Del Rio: Fluoridation is Back

by Paul Connett
THE FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK
October 25, 2006
 

 

I'm afraid the victory in Del Rio, Texas was very short lived. As expected the pro-fluoridation folks came back in force (from the State and from San Antonio) and overwhelmed the councilors with their "credentials" and propaganda material. Last night the council voted 5 to 1 to re-add fluoride to their water (see report below). Only Councilwoman Pat Cole held firm against the onslaught.
 

Thanks to all those who wrote to the councilors and I am saddened that our efforts were in vain, including my own of offering to go down to Del Rio and debate any of those promoting fluoridation.
 

I'm afraid that until we have made a dent in this issue at the national level it will take a rare local official to stand up against "authority" backed up with organized cries of "we must do this to protect our poor kids." No matter how unjustified that "authority" is and how fallacious the claim that fluoride does more good than harm to poor kids, these ill-informed "white coats" will continue to get away with it until folks in Washington take the time to read the 450 page NRC report to see what the real dangers are.  It is fascinating to see that when the issue of dangers are brought up in these local skirmishes how little attention is paid to this NRC report even though it was three and half years in the making and was performed by one of the few truly balanced panels in the long sordid history of this practice.


And Oh what these "white coats" get away with! Notice the quote from Dr Larry Lindenschmidt , who according to the press report said that "it is impossible to be poisoned by optimally fluoridated water" and backed this up by saying that "a lethal dose of fluoride for a 150-pound man would entail that man drinking 112.6 gallons of water." This chestnut has been used time and time again by those promoting fluoridation. It deliberately confuses a "toxic dose" with a "lethal dose": i.e. a daily dose that can cause you harm over time (which according to the NRC report is not very high and is being exceeded by some living in fluoridated communities) and a dose that can kill you. Quite a difference!

 

Note that sad last sentence of the news report:

 

"Councilman Mike Wrob, who reversed his earlier vote, said, 'I'm still not sure, so I'm going to take advantage of the people who know a lot more about this than I do.'

 

After the November election we need to find one or more Senators and Congresspersons, who are not beholden to the dental lobby (by virtue of the money they liberally hand out),  to take enough interest in this issue to begin to remove the protective veils provided for fluoridation by those regulatory agencies which are there supposedly to protect our health. They need to:

1) To examine the atrocious bias of the CDC;

2) To force the FDA to do what it should have done over 50 years ago and regulate fluoride like any other medication;

3) To force the NIH to come clean on the Douglass cover-up of Bassin's thesis on osteosarcoma and explain why it funds researchers in dental schools (like Douglass) to do such sensitive research, when they have such an obvious conflict of interest with their aggressive support of fluoridation;

4) To insist on scientific integrity at the U.S. EPA in both the determination of a new MCLG and in exposing the outrageous manipulations of science by the pesticide division on behalf of Dow AgroSciences desire to use sulfuryl fluoride as a fumigant on food.

 

 

Fluoridation is Back
 by Karen Gleason
Del Rio News-Herald 

October 25, 2006 
 

It's back.

 

Fluoride will again be added to the city's drinking water following a reversal by the Del Rio City Council Tuesday night of a decision it made in September to take it out.

 

The council voted 5-1 Tuesday night to resume fluoridation, with only Councilwoman Pat Cole standing by her September vote to stop adding fluoride to city water.
 

The council's decision came after about an hour-and-a-half of discussion on the pros and cons of adding fluoride by local dentists, state health officials and citizen leaders.

 

About 40 fluoride proponents also attended Tuesday night's meeting, many of them sporting yellow pro-fluoride paper lapel buttons handed out by members of The Border Organization.

 

Opponents of fluoridation also attended, though in smaller numbers. About a dozen were present.

 

Katie Gonzalez, a leader of The Border Organization, introduced the evening's first speakers on the fluoridation issue: Dr. Howard Hunt and Dr. Larry Lindenschmidt, both dentists; Tom Napier, fluoridation engineer for the Texas Department of State Health Services; Dr. Sandra Guerra-Cantu, regional director/preventive medicine residency director for the Texas Department of State Health Services; and Dr. John Brown, professor and chairman of the department of community dentistry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

 

"Before they begin, I would like to state that The Border Organization has had many conversations in our neighborhoods, in our churches and in our colonias concerning fluoride," Gonzalez told the council.

 

"The overwhelming response by the citizens has been that fluoride is needed for the prevention of tooth decay, especially by the poor, and that they feel it is not a danger to their health. The hundreds of citizens we have talked to would like the city to put it back," Gonzalez said.

 

"I am here for the kids of this community, because I love this community," Hunt, a pediatric dentist and native Del Rioan, told the city council at the start of his presentation.

 

Hunt, a 1992 graduate of Del Rio High School, pleaded with the council to resume fluoridation of the city's water supply during a PowerPoint slide presentation that included information about the process that causes cavities and the costs of emergency dental care.

 

"Caries (tooth decay) is a disease that is preventable," Hunt told the council. "Water fluoridation provides unquestionable benefits to all socio-economic classes."
 

Lindenschmidt also gave a PowerPoint presentation, focusing on the safety concerns surrounding fluoridation of the city's water.

 

Lindenschmidt said it is impossible to be poisoned by "optimally fluoridated water."

 

He said a lethal dose of fluoride for a 150-pound man would entail that man drinking 112.6 gallons of water. 

 

Brown told the council that his role was to answer any questions members might have about fluoridation.
 

"When you ask is (fluoridation) necessary, effective and safe, the answer is yes on all counts," Brown said.
 

Brown said fluoridation is not mandated by the state "because Texans are averse to that kind of thing," but noted that all of the state's largest cities add fluoride to their drinking water.
  

Guerra-Cantu called water fluoridation a public health achievement on the level with immunizations and seatbelt use and said, "Fluoride equals protection."
 

"I am advising you to put fluoride back in your water," she told the council.

 

The council also heard from Ronald C. Burton, a retired software engineer who now makes Del Rio his home. Burton spoke against fluoride and presented the council with a 100-page packet of information to back up his points.

 

Three other citizens also spoke against water fluoridation: Robert Dinoir, Rosalinda Sanchez and Dan Riley.

 

Dinoir complained that it was impossible to buy a filter to remove fluoride at the tap for those citizens who did not want it in their drinking water.
 

Sanchez told the council, "My only credential is that of concerned citizen."