EPA Scientists & Workers Call for an End to Water Fluoridation Because of Cancer Risk
Source: organicconsumers.org
From: Environment News Service ens-newswire.com
WASHINGTON, DC, August 30, 2005 –/WORLD-WIRE/– Eleven EPA employee unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals of the Civil Service have called for a moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country, and have asked EPA management to recognize fluoride as posing a serious risk of causing cancer in people. The unions acted following revelations of an apparent cover-up of evidence from Harvard School of Dental Medicine linking fluoridation with elevated risk of a fatal bone cancer in young boys.
The unions sent letters to key Congressional committees asking Congress to legislate a moratorium pending a review of all the science on the risks and benefits of fluoridation. The letters cited the weight of evidence supporting a classification of fluoride as a likely human carcinogen, which includes other epidemiology results similar to those in the Harvard study, animal studies, and biological reasons why fluoride can reasonably be expected to cause the bone cancer - osteosarcoma - seen in young boys and test animals.
The unions also pointed out recent work by Richard Maas of the Environmental Quality Institute, University of North Carolina that links increases in lead levels in drinking water systems to use of silicofluoride fluoridating agents with chloramines disinfectant.
The letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asked him to issue a public warning in the form of an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking setting the health-based drinking water standard for fluoride at zero, as it is for all known or probable human carcinogens, pending a recommendation from a National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council committee. That committee’s work is not expected to be done before 2006.
The unions also asked Congress and EPA’s enforcement office, or the Department of Justice, to look into reasons why the Harvard study director, Chester Douglass, failed to report the seven-fold increased risk seen in the work he oversaw, and instead wrote to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the federal agency that funded the Harvard study, saying there was no link between fluoridation and osteosarcoma. Douglass sent the same negative report to the National Research Council committee studying possible changes in EPA’s drinking water standards for fluoride.
The unions who signed the letters represent EPA employees from across the nation, including laboratory scientists in Ohio, Oklahoma and Michigan, regulatory support scientists and other workers at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. and science and regulatory workers in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Francisco.
They are affiliated with the National Treasury Employees Union, the American Federation of Government Employees, Engineers and Scientists of California/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, and the National Association of Government Employee/Service Employees International Union.
The unions’ letter is online at: http://nteu280.org/Issues/Fluoride/fluoridesummary.htm
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dr. William Hirzy Vice-President, NTEU Chapter 280
Phone (cell) 202-285-0498 This is complete notice.
USA Citizens can easily back-up the 7,000 EPA ‘career employees.’ Consider, you and your family need CLEAN & SAFE Drinking Water, every day. This is your opportunity to back those 7000+ EPA union members that care about scientific integrity and exposing the truth about ‘corporate hazardous waste fluorosilicates’ being metered into our drinking waters. Their common sense demand for a ‘moratorium on fluoridation’ along with Congressional Investigation incl. ‘under oath’ hearings is critical!
We, the undersigned, join with members of eleven EPA unions in their call for an immediate Congressional act placing a national moratorium on water fluoridation pending a full Congressional investigation into this public policy, which affects - directly and indirectly - every resident of the United States.
Read & Sign Citizens PETITION at: http://petition.powalliance.org/index.html
posted by AKA : Aztlan Agabatti @ 6:24 PM
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FDA Never Safety-Tested Fluoride Ingestion
FDA approval of fluoridated bottled water may be premature
New York -- October 24, 2006 -- Because of a glitch in the law,3 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never safety-tested fluoride for ingestion.1 Yet, the FDA recently OK’d cavity-preventing claims on fluoridated bottled water labels,2 giving Americans a false sense of security about the safety and effectiveness of drinking bottled water with fluoride added..
Sodium fluoride was sold before FDA safety and effectiveness testing laws were enacted in 1938 and 1962, respectively. So fluoride was exempt from scrutiny, or “grandfathered in,” without any FDA human or animal studies.3 “The premise was that all pre-1938 drugs were considered safe,” according to FDA correspondence.3
Sodium fluoride was already sold pre-1938 but not as a decay preventive. As strange as it sounds, it commonly sold as a rat poison. The FDA has no information on the medical uses of fluoride before 1938.3
According to the FDA’s website: “New products that are designed to treat human conditions or diseases are scrutinized by FDA's reviewers for safety and effectiveness before they can be made available to consumers.” 4 But this never occurred for fluoride or fluoridated bottled water.
In fact, the FDA can't assess whether something added to the water is safe because there's no way to know how much people will consume, according to an FDA spokesperson quoted in a Colorado newspaper. 5 "The drug approval process requires specific dosing and conditions to be treated and clinical trials,’ [FDA spokesperson] Koontz said,” according to the Daily Camera.
The FDA approved fluoridated toothpaste, as a drug, for topical application as in toothpaste; but not for swallowing. In fact, toothpaste tubes are imprinted with FDA “do not swallow” warnings.
However, fluoridated bottled water is meant to be swallowed. Not a nutrient, fluoride is a drug prescribed to treat humans against tooth decay. The FDA never studied fluoride ingestion, in any form, for adverse health effects or to discover if it really reduces tooth decay.6
Adding fluoride chemicals into public water supplies (water fluoridation) began in the mid 1900’s. It was then believed fluoride worked from the inside, that is to say, ingested fluoride incorporated into children’s, and only children’s, developing tooth enamel to shield against tooth decay. However, modern science proves fluoride absorbs into enamel by topical means alone or from the outside and it can occur over the lifetime of the tooth..
Unfortunately, science also tells us that ingested fluoride has many health risks, including tooth damage or dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth – a consequence of fluoride over-ingestion which is a growing U.S. problem.7
The following side effects may be early signs of possible chronic fluoride overdose, according to the Mayo Clinic website: 8
Pain and aching of bones; skin rash; sores in the mouth and on the lips; stiffness; white, brown, or black discoloration of teeth.
“Modern studies also link fluoride to arthritis, allergies, kidney and thyroid dysfunction, bone damage and cancer even at the low levels dentists claim is optimal to reduce tooth decay,” says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. “Adding fluoride to bottled water implies to the American public that FDA studies give fluoride a clean bill of health – and that’s not true,” says Beeber.
No studies link fluoride-free bottled water to more tooth decay, according to the American Dental Association (ADA).9
“The ADA should lobby for fluoride content labeling on all foods,” says Beeber. “Because fluoridated water is used in processing and because of fluoride pesticide residues, virtually all foods and beverages have a fluoride content – even soda, candy, french fries, grape juice and some chicken products. Americans are actually over-fluoridated now; and should avoid fluoridated water – whether from the tap or the bottle, in our opinion.” says Beeber.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists the fluoride content of many foods here: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Fluoride/Fluoride.html
Contact: Paul Beeber, nyscof@aol.com
President and General Counsel
New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc.
PO Box 263
Old Bethpage, NY 11804
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
Past News Releases: http://tinyurl.com/6kqtu
Paul Connett, PhD, paul@fluoridealert.org
Executive Director
Fluoride Action Network
http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health
SOURCE: New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc.
References:
1) U.S. FDA Approved Drug List
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/
2) US FDA, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements, October 14, 2006, “Health Claim Notification for Fluoridated Water and Reduced Risk of Dental Caries
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/flfluoro.html
3) E-mail correspondence at bottom of article
http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/12/fluoride-never-fda-approved-for.html
4) “FDA’s Growing Responsibilities for the Year 2001 and Beyond,” Page 2 – Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Adminstration
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/budgetbro/budgetbro.pdf
5) Daily Camera, “FDA wants out of 2B dispute - Feds say they didn’t expect comments to appear in ad,” By Ryan Morgan, October 24, 2006
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/county_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2423_5089663,00.html
6) Letter from Assemblyman John V. Kelly to Senator Robert Smith, August 14, 2000 http://www.fluoridealert.org/fda.htm
7) Surveillance for Dental Caries, Dental Sealants, Tooth Retentin, Edentulism, and Enamel Fluorosis --- United States, 1988—1994 and 1999—2002
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5403a1.htm
8) Mayo Clinic - Drugs & Supplements – Vitamins and Fluoride (Systemic) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR202600
9) E-mail correspondence with the American Dental Association
http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Fluoride&ADA.htm
END
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