Good afternoon, Mayor Leffingwell and Council members.  On the screen, you’ll see the label for hydrofluosilicic acid which must appear on the tanker trunk as it rolls along the hazmat highway between Jacksonville, Florida, home of the vendor Lucier Ltd. to the Austin Water Utility.  Hydrofluosilicic acid is, of course, the chemical used for fluoridating Austin's drinking water:  Lucier calls it fluorosilicic acid (it has at least 20 names), but it's the same thing.   It wasn’t easy to find this image.  Let me read it to you in part: 

· DANGER – POISON and not one but two skull and crossbones symbols.  [They really mean it.] 
· WARNING – DO NOT TAKE INTERNALLY. [Sounds like a good idea.]
· Avoid contact with skin, eyes, mouth and clothing. 
· Avoid breathing fumes or vapor.
· Special protection information:  Respirators approved for fluorine, rubber gloves, chemical goggles and a protective apron or acid resistant clothing should be used.  Special precautions should be taken in handling and storing material. 
· ANTIDOTE:  Skin:  copious amounts of water.  Internal:  contact physician. 
· Other:  consult physician if ingestion has occurred
· And then there’s a warning about what happens when it contacts fire and directions on what to do when it spills.  Not nice stuff to be around.

Now, up in the right hand corner are the magic words that turn this poison from a hazardous pollutant into a benign product:  “Directions for Water Fluoridation”:  Application of this product for water fluoridation is subject to approval of all interested state and local health authorities.  Its use should conform to the American Water Works Association’s “statement of recommended policy and procedure.” 

We know that all interested state and local health authorities have been rubberstamping water fluoridation for decades despite mounting evidence of both harm and ineffectiveness.  The American Water Works Association’s jurisdiction pertains only to handling procedures. 

Finally:  “Exact dosage must not raise the total fluoride concentration in drinking water above 1.5 parts per million.” (U.S. Public Health Service maximum limit).  That’s hardly reassuring.  It was the U.S. Public Health Service which, in 1950, first caved in to corporate pressure to endorse water fluoridation, triggering the disastrous cascade of copycat bureaucratic endorsements that keep it in place to this day.   

Look at the label again.  That’s what we spend millions of dollars to put in our water.  Thank you for your time.