What I didn’t know hurt my son….
It was suggested by James and Bill that I post my January letter to the Washington Supreme Court. My letter may help some understand why getting rid of water fluoridation is such an important part of my life…why I can’t NOT fight to get rid of it. My heart breaks for those with autism whose parents are still in the dark about fluoride’s profound affect on chemically sensitive individuals, which equals most on the autism spectrum. How long will it take for their moms and dads to discover it? It took me roughly 2 decades…meanwhile, my poor son paid dearly for my ignorance. It makes me so sad just to write about it or to read my own previously written words about how bad things were before I knew. Our story is so long, but this is just a tiny snipet to try to help the Supreme Court Justices understand why fluoridation should not be forced on the town of Port Angeles, or any other town, anywhere, ever.
Audrey Adams
___________________________________________________________
January 15, 2010
To the Washington Supreme Court:
This letter regards the case of the City of Port Angeles v. Our Water-Our Choice and Protect Our Waters, v. Washington Dental Service Foundation LLC, Case No. 82225-5.
I am competent to testify, age 54, and make this affidavit under oath and penalty of perjury.
My son Kyle, age 24, has autism and suffers from pain, severe headaches and other symptoms when exposed to chemicals in his food, in the air or in his water. He works as an office assistant at a local community college, but cannot do his job after chemical exposures. He must be protected from such exposures, but water is the hardest to avoid.
His sensitivity to chemicals is so great that he cannot drink fluoridated water and cannot shower in fluoridated water without suffering a severe headache that lasts for hours. Someone wearing perfume will cause his heart rate to skyrocket (demonstrated by accident in the doctor’s office). A tiny bit of yellow dye #5 in white cake will cause him to scream and run as if pursued by killer bees. Preservatives will cause him to break out in a red sweat and will guarantee a wild ride for all those around him. His doctor-ordered chemical and dietary avoidance regimen is complex, time-consuming and expensive, but necessary.
After exposure to chemicals, including fluoridated tap water, the intensity of his pain creates behaviors that make him appear many times more autistic—because he cannot talk, cannot listen, cannot cope—until the pain subsides. After exposure, his wild and erratic behavior makes him appear violent, but his normal self is a very gentle man, happy in his home, loving his job, enjoying playing the piano and showing tons of love to his family.
Even with the use of a chlorine filter on the showerhead, Kyle’s headache, body pain and reduced function follow shortly after the shower. Moving his shower to the evening moves the pain to the evening and into the night, with screams, sweating, rapid heartbeat and violent bed-pounding, shaking our house like an earthquake. Visits to locations that do not fluoridate, but do chlorinate (with no chlorine filter) have shown that these severe reactions are not present with chlorine alone. He has no negative reactions to water as God made it.
Providing fluoride-free water is very expensive and labor-intensive. My tap water costs me $0.0042 per gallon, but fluoride-free water at the grocery store is $0.45/gal to refill jugs or $1.00 to $3.00 per gallon off the shelf—a mind-blowing 100-700 times more expensive!
My son’s greatest impediment to a livable life is pain, not autism. Similar reactions to chemicals are very common in the autistic population and, unfortunately, those that are the most out of control have parents who do not yet know that their fluoridated water could be causing their child’s wild behavior. It took me almost two decades to fully discover this, partly because his intolerance to chemicals continues to increase and worsen as he ages.
One might think that we should move to a non-fluoridated area, but Kyle’s job took many years to cultivate and was tailor-made for him, with his unique abilities and disabilities in mind. It is in the heart of, and surrounded by, fluoridated water districts. He travels to work on Metro Access (a transportation service for disabled persons) which only serves areas in King County that are served by regular buses, an area almost entirely fluoridated.
The chemical drug fluoride can intensify pain and increase autistic symptoms due to their inefficient detoxification system. The cause of autism is unknown, but most experts agree that genetic vulnerability + environmental exposures = the behavioral symptoms labeled “autism”. In the 1980’s autism affected 1 in 2,000—now it’s 1 in 110. Countless parents have reported improvement of their child’s behavior and school success by reducing their child’s toxic load and providing chemical-free food and fluoride-free water.
Every medication has a risk, including fluoride, but only one medication is delivered to everyone regardless of health status, regardless of vulnerability, regardless of consent, regardless of dose and regardless of individual tolerance. Our babies, children and vulnerable populations need our utmost protection and conservatism from ALL chemicals.
It is unconscionable to add a toxic drug to something so basic to survival as water when there is any chance whatsoever that doing so might harm even a single child and make that water undrinkable and unusable to those with chemical intolerances. There is simply no drug that is safe for everyone. No chemical or drug is benign, not even fluoride.
As a person with a developmental disability, a serious medical condition, and completely reliant on others to protect him, the refusal of public servants to recognize the toxicity and harm of fluoridation threatens every aspect of Kyle’s right to life, liberty and happiness.
As I said before, I am 54 and competent to testify. I make this affidavit under oath and penalty of perjury.
Respectfully submitted,
Audrey Adams