Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Burlington Politics: No Show Officials


I am extremely disappointed that only one of the three public safety committee members was in attendance at last night's fluoride hearing. Especially since board of health members showed up to speak to their resolution passed by the board in January to remove fluoride from the city's water supply.

The Board of Health has limited statutory responsibility for the “prevention, removal or destruction of public health hazards and the mitigation of public health risks.” The Board of Health receives its authority from Vermont statute, Title 18, as well as from several sections of the Burlington City Charter. - Burlington Board of Health Statement of Purpose

My remarks last night to the public safety committee:
We can make resolutions, enact laws to regulate, even decrease the ppm of fluoride in our water,- as the city council has ordered - just to be safe. But we need to start looking at fluoride not just as a medication, but as a dangerous industrial product being added - untested - to our water. There have been no toxicological studies done on hydrofluorosilicic acid.

The following are questions that you and the other councilors should consider when you review our resolution and take your decision.

Why contaminate Burlington’s high quality drinking water with hydrofluorosilicic acid and its known co-contaminants
when other abundant, higher grade sources of fluoride remain available through toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental-fluoride treatments, all of which we do not swallow?

Keep in mind that fluoride has never been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for swallowing.

As it is illegal to dump hydrofluorosilicic acid anywhere in our environment, how are we justifying dumping it into Burlington’s drinking water supply? Aren’t our residents entitled to safe drinking water?

Are we honestly interested in the health and well-being of Burlington’s children when we take the cheapest industrial man-made toxic waste fluoride we can find, and dump it into our children’s drinking water?

Why are we listening to local dentists, Vermont Dental Society members, about systemic ingestion? This is a question I pose to my own dentist at each visit: Shouldn’t we be seeking advice from leading chemists, toxicologists, neurologists, endocrinologists, epidemiologists, oncologists, pathologists, and so forth – who are shedding new medical light on the dangers of artificial water fluoridation, and the synergistic health harms these chemicals pose in our water?

Why are we listening to the ADA, the Vermont Dental Society and other dental associations - all heavy
promoters of water fluoridation - when they hold no official responsibility or accountability for Burlington’s water fluoridation practice, policy or chemical additives? Doesn’t responsibility for what Burlington ultimately chooses to put into the drinking water rest squarely with the city?


Another question I pose to my dentist on each visit - and now ask you: What formal training do dentists have about the effects water fluoridation is having on our body organs and tissues, beyond the oral cavity? What formal training do dentists have concerning hydrofluorosilicic acid?

What gives Burlington the moral, ethical or legal right to inflict admitted mild to moderate dental fluorosis on any person, due to its water fluoridation practice at the ‘optimal’ level? What is your municipal financial plan for Burlington, should affected people pursue and achieve legal class action status and monetary award?

How will Burlington address the problem of known elevated blood lead levels due to accelerated lead leaching from leaded solder, leaded pipes and leaded brass fittings – caused by the highly corrosive hydrofluorosilicic acid put in the water distribution system at the suggested concentration?

Where has Burlington provided any cost accounting to offer ongoing fluoride-free bottled water, or home distillation system, or home reverse osmosis system; to those persons or families paying for municipal drinking water, but unable to drink fluoridated water? As a member of the local City Market co-op, I can refill my empty containers with fresh, filtered fluoride-free water at no cost. But not all Burlington members are co-op members. Does the municipality only value equality and equity for certain identifiable groups, but not others?

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