers milk (0.004 ppm)?

We have also given the address of the local newspaper after the article because it, too, needs to have letters to offset the letters that will come in from the dental lobby. Thanks to Carol Kopf from NYSCOF for distributing this and countless other stories on this issue.

Thanks also to our readers: a) for finding somewhere for me to stay in Yarmouth, May 7 (after I testify to the Board of Health, 7 pm May 7); b) for helping us get the Iranian article (lowering of IQ in children at 2.5 ppm) translated and c) for helping us set up appointments in DC next week. To date we have 10, with several others in the works. Thanks for this and everything else that you are doing to end this unnecessary blight on our lives.

Paul Connett
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VICTORY 1.

Government consultant gets the pink slip

Last Friday, in response to an EWG investigation, the government fired a conflict-ridden industry consulting firm, Sciences International (SI). SI is no ordinary science-for-hire company. For the past eight years, SI was actually running the federal center that decides whether or not chemicals pose reproductive risks to people. At the same time, SI boasted of more than 50 chemical company clients, many of whom made the chemicals under scrutiny by the SI-controlled federal center.

After the L.A. Times publicized the EWG investigationon March 7th, powerful Congressional leaders like Representative Waxman and Senator Boxer demanded answers. Immediately, SI was suspended and a formal inquiry was launched. The result? A pink slip.

But sending SI home is only the first step toward safer chemical reviews. What’s to keep the National Toxicology Program (NTP) from replacing one conflicted contractor with another? Certainly not a conflict of interest policy——because they don’t have one.

EWG will continue to push for a transparent process for exposing and dealing with government and corporate conflicts of interest. We are also demanding a full review of the 19 other chemicals Sciences International has analyzed for the government since 1998. Read about it in the Washington Post.

We appreciate your support of the EWG team that makes these victories happen.

Sincerely,

Richard Wiles
Executive Director

(see more at www.ewg.org)
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VICTORY 2.

Beach Haven votes to remove flouride from water supply

Posted by the Times-Beacon Newspapers on 04/18/07

BY NANCY HUNTER
STAFF WRITER

BEACH HAVEN — The Beach Haven Board of Commissioners has declared an ordinance, one that required the intentional addition of fluoride to the borough’s drinking water supply system, to be null and void.

In November 1962, it was believed that fluoride added to the drinking water supply system would help prevent tooth decay.

In recent years, however, sufficient data has shown that fluoride can actually cause teeth to weaken and increase tooth decay.

But the debate still continues.

Dr. Harry Gilbert, of Ocean Family Dental in Ship Bottom, has been a dentist for 25 years.

“It’s a shame because fluoride is very effective in fighting tooth decay,” he said.

Lobbyists and special interest groups, in Gilbert’s opinion, have changed the public’s opinion of fluoride.

“I have seen an increase in tooth decay — I don’t know if it is due to fluoride being taken out of the drinking water or maybe from the popularity of bottled water but there is more decay,” he said.

Gilbert does use a fluoride topically on his patients which he coats right on the enamel.

Beach Haven is the last municipality on the Island to remove fluoride from the water.
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Please congratulate local officials and write to local paper.

Beach Haven Mayor: MayorStewart@beachhaven-nj.gov

Commissioner Battista
492-0111
CommissionerBattista@beachhaven-nj.gov
Commissioner Deely
492-0111
CommissionerDeely@beachhaven-nj.gov
Richard S. Crane, Administrator
492-0111
BoroughAdministrator@beachhaven-nj.gov
Judith S. Howard, Borough Clerk
492-0111
BoroughClerk@beachhaven-nj.gov
Kim England, Public Works
492-2525
Publicworks@beachhaven-nj.gov

Ocean County Observer
8 Robbins St. CN 2449 Toms River, NJ
732.349.3000
observer@app.com