On Feb 23, an Arkansas Senate committee voted for Senate Bill 359 that would require communities with a population of 5,000 or more to fluoridate their drinking water. On Feb 25th, the Arkansas Senate voted for the bill, and yesterday (March 2) the bill was passed by a House Committee. The next step before final passage is a full House vote.
There has been a tremendous amount of activity behind closed doors to rush this bill through. For example, in a January 9, 2011, report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette titled "Interests of clients duty for lobbyists," by Michael Wickline:
In an informal survey of lobbyists by the Democrat-Gazette, "former state representative, Bruce Hawkins of Morrilton, ranked second. Hawkins said his firm, whose clients include Delta Dental, is helping state Sen. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, push three bills aimed at improving children's oral heath. That's the biggest project he's working on, Hawkins said. Johnson [the sponsor of the fluoridation bill] said one bill would require any water system that serves 5,000 or more people to have fluoride in the water at levels established by the bill or rule...
John Lyon of Arkansas News reported on yesterday's vote:
... Ed Choate, president and CEO of Delta Dental, testified that his company would provide $500,000 to cover start-up costs for the 32 communities that would be affected by the bill. Rep. Stephanie Malone, R-Fort Smith, noted that Fort Smith alone would need a large portion of that amount. She asked if some communities would have to pick up part of the cost. "I will commit to you now: If it's more than $500,000, we will pay it," Choate said...
See
· Mandatory Fluoridation Bill
Over 900 emails were sent to the Arkansas representatives before they voted. From your emails to us, many didn't go through. We will soon be changing our mass-email server in the attempt to avoid this in the future.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposal to lower fluoride in drinking water
· Extension for public comments to April 15
· We highly recommend Kathy Thiessen's, PhD, comments that she submitted to HHS on behalf of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT). Thiessen was co-author of the NRC-2006 report.
· See also comments submitted by the Environmental Working Group
· Over 18,500 emails were sent to HHS in support ofFAN's comments on the recommendation to lower the level of fluoride added to water to 0.7 ppm.
New Videos:
The Fluoride Deception by Mike Adams, Editor, Natural News. Exposé on water fluoridation and the phosphate mining industry.
Fire Water: Australia's Industrial Fluoridation Disgrace at YouTube (transcripts also available)
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8- Part 9
DELTA DENTAL and Chester Douglass PhD, DMD
Delta Dental is a dominant player in underwriting fluoridation schemes in several states (as seen above in their role in Arkansas). It might be interesting to recall Chester Douglass' association with Delta Dental.
For those new to the issue, Chester Douglass, chair of the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine from 1978 to 2008, was the lead investigator since 1992 for a government-funded study on fluoride and osteosarcoma. Nineteen years later, no results from this study have been published - and it is this study that EPA's Office of Drinking Water is waiting on for a determination of whether fluoride is carcinogenic.
Douglass received funding for this important study even though he was known to be a fluoridation supporter. As noted in the book, "The Case Against Fluoride" (Chelsea Green, 2010, page 187), Douglass was a co-author of the 1991 paper, Is There a Link between Fluoridated Water and Osteosarcoma?, published by the Journal of the American Dental Association. The authors write:
... An incorrect inference implicating systemic fluoride carcinogenicity and its removal from our water systems would be detrimental to the oral health of most Americans, particularly those who cannot afford to pay for increasingly expensive restorative dental care...
Because of it's strengthening action, fluoride has been widely accepted as the responsible agent for the dramatic declines in the tooth decay rates of U.S. children and adolescents ... A disruption in the delivery of fluoride through municipal water systems would increase decay rates over time ... Linking of fluoride ingestion and cancer initiation could result in a large-scale defluoridation of municipal water systems under the Delaney Clause...
In 2005 we reported conflicts of interest for Chester Douglass - see also article in The Harvard Crimson. In brief, Douglass was charged with burying the results of a 2001 PhD thesis of his postgraduate student, Elise Bassin. The thesis reported an association of osteosarcoma in young boys in fluoridated communities. He also attempted to torpedo the Bassin et al. study published in 2006 titled, "Age-specific fluoride exposure in drinking water and osteosarcoma (United States)." This study found a five-fold increased risk of developing osteosarcoma among teenage boys exposed to fluoridated water at ages 6, 7, and 8. Douglass stated that his study would refute Bassin et al. and that his findings were "being prepared for publication." Both the Bassin study and Douglass' comments were published in the May 2006 issue of Cancer Causes and Control.
Douglass served for ten years (1997-2007) as Editor-in-Chief of Colgate's "Oral Care Report." He was also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Delta Dental Foundation of Massachusetts, now the DentaQuest Foundation, where he is currently listed with the same position.
Please share any information on Delta Dental - and if they have underwritten fluoridation costs for your community- by emailing Ellen.
CDC-funded new website: Fluoride Legislative User Information Database or "FLUID" - http://fluidlaw.org/
The FLUID project was initiated and is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The database was completed by and is maintained through a collaboration between the Children's Dental Health Project and the Health Law and Policy Program on Law and Government at the American University's Washington College of Law. See Feb 24, 2011, press release.
Paul Connett
Fluoride Action Network
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