Concerns
Rise Over Safety of
Fort
Fairfield’s Town Water Supply
FFUD Still Adding Potentially
Toxic Fluoride to Town’s Drinking Water
By:
David Deschesne
Fort
Fairfield Journal, May 29, 2013
The Fort Fairfield Utilities District
recently violated a Federal drinking water regulation due to excess turbidity.
The
FFUD is required to maintain their water treatment system so it ensures all
microbes, such as bacteria, viruses, and microscopic parasites, are destroyed.
According to a statement by FFUD, “In order to ensure proper disinfection,
the turbidity level in the water must be below a certain limit. During the
month of March, the water was above the limit more often than the number of
times allowed.”
The FFUD says the situation does not
required water users take immediate action. “However, if you have specific
health concerns, consult your doctor.”
Turbidity has no health effects.
However, it can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial
growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing
organisms that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea and
associated headaches.
“The reason for the problem was due
to the filter backwash header assembly needing repairs. We’ve had a new unit
on site since late last fall, but have not been able to install it due to the
high water demand the energy plant puts on the system. The only time we could
get to this was when the energy plant was shut down for their yearly
maintenance, which this year was April 1 to the 14th. The first of April we
shut down the water plant and replaced the old header assembly with a new
header assembly. Our turbidity readings are now 0.02 compared to the 0.3
limit. We are well within our limit and have not had any other violations.”
In addition to the problem of
turbidity, FFUD is continuing the process of adding the potentially toxic
compound hydrofluorosilicic acid (a/k/a “fluoride”) to the town’s water
supply.
According to the FFUD, they add
fluoride at 0.79 ppm to the water under the guise of “medicine” intended
to treat tooth decay even though fluoride supplements can only be obtained by
prescription after a thorough medical examination by a qualified doctor. FFUD
does not offer medical exams, or require prescriptions to drink their
medicated town water.
Fluoride consumption has been linked
to osteoporosis, tooth mottling and streaking and reduced IQ. It was added to
the Fort Fairfield water supply in 1959.
At their March, 16, 1959 town meeting
voters in Fort Fairfield approved the addition of fluoride to their town water
after the publication of a pro-fluoride
propaganda puff-piece
written by Dr. Robert Graves and published in the Fort Fairfield Review
just days before the town meeting vote.
Dr. Graves opened his hysterically
pro-fluoride
article by stating, “Never has any public health proposal been so thoroughly
studied by competent medical research and so completely supported by medical
facts as has fluoridation. Nevertheless, fluoridation has met the same
hysterical opposition, the same smearing by innuendo, the same groundless
fears, the same unsupported rumors as did pasteurization, chlorination, small
pox vaccination and every other worthwhile public health proposal that has
ever been introduced in the United States.”
Dr. Graves’ article was published
in an era where there was no internet and no satellite TV, so the ability for
one to independently research the claims that followed in his article were
severely hampered.
Today, information about the dangers
of fluoride is ubiquitous and anybody who wants to know more about it is able
to find it very easily.
The first place one can look to find
more information about fluoride is in the warning label on all fluoridated
toothpastes which state;
“If more than
used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a
Poison Control Center right away.”
Paul
Connett, from the Fluoride Action Network has put together an informational
flyer about fluoride. Reprinted herein from
http://www.fluoridealert.org/articles/fluoride-facts/
are excerpts of some of the ten points that highlight
the problems with fluoride:
Most
Developed Countries Do Not Fluoridate Their Water
More
people drink artificially fluoridated water in the U.S. alone than in the
rest of the world combined. Most advanced nations do not fluoridate their
water. In western Europe, 97% of the population has water without a single
drop of fluoride added to it.
Fluoridated
Countries Do Not Have Less Tooth Decay Than Non-Fluoridated Countries
It
is often claimed that fluoridated water is the main reason the United States
has had a large decline in tooth decay over the past 60 years. This same
decline in tooth decay, however, has occurred in all developed countries,
most of which have never added any fluoride to their water. Today, according
to data from the World Health Organization, there is no discernible
difference in tooth decay between the minority of developed countries that
fluoridate water, and the majority that do not.
Fluoride
Affects Many Tissues in the Body Besides the Teeth
Fluoridation
advocates have long claimed that the safety of fluoridation is beyond
scientific debate. However, according to the well-known toxicologist, Dr.
John Doull, who chaired the National Academy of Science’s review on
fluoride, the safety of fluoridation remains “unsettled” and “we have
much less information than we should, considering how long it has been going
on.” In 2006, Doull’s committee at the NAS published an exhaustive
500-page review of fluoride’s toxicity. The report concludes that fluoride
is an “endocrine disruptor” and can affect many things in the body,
including the bones, the brain, the thyroid gland, the pineal gland, and
even blood sugar levels.
Fluoridation
Is Not a “Natural” Process
The
main fluoride chemical (fluorosilicic acid) that is added to water is not
what most people would call a naturally occurring compound. It is a
corrosive acid captured in the air pollution control devices of the
phosphate fertilizer industry. Fluoride is captured in air pollution control
devices because fluoride gases are hazardous air pollutants that cause
significant environmental harm...Far from giving fluoride a clean bill of
health, the NAS called upon scientists to investigate if current fluoride
exposures in the United States are contributing to chronic health problems,
like bone disorders, thyroid disease, low intelligence, dementia, and
diabetes, particularly in people who are most vulnerable to fluoride’s
effects. These recommendations highlight that—despite 60 years of
fluoridation—many of the basic studies necessary for determining the
program’s safety have yet to be conducted.
40%
of American teenagers show visible signs of fluoride over-exposure.
According
to a recent national survey by the CDC, about 40% of American teenagers have
a condition called dental fluorosis. Fluorosis is a defect of tooth enamel
caused by fluoride’s interference with the tooth-forming cells. The
condition shows as cloudy spots and streaks and, in more severe cases, brown
stains and tooth erosion. In the 1950s, health officials claimed that
fluorosis would only affect 10% of children in fluoridated areas. This
prediction has proven false. Today, not only do 40% of American teenagers
have fluorosis, but, in some fluoridated areas, the rate is as high as 70 to
80%, with some children suffering advanced forms of the condition.
And
there are other sources of fluoride as well, including processed
beverages/foods, fluoride pesticides, tea, Teflon pans, and some fluorinated
pharmaceuticals. The concern today, therefore, is not just the safety of
fluoridated water by itself, but the safety of fluoridated water in
combination with all the other sources to which we’re now exposed.
For
Infants, Fluoridated Water Provides No Benefits, Only Risks
Infants
who consume formula made with fluoridated tap water consume up to 700 to
1,200 micrograms of fluoride, or about 100 times more than the recommended
amount. According to the CDC, these early spikes of fluoride exposure during
infancy provide no known advantage to teeth. These spikes can, however,
produce harm.
Recent
studies show that babies who are given fluoridated water in their formula
develop significantly higher rates of dental fluorosis. Because of this, a
number of prominent dental researchers now advise that parents should not
add fluoridated water to baby formula.
And
teeth are not the only concern. In July of 2012, scientists from Harvard
University warned that the developing brain may be another target for
fluoride toxicity. The Harvard team based their warning on a large number of
studies from China that have found reduced IQ scores among children exposed
to elevated fluoride during their early years of life. Twelve of the studies
the Harvard team reviewed found IQ loss at fluoride levels deemed safe in
the U.S. and a study sponsored by UNICEF found IQ loss in iodine-deficient
children at the so- called “optimal” fluoridation level. According to
the senior Harvard scientist who conducted the review, the possibility that
fluoridated water can reduce IQ is a matter that “definitely deserves
concern.”
Fluoride
Supplements Have Never Been Approved by the FDA
Fluoride
“supplements” are designed to provide children the same dose of fluoride
they would receive by drinking fluoridated water. Unlike other dietary
supplements, however, you can’t just walk into a grocery store and buy a
fluoride supplement. Because of fluoride’s toxicity, you can only buy a
fluoride “supplement” if you have a doctor’s prescription. Yet,
although federal law requires that prescription drugs be approved as safe
and effective by the FDA, the FDA has never approved fluoride supplements
for the prevention of tooth decay. In fact, the only fluoride supplements
the FDA has reviewed, have been rejected. So, with fluoridation, we are
adding to the water a prescription-strength dose of a drug that has never
been approved by the FDA.
Fluoride
Is the Only Medicine Added to Public Water
Fluoride
is the only chemical added to water that doesn’t actually treat the water.
Chlorine, for example, is added to kill bacteria so that we can drink the
water without getting sick. Fluoride, by contrast, is added to prevent a
disease (tooth decay) that is not caused by drinking water.
Fluoridation
proponents claim that fluoridated water is not a medication because, in
their view, it’s no different than adding iodine to salt or vitamin D to
milk. What proponents fail to acknowledge, however, is that iodine and
vitamin D are both essential nutrients; but fluoride is not.
An
essential nutrient is something the body has a physiological demand for. If
we don’t have enough iodine, for example, our thyroid gland won’t
function properly. Although fluoride advocates sometimes claim that fluoride
is a “nutrient,” the National Academy of Sciences has repeatedly
confirmed that this is not the case.
Because
fluoride is not a nutrient, the FDA has defined fluoride as a medicine when
used to prevent disease. Since tooth decay is a disease, adding fluoride to
water to prevent tooth decay is — as a matter of logic — a form of
medication. This is one of the reasons why most European nations have
rejected fluoridation: because, in their view, the water supply is an
inappropriate way to deliver medicine. With other medicines, it is the
patient, not the doctor, who has the right to decide which drug to take.
Fluoridation denies people this right.
Swallowing
Fluoride Provides Little Benefit to Teeth
When
water fluoridation first began back in the 1940s, the medical profession
believed fluoride needed to be ingested to be most effective in preventing
cavities. This was why fluoride was added to water and pills—because these
are things that people swallow.
Today,
however, it is now widely recognized that fluoride’s main benefit does not
actually come from ingestion, it comes from fluoride’s topical contact
with teeth—a fact that even the CDC has now acknowledged. So, not only
does fluoridation add a medicine to water, it adds a medicine that does not
actually need to be swallowed.
Even
if a person in Fort Fairfield does not have municipal water in their home,
they do drink it whenever they buy a coffee at a local convenience store that
uses municipal water as their source. Because fluoride is found in so many
water supplies and has made its way into processed foods (that use fluoridated
water) there is no way to adequately monitor the individual effects of the
medicine, or control the dosage. Fort Fairfield Utilities District does not
have any on-staff
medical doctors trained to monitor their water users for signs of over-fluoridation
and they offer no yearly medical exams to catch over-exposure
to that regulated medicine.
For those who do not want to drink
toxic fluoride in their water anymore, several choices are available: 1.)
Petition the local water district to remove it from the water; 2.) only drink
bottled, spring water since many brands of bottled water today are derived
from fluoridated municipal water supplies; or 3.) acquire a quality fluoride
filter and filter all water you drink. However, if you shower or bathe in
fluoridated water, the fluoride will still get into your body in uncontrolled
amounts by seeping through your skin.
The phone number to Fort Fairfield
Utilities District for your concerns about fluoride and to request it be
discontinued is: 472-1391.
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