FAN Bulletin 912

December 26, 2007

Dear Supporter,

Before we get to some exciting news about a contribution FAN has made to the issue of fluoride’s impact on the brain, here is an update on our fundraising effort.

FAN’s fundraising effort

Our current total towards our 2008 fighting fund, is a magnificent $23,948, which greatly exceed our first mini-goal for Christmas Eve of $12,000. This has been raised from 113 contributors.

We now enter phase 2 of our fundraising campaign: we are trying to reach a new mini-goal for New Year’s Eve of $40,000.
Can we raise $16,000 in just 6 days? Yes (or very close) if the magnificent support we have seen over the last 10 days continues. That effort was largely spurred by two matching grant challenges.

On Christmas Eve we received a third matching grant challenge. Thelma Martindale from Hawaii (our third angel), who has already made one very generous donation, has come in with a second. This time she has issued a challenge. She will double every $ donated up to a total of $500. So if you haven’t contributed yet and you want to see your donation doubled please send in your donation as quickly as you can.

To make a donation please go to http://www.FluorideAction.net and click on the Donate link at the top of the page. Alternatively, you may simply write out a check to AEHSP and send it to AEHSP, 82 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617. But let us know that you have done so so that we can count it as sum to be doubled.

Remember, if you are a US citizen, your contributions are tax deductible (through our parent body the American Environmental Health Studies Project, AEHSP, which has 5013c status).

FAN’s Project on Brain Research

One of the things that shocked me when I started researching this issue 11 years ago was how people could continue to promote fluoridation when evidence began to appear that fluoride damages the brain. When Mullenix’s ground breaking animal study in 1995 was quickly followed by studies from China indicating that fluoride lowered IQ in children, I thought that that was going to spell the end of the practice. How could any parent condone giving their child fluoride, ostensibly to protect their teeth, when there was the slightest evidence that it might also damage their brains? The trouble of course was that the average parent was not being told about this. Nor was the average scholar. These early IQ articles appeared in the journal Fluoride which has been kept out of PubMed (the medical research database of the National Library of Medicine) for political reasons.

FAN has done its very best over the last few years to raise this issue again and again and you will find an extensive discussion of the issue — with full documentation — in our health effects database (see: http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/). FAN also brought this documentation to the attention of the National Research Council (NRC) in 2003 and we were thrilled when the panel produced a whole chapter on the brain in their groundbreaking review in 2006. In our submissions we also recommended the translation of a number of other studies which were yet to appear in Western journals. Unfortunately, their budget was already overspent, and they were only able to translate a limited number of foreign-language studies.

Since the NRC report was published the evidence that fluoride can damage the brain has grown and grown. Important new human studies on fluoride and IQ have been published by research teams in China, Iran, India, and — most recently — Mexico. And, for the first time, some mainstream western journals — including The Lancet and the widely-read Environmental Health Perspectives — are starting to take notice.

So what has FAN added to this?

In early 2007, at the suggestion of Michael Connett, FAN accessed and paid for the first-time translation of more Chinese studies on the brain - 19 in all. In the process we discovered that there is a huge body of work on this subject which has remained hidden from Western scientists. This includes 11 additional human studies investigating the relationship between fluoride and IQ, 4 human studies investigating the impact of fluoride on fetal and neonatal brain development, 1 study investigating the impact of fluoride on attention and behavior in occupationally-exposed humans, and several animal studies investigating the impact of fluoride on learning and memory.

A typical response to any startling finding in science is the question: “has this finding been repeated?” What FAN has found is that in China the finding that fluoride can damage the developing brain has been repeated again and again. What the West has seen to date is only the tip of the iceberg. Serious Western scholars who wish to access this body of work translated by FAN can do so by contacting Michael at . Meanwhile, Michael is discussing with the editor of the journal Fluoride the possibility of having a whole issue of the journal devoted to the best of this work.

Here’s a further description of these Chinese studies from Michael:
“The vast majority of these translated studies report that excessive fluoride exposure (whether via coal or water) is linked to reduced IQs in children, and other forms of neurological impairments - including behavioral modifications in newborn infants from high-fluoride areas, attention deficits in workers exposed to fluoride in industry; altered brain chemistry in fetuses (e.g. reduction in certain neurotransmitters); and learning, memory, and behavioral problems in fluoride-exposed animals. In addition, several of the studies add further support to the heightened risk that fluoride poses to individuals with suboptimal iodine intake.

While this translation project was a large financial investment for FAN, we believe that getting these studies published in a western science journal will help to raise awareness among scientists, government regulators, and the public about the neurotoxic risks posed by fluoride.”
So, for those of you who donated to FAN in last year’s fundraising drive, you may be happy to know that some of your investment went into this invaluable effort. Rest assured that any donation you send in for our 2008 campaign will also be spent wisely and effectively. Our biggest task in 2008 will be to convert our scientific victory into a politically victory. That can only happen if FAN and others can get this information to many more people, more investigative journalists, more environmental organizations, more decision makers and ultimately to Members of Congress

Paul Connett