Good afternoon, Mayor Wynn and Councilmembers.  Last week my husband kind of chided me for distributing a handout that showed the American Dental Association still firmly behind their misguided water fluoridation policy—despite having just warned against it moments before.  But I did it on purpose, to showcase their inconsistency—their untrustworthiness in this particular matter.   It would seem ADA wants universal water fluoridation, but not the liability that might go along with it.
 
The warning ADA  issued was against mixing fluoridated water with baby formula in order to avoid unsightly fluorosis in the infants’ developing teeth—a condition they trivialize as “merely cosmetic.”  We know better.  Fluorosis is an outward sign of systemic fluoride poisoning. 

Here are some of the conditions fluoride in the water causes:   

Osteoporosis.  Remember when brittle bone disease was considered the province of elderly women?  Not any more.  Men get it too now, especially active men who consume a lot of water, like athletes and construction workers.

Bone cancer, called osteosarcoma, was almost unheard of in 1973 when 12-year-old Ted Kennedy, Jr. came down with it.  Its incidence has shot up 5-fold since then, and it’s 5 to 7 times more frequent in fluoridated than in non-fluoridated areas. The victims are mainly young boys.

  
                                                                 


Thyroid Dysfunction.  Goiter, along with all the attendant problems of an underactive thyroid, had all but disappeared from the American scene by the 1950’s.  Now it’s back, thanks to fluoride’s ability to displace vital iodine in the body. Fluoride is an endocrine disrupter bigtime.  

Kidney Problems.  Anyone with chronic kidney disease—some 26 million Americans, according to the National Kidney Foundation—is placed at additional risk as their already
underperforming kidneys struggle overtime to eliminate the poison.

Arthritis that’s related to bone loss is another one, and I could go on… but not in three minutes.  I will call your attention to the National Research Council’s comprehensive 2006 report on fluoride toxicity which covers all this and more.  The report is available free online in a searchable form.  Their web address is too long to give here, but if anyone wants to contact me at fluoride.info@yahoo.com, I’ll send you the link.

Finally—this just in.  For the last month, my blog at www.fluoridefreeaustin.com had  been coming up first in a Google search on the two words “fluoride” and “Austin” in that order.  But a few days ago, another document suddenly replaced it at the top of the page—one posted by the Austin Water Utility in support of fluoridation called “Fluoride in Drinking Water.”   Somebody is apparently paying attention…and I’m delighted that they are.  I’ll talk about that document next time.  Thank you.  

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11571
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/water/fluoride.htm