A Mythical Fluoride Conspiracy

Wilmington City Council members, the mayor and other city officials recently received a letter from a Cathy Justus of Pagosa Springs, Colorado warning of the dangers of fluoridated water.

The 29 page missive included, among other items, the following claims.

Claim: I have the sad distinction of owning the first horses to ever be diagnosed with “chronic fluoride poisoning” from artificially fluoridated municipal water. We have now lost 8 horses and 4 dogs to this virulent cumulative toxin.

Most important and relevant fact: From the Pagosa Springs area 2013 EPA water quality report. “Fluoride level .07 parts per million (ppm) this miniscule level is normal for water system using wells as a source. For example Sabina does not add fluoride to its drinking water yet its EPA reported level is 1.4 PPM or 20 times the Pagosa Springs level. I have not heard of a mass die off of Sabina's animal population.

Claim: doctors and dentists, are not taught in their schooling the science, toxicology, and biochemistry of fluoride and what it does to the body.

Fact: Ask your dentist to reply to this claim. I asked my dentist Dr. Wagstaff about this matter and he gave me a five minute lecture on the benefits of controlled fluoride levels in drinking water.

Claim: [for reasons of personal gain] Public Health Authorities, CDC and EPA. are, I have found, is the case with not only most dentists, doctors and veterinarians but also the ADA, AMA, CDC, U.S. Public Health Service, and the EPA lawmakers.

Fact: What does it gain a dentist, for example, to support a program that reduces cavities.

Claim: between 2003 and 2006 the EPA commissioned the National Research Council (NRC), the highest scientific group in the U.S., to review the recent science on fluoride.

Fact: EPA did ask the NRC to conduct a review. The 2006 conclusion of the review's study was to recommend reducing the recomended fluoride level from 4.00 PPM. The latest agreed upon level is now .7 PPM Most if not all professional and public health organizations agree that .7 PM is the optimum level and would be the level for a Wilmington water project.

When fluoridation was put to the voters of Wilmington in a special election in June of 1970 the science was evolving and many refinements have been made over the last 46 years.

During the 1970 referendum campaign, a lady wrote a letter to the Editor claiming the fluoridation was a communist plot to soften our brains and make socialists of us all. The last time I looked, none of the 140 public water systems in Ohio with fluoridation has produced a den of commies.

Paul Hunter