FAN Bulletin 802

May 1, 2007

Dear All,

A Team effort

First, let me begin this DC report by stressing that this DC initiative was a real FAN team effort. While Bill Hirzy and I did most of the talking (and walking!) we were very conscious of the many people who had helped to make this happen. So a very big thank you to:

those who helped with corrections and stylistic changes to the written material we provided to Members of Congress (particularly Naomi Flack) the many of you who helped to set up appointments both with emails and phone calls (your names are listed in parenthesis after the name of the aide with whom we spoke);
the donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) who paid for my air fare, taxis and sundries;
Bill and Ellen Hirzy for providing me accommodation during my stay in DC;
Linda Joy safewater @comcast.net and Emily Kalweit luminaria @verizon.net for the wonderful colored leaflet warning mothers not to use fluoridated tap water to make up baby formula (The Seattle group Safe Water is sending this to all the care centers, women’s centers, children/parent organizations, in their area and Linda and Emily will provide a pdf file for others who wish to do so in their communities. I found I could run off very nice copies from my little printer. Emily will even help you put your own group’s name on this.)

Dr. David Kennedy for the donation of DVDs (with the 4 video compilation: the Bryson; Limeback; Hirzy interviews plus the China fluorosis story). I had enough to give one to every aide with whom we spoke, and Dr. Robert Carton for allowing us to present to each aide a copy of his article, which argues that, based on the NRC report and the mandates of the Safe Drinking Water Act, an honestly conducted health risk assessment would necessitate a new MCLG for fluoride of zero, which would end water fluoridation overnight.

“This report has changed everything”

One of the most striking things that was said to us by any of the Congressional aides, when referring to the paperback version of the NRC report Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards * was: “This report has changed everything.” However, equally striking was how few of the aides had any idea that this report had been published. We have a lot of work to do to educate Congress on this matter. However, in a hectic three days (Tuesday noon to Friday noon) and with your support we made a start. We hope you will help consolidate this effort.

Requested follow up action: Please check out the list of aides that we spoke with below and if you should find that you live in one of the states or districts represented please send in a letter (sample below) to your Senator or Representative asking them to secure key information for you from the CDC and/or the EPA. They do not have to agree with you on fluoridation to provide this service. The process is called responding to a constituent letter and is the bread and butter of congressional service to electors. It is also at the heart of our problem: to end fluoridation we need Congressional support to get key government agencies to do their job and to do it honestly.

One extremely gratifying moment for us was meeting Congressman Dan Burton from Indiana in person. It wasn’t scheduled but he came out of his office while we were waiting to speak with his aide. We had enough time to shake his hand and thank him personally for his fantastic effort on the mercury issue (his own grandchild has autism, which he and others believe was caused by thimerosal (ethyl mercury) used in vaccines). I had made a special effort to reach his office because he, perhaps more than any other Representative in DC, knows the disgusting run around one gets from agencies like the CDC and the FDA when it comes to their controversial policies. He is one person who will not be suckered in by the CDC’s statement that “Fluoridation is one of the top ten public health achievements of the twentieth century”! Burton’s Legislative Director, Brian J. Fauls, was excellent.

Talking about run arounds. Charlie Johnson, of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s office, tried for a week to get the CDC rep. in DC to come to Bartlett’s office at the same time that Bill and I were there. For the second time they refused to do so. This CDC rep. is willing, of course, to trot along and give a solo presentation!

Bill and I were also able to attend a meeting in the House organized by the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PAANA) (sponsored by Congressman John Conyers) on alternatives to DDT to fight malaria. We made some valuable contacts at this meeting.

DC Meetings

We (Bill couldn’t make all the meetings because of end of semester obligations) spoke with aides of the following Senators and Representatives:

Senators:

CA Sen. Diane Feinstein, John Watts (FAN contact, Billie Barewald)
MA Sen. John Kerry, Lindsay Ross (FAN contacts, Shirley Brown, Dr. Mike Dolan)
MI Sen. Carl Levin, Alice Yates (FAN contact, Lynne Erhle)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Ilana Levinson (FAN contact, Lynne Erhle)
MT Sen. Max Baucus, Paul Wilkins, (FAN contact, Will Folsom)
NY Sen. Hilary Clinton, David Mustra, PhD (FAN contacts, Paul Connett, Eleanor Krinsky)
TX Sen. John Cornyn, Sara Butler (FAN contact, Beth Thomas)
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Andress Boggs (FAN contact, Beth Thomas)
WA Sen. Patty Murray, Andrew Rowe (FAN contacts Don Smith, Dr. Bill Osmunson)
Sen. Maria Cantwell, Carol Johnson (FAN contacts Don Smith, Dr. Bill Osmunson)

Materials left for

Sen. Barbara Boxer, Ken Kaposis (FAN contact, Dr. Karilee Shames)
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)
Sen. Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts)

Representatives:

CA Rep. Bob Filner (51st District), Karen Foster (FAN contact, Paul Connett)
Rep. Anna Eshoo (14th District), Jennifer Nieto (FAN contact Ellie Gioumousis)
Rep. Henry Waxman, Melissa Bez (FAN contact, Gene Burke)
Rep. Lynne Woolsley, Jamie Girard (FAN contact, Dr. Karilee Shames)
FL Rep. Ron Klein, James Cho (FAN contact, Carol Patton)
IN Rep. Dan Burton (Fifth District), Brian Fauls (FAN contact, Paul Connett)
MA Rep. James McGovern (Third District ) Lisa Salerno (FAN contacts, Mary Gibeault, Dr. Deb Moore)
MD Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Charles Johnson (FAN contact, Bernie Miltenberger)
NY Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Corey Williams (FAN contact, Paul Connett)
NY Rep. Steve Israel, Tricia Russell (FAN contact, Eleanor Krinsky)
OH Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Vic Edgerton (FAN contact, Paul Connett)
TX Rep. Charles Gonzalez, Walter Wilson, Julie Hart (FAN contacts, Beth Thomas, Kay Turner)

Materials left for

Rep. Hilda Solis (California), Megan Uzzell
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Illinois), Lindsay McAllister
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (Wisconsin), Amy Boss
Rep. John Conyers (Michigan), an aide who attended the PANNA meeting.

Despite efforts from Roger Burt of Oregon, we weren’t able to get an appointment with Senator Gordon Smith’s office, and because of communication problems we weren’t able to tie down a meeting with several of the Kansas reps., despite good contacts made by Dr. Albert Burgstahler and Wayne Logbeck.

Letter for follow up action

Please check to see if any of your Senators or Reps. are on the list above. Please thank them for seeing us (Note: if you are receiving these bulletins you can assume that we were your experts for the meeting). Please ask them to get the CDC and the EPA water division (if you only feel comfortable asking them to write one letter, that’s fine) to provide them a written response to your questions and concerns. Here is a sample letter.

Dear Sen. / Rep.

I live in your state/district. Thank you for seeing Drs. Connett and Hirzy last week, or reviewing the material they left with your office staff. I am very concerned about the water fluoridation issue. I believe that the National Research Council report of March, 2006, which found that the 4 ppm safe drinking water standard for fluoride was unprotective of health and should be lowered, should have signaled the end of water fluoridation. Clearly, there is no adequate margin of safety for fluoridation at 1 ppm, especially for sensitive subsets of the population and high water drinkers. I am appalled at the cavalier claim by the CDC, issued on their web page on March 28, 2006, just six days after the publication of the NRC report, that this massive 500 page review, documenting harm from fluoride, was consistent with their promotion of fluoridation at 1 ppm! I request therefore that you write to the Director of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, on my behalf, and ask her to provide you with all written material that allowed the CDC to reach this decision. Specifically, could they provide you with all the records (including draft and final reports, email exchanges, faxes, minutes of meetings, and notes taken during phone calls), discussing, reviewing or analyzing this NRC report (or earlier drafts), over the period January 1, 2005 to March 28, 2006.

I am also disturbed that despite some of the serious health concerns documented by the NRC, which are both life debilitating and possibly even life threatening (osteosarcoma in young men), that the EPA water division has yet to produce, or even start, the NRC recommended health risk assessment to determine a new Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) for fluoride. Every day this risk assessment is delayed is another day that over 170 million Americans are unnecessarily put at risk by this outdated practice. Thus, I request that, again on my behalf, that you write to Dr. Stephen Johnson the head of the EPA, requesting that he provide you with copies of all records produced by his Agency on the NRC report and copies of all records received by his Agency from parties outside the Environmental Protection Agency that deal with this report, its recommendations and with development and implementation of the work plan for a new health risk assessment for fluoride in drinking water. Please also ask him to provide you with a progress report on work done and work underway in connection with the work plan.

Sincerely,

If you know their exact address fine, if not simply put their Name (Senator ___ or Representative ____ ), Washington DC on the envelope - it will get there!

Please let us know what response you get from this follow up request. Thank you all again for the team work on this effort to get our message to DC.

Paul Connett

* How To Get A Copy of the NRC 2006 Report: Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards

A hard copy (paperback) can be obtained from The National Academies Press, Lockbox 285, 500 Fifth St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001, (202) 334-2451 or from USA (888) 624-8373. An electronic version can be viewed at http://nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11571