Stranger than Strangelove: Water Fluoridation in Sonoma County
© 2013 Jenny Miller (published by permission of the author)
The other day I was hanging out with Timothy, a neighborhood kid, when our friend Emma
came up, waving a newspaper. “I can’t believe it!” she said, “they’re planning to put fluoride
in our wonderful clean Sonoma County water supply.” “So what’s wrong with that?” I asked.
Don’t you want all the little kids to have strong teeth?”
“Fluoridation doesn’t improve anyone’s teeth,” she snapped. “Why is it that children in
Europe, where they’ve almost completely abolished the practice of fluoridation, have the
same amount of dental decay that children in this country do, even though most of our
water supply is fluoridated? And it’s not even really fluoride,” she continued,“it’s fluorosilicic
acid, an industrial waste product from the phosphate fertilizer industry. It was killing all the
animals and vegetation near the fertilizer plants, and making people sick, so they had to
think of a profitable way to get rid of it.”
“Wait just a minute” I interrupted. “Fluoridation has been around for a long time, probably
before they even had phosphate fertilizer plants.” “Yes,” Emma replied, “Originally it was
dreamed up by tycoons in the aluminum and nuclear industries, since they needed to a place
to dump their toxic fluoride too. Before fluoride started being inserted into our water supply,
it was used primarily as a rat poison. The industrial leaders hired Freud’s nephew, a guy
named Bernays, to convince the American people that hazardous waste is good for us. He
was the same guy that convinced American women that smoking cigarettes was both
glamorous and liberating, by having debutantes in a women’s march all light up cigarettes
when he gave the signal. Even the Nazis learned their mass brainwashing techniques from
Bernays.”
Just to humor her, I said “OK, maybe somebody is getting rich by selling us their industrial
waste products, but isn’t that the American way? If it keeps me from having to go to the
dentist, I’m all for it.” Emma glared at me. “If you think fluoride is so great, you can go to a
dentist who will paint it on your teeth. Use it in your mouthwash! Or in your toothpaste!
The state of California will even pay to have kids’ teeth painted with fluoride, for those
parents who’ve been brainwashed to think it’s good for them. But first they should know it’s
a drug, even the FDA says so. Excess fluoride can cause the teeth to get mottled and
disfigured. Why should we all be drugged so that some parents can feel it’s ok to give their
kids junk food, believing their kids’ teeth will be protected? I bet you didn’t know that
Harvard University recently came out with a meta-study that found that children in areas
with fluoridated water had lower IQs than kids who live in non-fluoridated areas. Other
studies have said the same thing. Do you really want Timothy to grow up with a lowered IQ?”
‘Emma,” I said, trying to remain calm. “You’re starting to sound like that character in ‘Dr.
Strangelove’ who said we’re all being poisoned by fluoride in the water supply. You can’t
believe everything you read.” Emma ignored me, and continued: “What
about people with kidney disease? It’s especially toxic for them since they can’t easily
excrete it. What about diabetics—a lot of them have impaired kidneys. Is anyone asking
them if they want fluoridated water? What about athletes or heavy laborers, who drink four
times as much water as everyone else? They’ll be getting four times as much of this drug.
Has anyone told Hispanic and Black people around here that they are genetically at much
higher risk than other people for the toxic effects of fluoride? Studies have shown that the
rate of dental disfigurment due to excess fluoride is twice as high in black children as it is
for white children in the same fluoridated areas. No wonder civil rights leaders in Georgia
have taken a unified stand against fluoridation.”
Emma continued, “Our local Board of Supes is saying the idea is to help
low income children, but those kids are the ones that will be hurt the most by water
fluoridation. If it’s added to powdered or concentrated baby formula, even the pro-fluoride
people, like the American Dental Association, admit that the amount of fluoride is way over
the safe limit for infants. Regular water filters don’t get rid of it. Mothers who can’t
breastfeed won’t even be able to feed their kids without buying bottled water, that is if
anyone in the Health Dept bothers to tell them it’s not safe, which is doubtful. And how are
they supposed to afford all that bottled water?
“What about the pollution of adding millions of plastic bottles to the landfill? What about the
added poison to the environment that dumping this toxin in our water will cause? Most of it
leaks out in the sewage system, killing plants and aquatic life. And speaking of harm to
children, just one tube of candy-flavored toothpaste has enough fluoride in it to KILL a small
child, according to Proctor and Gamble, which makes a popular fluoride toothpaste.
“It’s not just about mottled teeth and baby formula. The amount of fluoride that’s used in
municipal water supplies is also associated with damage to the thyroid, increased
Alzheimers symptoms, bone cancer, skeletal fluorosis, hyperactivity, and auto-immune
diseases. Even the CDC puts it on a list of chemicals that cause an increase in neurotoxity.
The two leading medical journals in the U.S. have carried articles documenting the increase
in bone fractures in areas with fluoridated water.”
“I dunno,” I said, “I never heard about any of this on the tv news. I can’t believe that fluoride
is really as bad as all that.”” “If you’re not worried about the fluoride,” Emma went on, “what
about the lead? Fluoride causes more lead to leak out of water pipes and plumbing, and also
causes an increase in lead absorption in the human body. And this weird fluorosilicic acid
stuff they pass off as ‘fluoride’ also contains high levels of arsenic. Do you really want to be
drinking and bathing and washing dishes in water containing higher levels of arsenic for the
rest of your life?”
“It doesn’t sound good,” I agreed. “But I’m not a scientist. Maybe we should just let the
experts decide.” “Well,” Emma said,“fourteen Nobel prize-winning scientists have gone on
record as opposing water fluoridation. Don’t you think they might have good scientific
reasons for their position? When the top water toxicologist at the EPA, William Marcus,
disclosed that the reports showing the safety of fluoridation had been doctored to hide its
harmful effects, he was immediately fired. A judge later ordered him to be reinstated, since
there was no basis for the firing other than his refusal to hide the facts. His union, which
represents hundreds of scientists and professionals who work for the EPA, came out with a
strong position against fluoridation as well, due to its documented toxicity.”
“OK, OK,” I said, “but you’re making it sound like a horrible poison. Next you’ll say that they
use fluoride to make deadly nerve gases like Sarin.” Emma hesitated, but just for a moment.
“Since you brought it up, fluoride is the main toxin in Sarin.” “No, I can’t hear any more!” I
yelled. “I know,” she said, “the truth can sometimes really hurt. Here are some websites and
other resources that will document everything I’ve been telling you,” she said, handing me a
piece of paper.
As soon as she had left I crumpled up the paper and tossed it in a nearby trash can.
“Timothy, don’t listen to her. Why always focus on the negative? It’s a beautiful day. Let’s
go fishing.” “Fishing?” Timothy cried. “How do we know we can even eat the fish if this
fluoridation plan goes through?” Timothy scooped the paper out of the trash can, and
started studying it. “Fluoridegate! My friend was telling me about that movie. I know you
can’t trust anyone over twelve, but in that film there were a whole bunch of kids protesting
fluoridation of the New York City water supply. They said their fifth grade class made it a
school project to research it, and they discovered it was really bad for them. I’d like to see
the rest of the movie. Maybe you should check out these websites too,” he said, smoothing
out the crumpled paper.
To see the movie “Fluoridegate” go to www.youtube.com. Also availabe on youtube is the
film “The Fluoride Deception,” based on the book by the same name by Chistopher Bryson.
For more details about the info in this article, see the following websites:
www.nofluoride.com, www.fluoridealert.org, www.robertgammal.com.
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