Calgary Water Fluoridation
January 20, 2006 |
Despite objections at the time and continued objections from many
doctors working in the City, Calgary continues to fluoridate the
water supply, despite the fact that there exists a natural rate of
real fluoride ions of 0.04 ppm (parts per million), the recommended
level.
The Calgary water supply is artificially elevated to 0.07 ppm by
dumping large quantities of hydrofluorosilicic acid into the supply.
Mr. Warren,
I have been asked to respond to your inquiry regarding the source of
our fluoride added to Calgary's drinking water. Calgary has two
sources of fluoride in our drinking water. There is a natural
occurring source of fluoride that ranges in concentration from 0.1 -
0.4 mg/L (ppm) and hydrofluorosilicic acid, which is added to bring
the final concentration to 0.7 mg/L.
The City of Calgary purchases hydrofluorosilicic acid (also known as
fluorosilicic acid) from Cleartech Inc. of Calgary. Their supply of
the product is provided by Lucier Chemical Industries (LCI) Inc. of
Jacksonville Beach, Florida. LCI Inc. in one of four member companies
in North America listed in the water treatment industry's standard on
hydrofluorosilicic acid, Standard B-703 for Fluorosilicic Acid of the
American Water Works Association.
I hope this has addressed your inquiry.
John Jagorinec, B.Sc., P.Chem.
Senior Water Quality & Regulatory Analyst
Strategic Services
City of Calgary, Waterworks and Wastewater
Lucier Chemical Industries has the MSDS
sheet for their fluorosilicic acid product on their Web site.
The City is resistent to eliminating the fluoridation program;
Druh Farrell says that the only way to get the issue re-considered
is to get another plebicite which can only be done by collecting
100,000 signatures (more than 10% of Calgary's population).
Mike,
Thank you for your recent e-mail to Alderman Farrell. Alderman Farrell has had the opportunity to
review your e-mail and has asked me to respond on her behalf. The fluoride issue was decided by a
plebiscite. The majority of Calgarians who voted, voted in favor of fluoride. Unfortunately, until
it is decided that there will be another plebiscite, we must accept the fact there is fluoride in
our water. If you are interested in requesting a plebiscite, you must have at least 100,000
signatures on a petition, before Council will consider the issue again. Druh would most likely
support the removal of fluoride, but this was not a Council decision. Several studies report both
pros and cons of fluoridation, but Calgarians made their decision. I wish I could offer you more,
but at this time, I am not aware of any action groups which may be interested in taking the steps to
bring this issue back.
Bill Biccum
Executive Assistant, to Alderman Druh Farrell, Ward 7
It costs $5 for 18.9L bottles of spring water from most providers
in the City (picked-up yourself). Are there a 100k of you out there
who object to water fluoridation? I don't know any more details about
what such a petition needs to look like (e.g. does everyone on it
need to be over 18? Live in Calgary? Do the signatures need to be
collected over a certain timeframe?)
Further Informatin on Fluoride
Calgary
A submission to the
Calgary government on the harmful effects of water fluoridation.
Ignored. This is a great summary of the knowledge of fluoride's harmful
effects known up to 1998 and a fantastic place to start.
4. Fluoride is one of the most bone-seeking elements known to
man. Even "low" doses of fluoride intake is increasingly being
linked to bone damage: hip fracture rates in seniors are rising
in fluoridated areas and are increasing more rapidly than can be
accounted for by an aging population; two studies show increased
osteosarcomas in children (a rare, often fatal bone cancer); new
radiographic techniques show bone abnormalities in children with
dental fluorosis (the teeth are a window to what is happening in
the bones; bone abnormalities are seen in aborted fetuses born
to mothers with dental fluorosis.
World Health Organization warns that ingesting 2.0 - 8.0 mg of
fluoride per day (as little as 2 litres of fluoridated water)
can lead to the pre-clinical stage (arthritis-like symptoms) of
skeletal fluorosis (a crippling bone disease).
Canada
The Ontario
government concludes, in part:
Although current studies of the effectiveness of water fluoridation
have design weaknesses and methodological flaws, the balance of
evidence suggests that rates of dental decay are lower in fluoridated
than non-fluoridated communities. The magnitude of the effect is
not large in absolute terms, is often not statistically significant
and may not be of clinical significance.''
[..]
Optimal intakes are those derived from water fluoridated at 0.8
to 1.2 ppm, assuming no other sources of fluoride except food.
...but since apparently flouride is the #3 worrisome industrial air
pollutant, it seems highly suspect that this is true.
Levels as low as 0.5 ppm may be optimal in some communities.
Dental fluorosis has not been viewed as a public health problem
in the past but may become so in the future.
FluorideAlert.org
The flouride
action network has a lot of information on water fluoridation
programs (concentrating on the US).
"In summary, we hold that fluoridation is an unreasonable risk.
That is, the toxicity of fluoride is so great and the purported
benefits associated with it are so small - if there are any at all
- that requiring every man, woman and child in America to ingest
it borders on criminal behavior on the part of governments." —
Dr. J. William Hirzy, Senior Vice-President, Headquarters Union,
US Environmental Protection Agency, March 26, 2001
As an air
pollutant, fluoride is worrying the American Association for
the Advancement of Science:
FluorideAlert
Fluoride is an extremely toxic ion; near sources of fluoride air
pollution, vegetation is destroyed, animals get sick and die,
and people suffer eye irritation, respiratory problems, or more
serious symptoms of fluoride poisoning. But fluoride can be
dangerous even in very tiny amounts, because many plants and animals
accumulate the ion in their tissues. Over several months or years,
even the faintest measurable traces of fluoride can add up and cause
harmful effects.
As a pollutant, fluoride has sufficiently severe effects, and is
widespread enough, that the American Association for the Advancement
of Science named fluoride the third most serious air pollutant in
the country, (after SO2 and ozone) in December 1966. More than fifty
kinds of industries - including those producing aluminum, steel,
phosphate, oil, brick, and glass - use raw materials containing
fluorides or add fluorides to their products during processing.
Coal, which is burned in massive amounts to provide electric power
and heat, contains many fluoride impurities that are released to
the atmosphere by burning.
Fluoride's Origins
History of the fluoridation of water supplies and links to the Manhattan project. An April 29, 1944 Manhattan Project memo contained a chilling warning: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system [CNS] effect.... It seems most likely that the F [fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor." The memo - stamped "secret" - was addressed to the head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, Colonel Stafford Warren. Colonel Warren was asked to approve a program of animal research on CNS effects since it was deemed important "to prevent a confused workman from injuring others by improperly performing his duties." Colonel Warren immediately approved the CNS research program. For research on fluoride's CNS effects to be approved at the height of WWII, the supporting evidence set forth in the proposal must have been persuasive. Unfortunately, the proposal is missing from the files of the National Archives and no evidence of the Manhattan Project's fluoride-CNS research could be found in the files. "Information was buried," concludes Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston and now a critic of fluoridation. Animal studies conducted by Mullenix and coworkers in the early 1990's indicated that fluoride was a powerful central nervous system toxin that might adversely affect human brain functioning, even at low doses. (Recent epidemiological evidence from China has found a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and diminished IQ in children.) During her research, Mullenix was astonished to discover that there had been virtually no previous US studies of fluoride's effects on the human brain. Her application for a grant to continue her research was rejected by the US National Institutes of Health, which flatly told her that "fluoride does not have central nervous system effects."
The above report finds that all the interesting pertinent information is "missing" from the National Archives and the archives of the universities involved in the research. Curious. Classified and declassified versions differ drastically in at least one case, ``The published version reports only that the men had fewer cavities. The secret version reports that most of the men had no teeth left.'' Last July, after reviewing the latest toxicological studies, the National Federation of Federal Employees [Box 76082, Washington, DC 20013, (202) 260-2383] endorsed a citizens' initiative to prohibit fluoridation of drinking water in California. NFFE Senior Vice-President J. William Hirzy expressed concern that epidemiological studies over the past 11 years "indicate a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment and bone pathology. Of particular concern are the recent epidemiology studies linking fluoride exposures to lower IQ in children."
I feel warm. Warm and fuzzy.