Dear readers,

Three Austin Voices

Among the communities struggling to end fluoridation Austin, Texas, stands out for the number of highly qualified professionals opposing the practice.  When these profressionals' voices were added to the Fluoride Free Austin group organized by Rae Olenick and Linda Green and others, it generated a formidable campaign to end fluoridation in Texas's capital city.  Surprisingly their efforts have been blocked at every turn by the city's health officer, who is a former employee at the CDC and appears to have a greater allegiance to protecting that agency's pet practice than protecting the health of the citizens of Austin. He has certainly given no indication that he is prepared to examine objectively or with due diligence the scientific evidence presented to him by either citizens or scientists. In an earlier bulletin we heard from Rae Olenick, and in this bulletin we are going to hear from three of the Austin professionals: Neil Carman, PhD, a scientist and an air pollution spokesperson for the Texas Sierra Club; Griffin Cole, DDS, a dentist, and Laura Pressley, PhD, a physical chemist who has been so exasperated by the way that citizens have been treated by the Austin City Council on this matter that she has decided to run for Council in the next election.

Neil Carman, PhD

I have known and worked with Neil since the 1990s. We have worked together fighting incinerator proposals in Texas and other U.S. states and provinces in Canada. Neil's testimony on incinerators is very compelling because he was a former state regulator dealing with the day-to-day monitoring of these facilities. Neil writes about his involvement with fluoridation:

I have been appalled for many years that Austin, Texas, was adding toxic fluoride to the water and no one was complaining about it. Although I have discussed the issue with a few local activists from time-to-time until recently nothing was done about it.

In early 2002, I was excited to meet up with Paul Connett in pristine Kirkland Lake, northern Ontario, to speak in opposition to a proposed PCB incinerator project. Paul had emphasized to the organizers of the meeting that he would come to speak if he could inform them about fluoride. Hearing of Paul's opposition to fluoridation was terrific news to me. I had first met Paul in a suburb of Houston in 1993 during a campaign by the local community to shut down a medical waste incinerator. I respected Paul as both a scientist and as an activist prepared to use his science pro bono in the community interest.

In January 2007, I noticed the City of Austin had an agenda item on a pending contract to purchase the fluoridating chemical called fluorosilicic acid from Lucier Chemicals. The city was planning to spend $331,000 for that year and another $380,000 for the following year. I wrote to the Mayor, City Council, local Health Department and Water Utility officials to protest. I asked them why the City was paying so much money to put this highly toxic industrial grade substance into our drinking water. Moreover, I informed them about the recent studies conducted at Harvard University that indicated that fluoridation is associated with bone cancer in boys (Bassin, et al., 2006).

I requested that the city spend at least six months evaluating comprehensively the potential dangers that the use of this contaminated chemical posed to public health.  They ignored me. However, over the next several months I continued sending scientific studies to the city's water utility officials showing them how harmful fluoride is.

In late 2008, I met up with Rae Olenick and Linda Greene who I heard had been speaking to the Council during their meetings where time is allotted for "Citizens Communications." I could tell that Rae and Linda were determined to end fluoridation in Austin, and I was excited to join their efforts. I was no stranger to community action since I work for the Sierra Club Texas Chapter on air pollution issues.

As we began to meet to take action our small campaign group quickly expanded. Many local activists joined with us and so did health professionals and scientists like Griffin Cole, DDS, Joan Sefcik, DDS, Carol VanderStoep, RDH, Laurel Pressley, PhD, Jim McNabb, MD, Don Davis, PhD, Bill Swail, RPh, and many others. We have spoken to City Council members, the City Environmental Advisory Board who asked the Council to investigate the toxicity of fluoride, and other officials. We have been stonewalled by the city health bureaucracy but the group has generated a great deal of public awareness, some very favorable media coverage and we have high hopes of ending fluoridation in Austin in 2012.

Griffin Cole, DDS

Griffin Cole is a dentist in Austin. He is one of several hundred dentists in the U.S. who have had the courage to go public with their opposition to fluoridation. In this statement he explains why.

My Journey into the Fluoridation Fight:

by Griffin Cole, DDS

In 1996, I had the honor of sharing radio time with John Yiamouyiannis on a local Austin radio program. At that time I was three years out of dental school, and much more knowledgeable about the subject having just read Dr. Yiamouyiannis's book, Fluoride: The Aging Factor. Thus, I began what has become a fifteen-year crusade against fluoridation.

Over the years, I've published several articles on the dangers of water fluoridation and have been rather outspoken on the topic. My willingness to speak out on the issue has resulted in my being featured on several newscasts, including World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer (January 2011). Because of my concern about some of the toxic substances used in dentistry like mercury and fluoride I've strengthened my education by earning degrees in Naturopathic Medicine and Integrative Biological Dental Medicine, as well as earning my Fellowship in the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT).

I became acquainted with Paul Connett five years ago at an IAOMT meeting, and felt an instant brotherhood with him and his passion for the cause. I began following the FAN website to keep apprised of the latest science on fluoride and the anti-fluoridation campaigns going on all over the world. I have happily joined up with others trying to get fluoride out of Austin.

This past year, I was invited to debate, alongside Dr. Connett, at an open forum meeting on fluoridation organized by a committee of the Austin City Council. Our opponents, a local dentist and doctor, looked completely out of their depth on the issue. They had little to offer other than the long list of endorsements that promoters recite relentlessly. When it came to the scientific studies it was clear that they had read very little.  

(Watch the debate: Part One / Part Two / Part Three)

I recently drafted the IAOMT's official Fluoridation Brochure, which will be available to thousands of people next month. I have spoken before our Austin City Council many times over the past three years, and will continue to fight until we have got the City to stop adding this toxin to our water supply.

Laura Pressley, PhD

I have met Laura twice during my visits to Austin. Laura, like Professor Albert Burgstahler (co-author of Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma) and several other prominent fluoridation opponents, became involved with this issue as a result of coming to grips with personal health problems. In this statement Laura gives the details of this and her involvement in the Austin campaign.

Over ten years ago, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and was placed on thyroid medication. After exploring suspected causes for thyroid illnesses, we tested our tap water and found a myriad of chemicals such as fluoride, chlorine, coliform bacteria, sulfates, and chloroform. At that point, I completely stopped drinking and cooking with tap water and started drinking only fluoride-free and chemical-free water.  After 6 months, my hypothyroid symptoms were drastically improved and I subsequently stopped taking thyroid medication and felt great. Being a little surprised with the progress, my health care provider asked what was different. I mentioned that I stopped ingesting fluoride and those other poisonous chemicals that were in our drinking water. The great news is that I've been off medication for the last 3 years and feel better than I ever have.

In my view health care providers should consider suggesting to patients that they avoid drinking water containing fluoride (and other chemical contaminants) when they are presented with symptoms such as inflammation, muscular pain, aching joints, gastrointestinal problems, tiredness not relieved by sleep and other symptoms of low thyroid function. This may not help everyone, as there are many causes for these ailments, but for those like me who appear to be sensitive to fluoride and other chemicals in tap water this is a far better approach than the use of prescription medications.

I joined the heroic efforts of Fluoride Free Austin 18 months ago and am appalled at the inaction of our Council to cease fluoridation and their refusal to even place a fluoridation warning on our water bills for parents not make up baby formula with fluoridated tap water. I'm tired of our Council not listening to the logic, science and hearts of so many Austinites when it comes to the health dangers of fluoridation.  That is why I'm running for the Austin City Council and we are making fluoridation a campaign issue. We are determined to win and bring a higher level of technical and scientific expertise to the Council, which currently is sorely lacking and desperately needed.

-Laura Pressley, Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from University of Texas Austin Candidate for Austin City Council, www.PressleyforAustin.com CoFounder and Owner, Pure Rain Bottled Rain Water

I think these background statements give us an inkling of the formidable resources at the disposal of the Fluoride Free Austin campaign. But they also indicate that even with such expertise the forces that promote fluoridation can still stifle democracy on the one hand and ignore science on the other. In many ways Austin is a microcosm of this irrational practice worldwide, and the powerful forces that promote it. That being so, it will be very significant for all our joint efforts to end fluoridation, when the Fluoride Free Austin campaign finally prevails. As it will. As it must!

Paul Connett,

FAN Director

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Thank you for your continued support of FAN's efforts to end the irrational practice of fluoridation.

Sincerely, 

The FAN Team

www.FluorideAlert.org