WASHINGTON ACTION FOR SAFE WATER

To the Frostburg Mayor & Council
January 2011

Good Evening Gentleman:

Let me start my remarks by quoting one of our founders:

“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny.”  Thomas Jefferson (1778)

An ancient Roman adage says that “what touches all must be approved by all.”

Folks, water fluoridation was the first attempt by our government in socialized medicine.  When you mass medicate a population with a one size fits all approach without first considering the health, age, weight, dose, dosage, and the sensitivity to the medication by a subset of the population you run a foul to any notion of modern pharmacology, where informed consent, monitoring patient response to the medication and controlling the dosage are all paramount.

If we look the FDA OTC toothpaste warning on ingested fluoride requires a warning label on toothpaste for ingested fluoride that requests the consumer to call the poison control center after ingesting more than a pea size amount or the equivalent concentration of 8 oz. of fluoridated drinking water at 1 mg per liter;  while the other federal agencies are allowing or promoting both the MCL & MCLG for ingested fluoride in the drinking to remain at 4 ppm.  You see gentleman you have a dilemma here the in regulatory standard between two federal agencies towards ingesting fluoridated water, toothpaste and food stuffs.  The EPA water division has been dragging its feet for 5 years now on the new risk assessment ask for by the 2006 NRC report.  We are still waiting!!!  The EPA Water Division must either show with the current science available that ingesting 4 ppm fluoride is safe & effective at the MCL & MCLG or submit a lower MCLG &MCL that reflects this new science, which would by the way resemble FDA warning label and the PDR for Luride ( fluoride tablets) for ingested fluoride.

Let’s take Colgate Whiting  Toothpaste.  170 grams or 6 ounces have .24% of sodium fluoride within the concentration.  1/4 mg. of sodium fluoride is within 1/10th of a gram or a pea size amount of toothpaste.    8oz. or 1 cup of fluoridated water at 1 ppm. per liter = 1/4 mg of sodium fluoride.  4 ppm of fluoride per liter  = 2 oz. of water at the FDA toothpaste warning standard.

In the 2003 6^th edition PDR special warning section for Luride – children under the age of six should not be taking the same dose (1 mg.) that municipalities add to the drinking water at 1mg per Liter or I ppm.  Why gentleman would you want to continue this practice when the PDR states that not even a dentist or doctor should be administering this equivalent dose to a child under the age of six.

I my humble opinion, when it becomes apparent to you that these two standards for ingestion are in conflict with the CDC & EPA standard, then it is only prudent for the Mayor & Council to error on the side of caution and discontinue this practice.  If the two federal standards are allowed to continue to be in conflict for ingested fluoride, this could result in more potential harm to the citizens on Frostburg’s Water Supply.  In the strongest of terms, the EPA Water Divisions is committing criminal regulatory negligence by refusing to finish this new risk assessment and not lower the MCL & MCLG for fluoride in the drinking water.

The ADA warning for infant formula when using fluoridated water and the MSDS warnings on chronic ingestion of fluoride from your supplier that highlighted their own standard of 1 mg. per kilogram per the AWWA & NSF Standard 60 does not provide a adequate margin of safety for ingestion. Furthermore, the synergistic effects of adding this fluoride toxic waste from China with lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, etc. should make any reasonable person stand up and take notice.

Recently, Dr. William Hirzy V.P. of EPA union commented that they have urged caution about adding fluoride to drinking water for a long time. In 1986 NFFE [National Federation of Federal Employees] local 2050 submitted an amicus brief in support of an NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council] suit vs. EPA over the issue. Other EPA unions joined the HQ union in 2005 in calling for EPA to consider a health based standard of zero fluoride in drinking water based on cancer studies.

He said, that the announcement on Jan. 7 that EPA and DHHS were considering lowering the recommended fluoride levels in water, not a whisper was made about other adverse effects reported in the peer-reviewed literature and cited in the National Research Council’s report to EPA on fluoride toxicity. These include suppression of thyroid function at levels now experienced in the U.S. population, neurotoxicity, including lowering of IQ in children, and increased risk of bone cancer seen in animal and human epidemiology studies.

He stated that a 1990 study (the largest ever done) published by the National Institute of Dental Research involving 39,000 U.S. kids failed to show statistically significant decreases in caries rates in kids who drank fluoridated water all their lives vs. kids who drank unfluoridated water all their lives. The study showed a “savings” of 0.6 tooth surfaces (out of 128 surfaces) in the fluoridated kids. David Locker, in a report commissioned by Canadian health authorities found fluoridation’s effect, “…is not large in absolute terms, is often not statistically significant and may not be of clinical significance.” Similar results are reported from New Zealand, and four studies in Europe and Cuba showed no increases in caries rates when fluoridation is halted.

Furthermore he stated, his 21 year old son has been drinking only distilled water since going off his mother’s breast, and he’s had only one cavity in his permanent teeth.. that’s less than half as many as were seen in the average fluoridated kid’s mouth in the NIDR 1990 study.

Gentlemen, not one of you sitting here tonight voted to add fluoride to the drinking water.  It is time to stand up to the plate and do the right thing and remove this substance from our water supply and give back the citizens of Frostburg and the surrounding area the right of freedom of choice in their own health decisions.

Thank you,

Bernard W. Miltenberger
President
The Pure Water Committee of Western Maryland, Inc.