Port Angeles to look at fluoridation of city water

By Sue Forde, Citizen Review Online

1/24/03

Port Angeles, WA - The Clallam County Commissioners have joined with certain doctors and dentists in support of flurodating Port Angeles' water. Dr. Tom Locke, county health officer, stated that the move is "essentially without health risk, and benefits are compelling," according to a local newspaper report. (1)

The City of Port Angeles will be holding public hearings on the issue on Feb. 18. Fluoridation would mean adding between .08 and 1.2 parts per million of fluoride to the city's water supply, officials have stated. The city could receive a grant from the Washington Dental Services Foundation to pay for the estimated $150,000 to $200,000 cost of installing a water fluoridation system, said Dr. Steve Chapman, a Port Angeles pediatrician, according to the news report.(2) Forks is the only city in Jefferson and Clallam Counties that fluoridates its water.

The adverse effects of fluoride have been known for years. Citizens for Safe Drinking Water called for a Congressional investigation of the matter. Their website - www.keepers-of-the-well.org - provides much evidence toward the argument against fluoridation.

In a letter to the Congress, the organization stated, "Although it is unquestioned that EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] establishes Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for acutely toxic substances found in source water, in a letter to George Glasser on April 2, 1998, EPA refutes the FDA [Food & Drug Administration] assertion that EPA regulates fluoride added as a prevention of disease by stating, "In the United States, there are no Federal safety standards which are applicable to drinking water additives, including those intended for use in fluoridating water." (3)

Fluoride was found to be an equivocal carcinogen by the National Cancer Institute Toxicological Program. (4)The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology has classified Fluoride as an unapproved dental medicament due to its high toxicity. Further studies by the New Jersey Department of Health have now confirmed a 6.9 fold increase in bone cancer in young males.(5) Earlier studies had found a 5% increase in all types of cancers in fluoridated communities. (6)

Infertility in women was found to increase with water fluoridation. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists reported a close correlation between decreasing total fertility rates in women between ages of 10 and 49, and increasing fluoride levels. They also reported that a review of all of the animal studies done to date shows that fluoride adversely affects fertility in most animal species. (7)

In a chronology of fluoridation, much evidence is pointed toward fluoride's adverse effects, and what many communities and countries have done to reverse it. (8)

No correlation was found between the level of fluoride in water and dental caries, according to studies. (9)

Ironically, from 1931 to 1939, the U.S. Public Health Service sought to remove fluorides from water supplies because of endemic mottled teeth. (10)

Now that trend seems to be reversing.

Other Sources about Fluoridation:

Fluoride: Protected Pollutant or Panacea? (lots of articles on the topic) http://www.fluoridation.com/

Fluoride: The Dose is the Poison - http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/dose_is_the_poison/the_dose_is_the_poison.htm

WHY EPA'S HEADQUARTERS UNION OF SCIENTISTS OPPOSES FLUORIDATION - http://www.fluoridation.com/epa2.htm

Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org/Food_water_safety/Fluoridation/fluoride.htm

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1. Peninsula Daily News, 1/22/03, A-3.
2. Ibid.
3. http://www.keepers-of-the-well.org/product_pdfs/FDA_response_pt.pdf
4. Maurer, et. al., Fluoride an equivocal carcinogen J. National Cancer Institute 82, 1118-26, 19905.
5. Cohn, Perry D. Ph.D. An Epidemiological Report on Drinking Water Fluoridation and Osteosarcoma in Young Males New Jersey Department of Health, Environmental Health Service, Trenton NJ November 8, 1992
6. Yiamouyiannis, J.A. and Dean Burk, "Fluoridation and Cancer: Age Dependence of Cancer Mortality Related to Artificial Fluoridation," Fluoride, Vol. 10 #3 (102-123) 1977
7. Freni SC, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, 42:109-121, 1994
8. A Chronology of Fluoridation - http://curezone.com/dental/fluoride.asp
9. Diesendorf M. Tooth Decay not related to fluoride intake from water Nature Vol. 322 10 July 1986 ; Colquhoun J. Tooth Decay related to economics of family American Laboratory 17:98-109 1985; Colquhoun J. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 13:37-41 1985; Dr. John Yiamouyiannis statement both in his book (Fluoride the Aging Factor" pub Health Action Press 2nd ed. 1986 )and during debates has not been challenged by the ADA or others. Ziegelbecker D. Fluoride 14; 123-128 1981
10. Ibid.