Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.  I’d like to read a quote from the late former Mayor Roy Butler, which appeared in the Austin Citizen on  August 19, 1971:

“For every question raised about fluoride’s effectiveness in promoting dental health, there seems to be another question about its ill effects on health in general, and this difference of opinion extends very deeply into the medical profession itself.

“Where the rights of individuals are involved, regardless of whether they are in the majority or the minority, I am reluctant to overrule those rights especially when there is no critical requirement for the public health.

“And so for this reason I have serious problems with the issue, and while I am not prepared to say at this moment whether I am going to vote for or against, I am probably leaning in the direction of not being able to vote for fluoridation at this time.” 

 Mayor Butler understood the issues— the shaky medical underpinnings, the denial of freedom of choice. 

Yet later that year, when City Council took a vote, he voted with the majority.  What changed his mind?  Likely it was a non-binding referendum held in September 1971, shortly after he had publicly expressed his reservations, in which the voters approved water fluoridation by a small margin  It was a referendum the Council had no legal power to call, though they might not have known it at the time.  The law was clarified in 1990 by the Texas Secretary of State.  Since nothing else has changed, it would be illegal to hold a non-binding referendum on fluoridation today, just as it was in 1971.  I’m offering into the record some recent correspondence between myself and the City’s legal department.  And I’m sure there are some Council members who will be happy to hear that we agree with them on something.  

If City Council can’t initiate referenda, you can push for a warning to be placed on the City’s monthly water bill—a warning that states plainly the dangers our fluoride supplier, Mosaic, has freely admitted to on its own MSDS sheets.  Dangers that include serious  damage to bones and teeth of both adults and children.  It would be a commendable first step toward ending a practice of mass medication with a non-FDA-approved drug that’s gone on far too long.

You might also want to keep your eyes on a lawsuit currently going forward in California that addresses the non-FDA-approved status of fluorosilicic acid, and we’ve already provided you some information on that.

 Thank you.