Letter: Stop fluoridation of water supply

Letter: Stop fluoridation of water supply
from the Worcester Telegram 
Posted May. 8, 2015 at 5:16 PM

Yes…..for the first time in memory, the League of Women Voters (LWV) is NOT holding a debate for a contested Board of Selectman seat.

Reasons given by a LWV spokesperson included: My opponent was unavailable; the spring vacation week was ruled out; unavailability of a location for a televised debate and requisite LWV staffing; and the LWV didn’t have enough time.Really? Since February?

The LWV reason for the existence of the LWV is to educate the voters re: issues, candidates and elections. The LWV has failed in their mission.

Town Warrant Article #14, regarding fluoridation of the public water supply is going to be debated. The Town Manager stated he was unaware of discussions regarding the issue. On Thursday, January 11th, 2007, at the Town Hall, a Public Forum was held. Issues discussed included: The appointed Board of Health, no longer the voters, decide to start or continue to medicate the public water supply; forced public medication; the dangers to infants’ health and the fact that fluoride is a poison. Studies have shown there is no difference in tooth health between countries that fluoridate and those that don’t. 

There is evidence fluoride has an effect on mental health, especially in children. Things have changed since the 1950’s. There is no medically proven benefit from public water supply fluoridation. Fluoride is a poison, government “standards” notwithstanding. There are other voluntary methods if you choose fluoridation,
 
I urge you to vote to discontinue the forced public fluoride medication of our water supply.


BENJAMIN TARTAGLIA
Shrewsbury
 

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Shrewsbury Town Warrant Article #14 

ARTICLE 14 (By Petition)
To see if the Town will vote to approve a resolution to ban water fluoridation, or to take any other action in relation thereto.
Motion: I move that the Town vote to pass the following resolution to ban water fluoridation: 

WHEREAS, Fluoride is the only drug added to public water. Fluoride is added to drinking water to prevent a disease (tooth decay), and as such becomes a drug by FDA definition. Water fluoridation is a form of mass medication that denies you the right to informed consent. All water treatment chemicals, with the exception of fluoride, are added to make drinking water safe and pleasant to consume. Fluoride is the only chemical added to treat people who consume the water, rather than the water itself. With water fluoridation, you can't control the dose, you can't control who gets the treatment, and it violates the individual's right to informed consent to medication. 

WHEREAS, The Fluoride added to the public water supply is not pharmaceutical-grade which you would find in toothpaste. China does not allow water fluoridation. Instead, the waste product from China's phosphate fertilizer industry is shipped to the United States, where it is added to our water supply. 

 
WHEREAS, Ninety-nine percent of fluoridated water ends up on lawns, down shower drains, toilets, etc., where it ends up as waste polluting the environment. According to the EPA, it's illegal to release hexafluorosilicic acid (fluoride) into rivers and lakes or release the parent gases into the atmosphere, but if public water utilities add it to your drinking water, it's no longer classified as a pollutant. To put that in perspective, Shrewsbury has expended over $104,000 in the past 6 years on fluoride, which may mean that approximately $103,000 worth of fluoride never reached a citizen's tooth. Shrewsbury has budgeted $25,000 for Fluoride in FY 2015. 

WHEREAS, Fluoride has been classified as a neurotoxin, in the same category as arsenic, lead, and mercury. An article was published in the March 2014 journal The Lancet Neurology in which medical authorities classified fluoride as a developmental neurotoxin. 

WHEREAS, More than 40 percent of American teens show visible signs of fluoride overexposure. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 41 percent of American children between the ages of 12 and 14 have dental fluorosis. Outwardly visual signs of this condition include pitting and discoloration of your teeth, caused by long-term ingestion of fluoride during early tooth formation. 

WHEREAS, Fluoridated countries do not have less tooth decay than non-fluoridated countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no discernible difference in tooth decay between developed countries that fluoridate their water and those that do not. The decline in tooth decay the US has experienced over the last 60 years, which is often attributed to fluoridated water, has likewise occurred in all

developed countries-most of which do not fluoridate their water.

WHEREAS, Swallowing fluoride provides little benefit to teeth. In 1999, the CDC acknowledged that the predominant benefit of fluoride is topical not systemic. Fluoride's benefits are largely topical thus it makes more sense to provide readily available topical treatments such as fluoride toothpaste instead of ingesting fluoride through the public water supply. What is clear is that ingesting fluoride offers little, if any, benefit to your teeth.

WHEREAS, The City of Worcester, the second largest city in New England, does not add fluoride to their public water supply. Voters rejected measures to begin adding fluoride to the city water supply five times since the 1950s.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Shrewsbury Town Meeting is against adding fluoride to the public water supply because fluoride should be a choice, not a mandate. With all other medicine, it is the patient and not the doctor who gets to choose, and when a medicine is added to water, that right is taken away; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that Shrewsbury Town Meeting calls upon the Town of Shrewsbury to ban water fluoridation of its public water supply.

This is a petition article brought by Bryan Moss, 16 Ruthen Circle and others.