On September 6th, the Portland City Council will hold a hearing about whether to fluoridate the city’s drinking water, with a vote currently scheduled for September 12th. You have a chance to learn, weigh in and have your voice heard, whether you get to speak at the formal hearing or not. The contact information for each Commissioner is listed below, but you contact them by phone, email, or head on down to the hearing.
In the six and a half years since we launched the Archimedes Movement, our organization has been asked many times to endorse petitions, bills and policy statements related to health and health care. When asked, we turn to our mission for guidance – to create opportunities for informed civic education and engagement, bringing people together who share the values of better health care and health for all. We believe that an informed, engaged public will find their way to that end.
In order to help you be better informed, our board is pointing you to three national sites that provide non-partisan summaries that can help you find inform your voice on this important issue.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) – links to government and non government white papers on the impact of water fluoridation.
National Cancer Institute– a set of Frequently Asked Questions that goes over the benefits and addresses concerns about water fluoridation.
Health.gov– A bit dense and wordy, but a concise summary covering frequently asked questions about water fluoridation.
We urge you to take a look at the information on these and other sites that they link to, become knowledgeable, and then let the City’s Commissioners know what you think. If we all took the time to become better informed we will make the best decision for ourselves and for the health of people in our community. Don’t let this opportunity go by to 1) learn, and then 2) share your thoughts.
Here are the phone numbers and emails for the City’s Commissioners.
Sam Adams, Mayor
Phone: (503) 823-4120
E-mail: mayorsam@portlandoregon.gov
Amanda Fritz
Phone: (503) 823-3008
E-mail: amanda@portlandoregon.gov
Nick Fish
(503) 823-3589
E-mail: Nick@portlandoregon.gov
Randy Leonard
Phone: (503) 823-4682
E-mail: randy@portlandoregon.gov
Dan Saltzman
Phone: (503) 823-4151
E-mail: dan@portlandoregon.gov
As an alternative to Proctor and Gamble and the US government, you might want to go here and look around: http://www.naturalnews.com
Deception #1) The fluoride ADDED to the water is not “naturally occurring fluoride.” It’s a chemical byproduct often purchased from chemical plants in China.
Deception #2) The false idea that ingesting fluoride is somehow good for your teeth. At best, fluoride is a topical treatment which should be swished around your mouth and then spat out. And that’s only if it’s truly natural (mineral) fluoride, not the fluosilicic acid toxins being pushed as fluoride.
Deception #3) What cities call “fluoride” is actually a toxic cocktail of over 100 deadly industrial chemicals and heavy metals, many of which are purchased in bulk from China, where industrial processing plants are trying to get rid of their excess toxic waste by labeling it “sodium fluoride.”
Deception #4) There is no such thing as a “low” level of fluoride or an “optimum” level of fluoride in drinking water. Pure drinking water should contain NO fluoride whatsoever.
Deception #5) Fluoride is “safe” for human consumption. Then why is sodium fluoride labeled by its industrial manufacturers with stern safety warnings about causing severe harm to humans?
This description of water additives as polluted industrial wastes is simply mistaken.
Citizens must look past the classic Name Calling Propaganda and understand the remarkable purity of water additives.
Contaminants are not detectable in the majority of assays. The National Sanitation Foundations’s (NSF) Standard 60 is written into Oregon Law. Contrary to your misinformation, the purity standards exceed and are more specific than for medication (USP)
Readers can personally view the quality control assay results for all of the micro-contaminants of concern at: http://www.nsf.org/business/water_distribution/pdf/NSF_Fact_Sheet.pdf
There is no conceivable effect from such tiny amounts
For example, FDA’s food concentrations by comparison show arsenic present from fluoridation to be minuscule. The average daily arsenic consumption from diet is 56.3 micrograms, from fluoridated water 0.24 micrograms
Reference: Dietary Reference Intakes, National Academies Press 2001
You are also mistaken that natural fluoride & the fluoride added to achieve optimal fluoride are different.
Fluoride ions are identical regardless of the original source. The original material splits. That process is called dissociation. In the case of both Calcium fluoride (the usual source of naturally occurring fluoride) & the three possible water additives, the negatively charged fluoride ion in water completely separates from the other part of the compound
The non-fluoride part of the original substances are all naturally occurring substances: Ca++, Na+ & SiO2 . . calcium ions, sodium & silicon dioxide. Sodium is one of the elements in common table salt. The chemical compound silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is most commonly found in nature as sand or quartz, as well as in plant cell walls. Hardly evil stuff
The chemical process for calcium and sodium fluoride is simple dissociation, for the fluorosilicates, hydrolysis
The study which shows that the fluorosilicates completely dissociates is: Reexamination of Hexafluorosilicate hydrolysis by 19F NMR & pH measurement. Environ. Sci. Technol Finney WF, et al
Sadly many find the mistaken belief that somehow fluoride ions from water additives are different & carry a sort of original sin from their parent chemicals convincing
These ideas, & many like them, win elections about half the time. Fortunately for Portland’s oral health, especially the kids, it appears that the City Commissioners are listening to legitimate experts and doing the right thing
I’d like to thank the commissioners for doing what is best for our entire community. Adding fluoride to the water is the right thing to do. As elected officials it is your duty to do what is best for the public. Portland is counting on you to do the right thing and vote yes to community water fluoridation. Thanks in advance! You have my support!
It is disappointing that The Archimedes Project won’t take a stand on the science of public health. Community water fluoridation (CWF) is a bit like vaccination . quite a few Oregonians cloak themselves in Internet “research” and harm the greater good. Surely if vaccination or parents “right” to pray rather than medicate their kids were brought to a vote would not treat those matters as routine partisan politics.
The most compelling benefit from community water fluoridation (CWF) is preventing 2/3rds of the operations for terrible cavities in preschool kids are avoided
That huge Louisiana study also showed that 50% of the dental bills for the kids studied were avoided.
Under anesthesia procedures include extractions root canals & stainless steel crowns & cost up to $15,000 and happen more often in PDX without CWF.
Done under anesthesia procedures include extractions root canals & stainless steel crowns & cost up to $15,000.
In Oregon that money can be used by Governor Kitzhaber’s new Medicaid cares system to buy more medical care for poor kids. It is really a very big deal both for the kids who don’t go to the operating room and Medicaid pediatric budget.
Katherine has brought up some interesting points which one should evaluate and research. It is way to easy to out of hand follow what is presented by the mainstream proponents of fluoride as a means of improving childhood health. It is very important to look at the long term health effects as we grow and age into adult hood and old age.
Billy states that the products are safe and points to a document which states that the main contaminant found in the water fluoridation products is arsenic. Arsenic found in 43% of the samples.
Dr. Myron Wentz in The Health Home ( http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781593156558-4 ): page 164 states
“Cellular Truths: Fluorine better known as fluoride is the most electronegative and reactive of all the elements. It binds tenaciously to other elements and compounds, preventing them from entering into other chemical reactions. The presence of just one fluoride atom in any size molecule can totally change it’s nature and function. Fluoride has the ability to poison even the strongest of the body’s enzyme systems.
Most importantly, fluoride – as with mercury, antimony and arsenic – inhibits the Krebs cycle that produces the ATP energy required for powering all cellular functions.”
A long detailed yet informative report: http://www.cleanwaterportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/General-statement-Thiessen.pdf
per Wentz ….. “greater bone brittleness and reduced mechanical strength, which increases the risk of bone fractures, especially in the elderly. Incidence of hip fractures continues to increase in the United States, and too often these fractures intitiate a cascade of complications that end in death.” on bone health http://www.womeningovernment.org/bone