FAN Bulletin 818

June 24, 2007

Dear All,

Two years ago when we were getting angry about the CDC Oral Health Division (along with its soul mate the ADA) using taxpayers’ money to fund a celebration of 60 years of fluoridation in Chicago without making any effort to have any voice present from the other side of the issue (I offered to debate or present), I was surprised that we received so little traction from CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding on this matter. On receiving a summary of the findings of Senator Tom Coburn’s investigation of CDC’s misspending of taxpayers money in many other areas, I am now less surprised.

Coburn’s 115 page report is entitled “CDC Off Center “ can be accessed at Coburn’s website or xhref=”http://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=0e72b780-363a-4777-b841-20925a304d20″ mce_href=”http://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=0e72b780-363a-4777-b841-20925a304d20″ >directly.

The following summary of some of his findings (from a news report) was sent to us by Carol Kopf at NYSCOF@aol.com

Here are a few examples of outlandish CDC spending revealed in the report:

Construction of a lavish new $106 million visitor center in Atlanta – the 202,000 square foot Thomas R. Harkin Global Communications Center, including a 70 by 25 foot video wall of plasma television screens and a $20 million TV studio. The previous visitor center was built in 1996.

A new $109 million 325,000 square foot Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center, also in Atlanta, including $9.8 million in office furniture.

A state-of-the-art “Lifestyle Facility” fitness center at the CDC’s Atlanta campus with free access for employees to enjoy such attributes as “zero-gravity” chairs with a mood-enhancing light show, which one employee called “very soothing,” plus two “quiet rooms” and two “dry-heat saunas.”

And if these expenditures don’t raise your temperature, you might get a little nauseous to learn about the taxpayer-funded activities at CDC-sponsored conferences:

In 2003, taxpayers shelled out $300,000 for a conference in New Orleans that featured a workshop on how to defund abstinence education and a sexually graphic “entertainment” segment denigrating the vice president of the United States.

At a 2004 conference in Thailand, attended by 150 federal employees, attendees could see a “drag” show, art shows, fashion parades and Brazilian dresses made from condoms.

Your tax dollars were also at work at the 16th Annual International AIDS conference in Toronto in 2006. This conference, which cost taxpayers $315,000, included presentations designed to encourage recognition of prostitution as “legitimate legal work.” To make the point, one convention center exhibit included three prostitutes lying on a satin-covered bed designed to “look like a typical workplace.”

As part of its mission in fighting the very real threat of acts of bioterrorism against the United States, the CDC gave away in excess of $2.7 billion in grants from 2002-2004. Los Angeles County alone received $83 million during this period, $14 million of which was never spent. Nevertheless, the county received an additional $27.9 million in 2006.

A review of L.A. County’s spending of CDC funds by the Los Angeles Times said, “At times, the spending has stretched the definition of terrorism readiness.” The Times may have come to this conclusion after learning how CDC bioterrorism funds were used to hire Hollywood actors to portray patients in a smallpox vaccination drill, costing $57,045 for the actors, $10,000 for gift certificates, and $13,600 for pens, digital thermometers and bags for the gifts.

According to Carol Kopf, “This scathing senate report on the wasteful and ineffective (not to mention often absurd) uses of CDC funds clearly demonstrates that the CDC has strayed far from its noble mission of fighting and preventing disease. Since its founding in 1946, Americans have trusted that the CDC has been doing its job, but this new evidence shows this agency, like all government agencies, needs constant oversight.”

I would add, that with such waste and lack of internal oversight we should we not be surprised that the CDC Oral Health Division can go on its merry way promoting fluoridation throughout the US at 1 ppm, even while the National Research Council has produced a 500 page report indicating that some subsets of the population are getting unsafe doses at these levels. The Oral Health Division spent all of six days (in its zero gravity chairs?) studying this report, which recommended the EPA’s safe drinking water standard of 4 ppm should be lowered, and then declaring that it was totally consistent with its claims that fluoridation is safe and effective at 1 ppm!

Hats off to Sen. Coburn (who is also an MD) and his staff for bringing to light this blatant abuse of taxpayer money at the CDC. This report is part of a large a series of investigations of federal agencies by Sen. Coburn. He is asking for information about fraud, waste or abuse in any federal agency, here: http://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=SubmitATip.Home Perhaps this is a good opportunity for us to tell him about what has been going on, or not going on, with fluoridation at the EPA, the FDA, and of course the CDC. And, if he is interested in blatant scientific fraud he would do well to check out the EPA Pesticide Division’s blatant manipulation of science to get sulfuryl fluoride approved (for Dow AgroSciences) for the use as a fumigant on food in warehouses and processing plants.

Meanwhile, You can voice your opinion to the CDC by calling their public line at (800) 311-3435 or sending an e-mail to cdcinfo@cdc.gov.

Here’s the article.

Paul Connett