FAN Bulletin 901
December 16, 2007
Dear All,
It’s that time of the year when many of us are making toasts. Here’s mine: “To all those who refuse to be bullied, whether they be individuals, whether they be towns or whether they be water utilities like that of Holliday in Utah…” More about that story below, but first back to our other seasonal activity.
On the road to our first fundraising mini-goal
In the first two days of our fundraising effort to continue our important work in 2008, we have raised $1,175 towards our first mini-goal of $12,000 by Christmas eve. In addition, there are at least three unnamed amounts in the mail, so our current total is even larger than that. With a very generous matching grant in place, that brings our current total up to $2,350.
Please don’t feel embarrassed about giving a small donation. If funds are short a donation of $10 means a lot to you and a lot to us. In fact, if every one on our list made a $10 donation we would easily reach our first mini-goal by Christmas eve.
To make your donation please go to
Alternatively, you may simply write out a check to AEHSP and send it to AEHSP, 82 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617. If you choose this way of donating please let us know with an email so that we can keep an accurate running total.
Thank you all for your donations to date (Gerhard (always the first!), Mark, Bonnie, Henry, Tom, Pauline, Naomi, Peter, Ellen, Randy, Debora, Bob, Carol, Thelma, Stuart, Richard, Diane and Otto) and everything else you are doing to end fluoridation worldwide.
2007 was a terrific year for us, help us make 2008 even better!
A toast to the water utility that will not be bullied
In yesterday’s Salt lake Tribune (accessible from our Latest News section http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/3269.html ) Cathy McKitrick writes about the water utility of Holliday near Salt Lake City which refuses to fluoridate its water despite $250,000 of equipment being in place. A spokesperson says 78 percent of the company’s 3,000 shareholders voted against fluoridation. The county has tried legal action to force them but the utility is holding on. Meanwhile, legislators are trying to introduce legislation which would allow towns with less than 5000 connections to opt out of forced fluoridation legislation (see the full story is below).
If you go to the original story at http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7727533 you will find some readers’ comments. These include one from NYSCOF talking about the Professionals’ Statement and one from me taking the environmental-health director for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department to task for his claim that “Water fluoridation has a proven record of reducing dental decay.”
We should be doing more of this in 2008. Even when journalists go as far as questioning fluoridation on the basis of health concerns, they often give the proponents a free lollypop when they take their word as gospel on “proven benefits.” We are often so excited to get any acknowledgement of harm, that we let these false claims slide by.
We have to repeat again and again that the scientific evidence of any benefit – especially to the permanent teeth - is very, very weak. Check out the power point presentation I used in the November 20 debate with professor Michael Lennon on the Isle of Man, for more details on this. The power point can be accessed at: http://www.fluoridealert.org/isle.of.man.html
I have printed my letter below so that others might use this as a template for their own letters challenging proponents to back up their mantra with references to the scientific literature. No more “free” mantras in 2008!
Again, a very HAPPY Holidays and a VICTORIOUS new year for you all.
Paul Connett
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The Salt Lake Tribune
Saturday 15 December 2007
Fluoridated-water war flows on
State representative says company’s clients don’t want the additive on tap
By Cathy McKitrick
To fluoridate or not to fluoridate. The battle rages on.
At least in the east-side Salt Lake Valley community of Holladay - and in the mind of state Rep. Sylvia Andersen, R-Sandy.
Holladay is where faucets servicing 15,000 residents still dispense nonfluoridated water - despite a 2000 voter mandate.
Andersen, for the second year, is floating legislation that would allow small, private water companies to vote to opt out of fluoridating their water. She defines small as fewer than 5,000 connections. Holliday Water Co. currently services just under 4,000 connections
It’s not that the city’s supplier can’t provide.
Holliday Water has $250,000 worth of fluoridation equipment sitting idle. It has yet to throw the switch.
Despite the county mandate, General Manager Marlin Sundberg says he’s honoring the will of his constituents: 78 percent of the company’s 3,000 shareholders voted against fluoridation.
“There’s a desire by the people who own this private company to make their own decisions about additives to the water - rather than having an outside government entity telling them how to run their business,” he says.
In 2006, Salt Lake County sued both Holliday Water and its users association, hoping to get a court order to force the privately owned company to comply. That case is unresolved.
Public health officials - proponents of community fluoridation - are keeping an eye on Andersen’s bill and the county’s lawsuit.
“Water fluoridation has a proven record of reducing dental decay. We want to see as much of the population covered as possible,” says Royal DeLegge, environmental-health director for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department.
That’s already happening, Holliday’s Sundberg maintains.
His company’s water contains naturally occurring fluoride that equates to just over half the mandated level, he says. And, he points to the east-side city’s older population.
“Fluoridation for children’s teeth doesn’t play a great role for 80-year-old ladies,” Sundberg says.
T.J. Tsakalos, deputy district attorney for Salt Lake County, says Holliday’s fluoride fight affects more than just its 15,000 users.
“Salt Lake City Water and Holliday Water exchange water back and forth, so there are millions of gallons of water flowing monthly between the two entities,” says Tsakalos, who hopes the court says Holliday Water must “fulfill the mandate of the voters.”
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Paul Connett’s letter (posted on Salt Lake Tribune web site as Readers comment)
According to Cathy McKitrick’s excellent article “Fluoridated-water war flows on” in the Dec 15 issue of the Salt Lake Tribune, Mr. Royal DeLegge, environmental-health director for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, is quoted as saying that “Water fluoridation has a proven record of reducing dental decay.”
Believing that civil servants should be held accountable for the public statements that they make, I would like to ask Mr. DeLegge to answer, through your columns, some very basic questions on this matter.
1) Apart from second hand statements from biased agencies, could Mr. DeLegge cite some primary studies in the literature that have convinced him that ingesting fluoride reduces tooth decay in the permanent teeth.
2) Would he then match this against the numerous studies and surveys published since 1982 (Leverett, 1982; Colquhoun, 1984, 1985, 1987; Diensendorf, 1986; Gray 1987; Yiamouyiannis, 1990; Brunelle and Carlos, 1990; Spencer et al., 1996; deLiefde, 1998; Locker, 1999; Armfield and Spencer 2004; Pizzo, et al., 2007 – full references can be found in the bibliography posted at http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/biblio.html ) which report very little, if ANY, difference in decay in the permanent teeth between people living their whole lives in fluoridated compared with non-fluoridated communities?
3) Would he further comment on the fact that according to WHO figures from the 1960’s to the 2000’s tooth decay in 12 year olds has been coming down as fast in non-fluoridated countries as fluoridated ones (see http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/teeth/caries/who-dmft.html; Cheng et al, 2007; Nuffield Report, 2007 and Fagin, 2008)?
4) Could he further comment on the fact that a national survey sponsored by DHHS showed that according to 50 statewide questionnaires that the percentage of parents in each state reporting that their children’s teeth were “very good or excellent” bore no relationship whatsoever to the percentage of the population in each state drinking fluoridated water? However, there was a very clear relationship between these answers and the average income levels of the families questioned.
5) Could he further comment on the fact that a 2002-04 survey of tooth decay sponsored by the pro-fluoridation NY Department of Health, found no relationship in the average caries experience in third graders by county and the percentage of the population of each county drinking fluoridated water?
Until Mr Delegge can give satisfactory answers to these questions his claims about the effectiveness of fluoridation must be taken with a grain of fluoridated salt!
Meanwhile, the January issue of the Scientific American has raised some serious alarm bells on fluoride’s potential to damage human health (Fagin, 2008).
Dr. Paul Connett,
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry,
St. Lawrence University,
Canton, NY 13617
And
Executive Director,
Fluoride Action Network,
http://www.FluoirdeALERT.org
315-379-9200
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