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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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