|
Dear Readers, The momentum continues to grow in the fight against fluoride, with the the new year bringing many new fluoride campaigns and four more victories to North America. The New York Times even published a letter on January 30th from Doctors Connett, Beck, and Micklem in response to a disastrous Jane Brody column. While efforts to stop fluoridation in London and the Halton region of Ontario, have been temporarily stalled by a massive deployment of "white coated" firepower from Health Canada there was news this week from another Ontario community that voted unanimously to stop fluoridation. On February 6thAmherstburg, Ontario's city council voted unanimously to cease fluoridation for over 20,000 residents. There have also been several fluoride-free victories in the United States over the past month, including: January 13 - City Councilors in Myerstown, Pennsylvania (pop. 3,500) voted to stop adding fluoride to drinking water because, "...the Authority recognized there are conflicting opinions about the benefits of water fluoridation." February 1 - Plans to fluoridate the water of Watsonville, California were dropped after the California Dental Association (CDA) pulled their funding for the program, ending a long and bitter battle between locals who didn't want fluoridation and state officials working to force them to consume it. California law mandates that towns fluoridate their water as long as its funded by non-taxpayer sources of revenue, such as grants from the CDA, the First Five Program (using state tobacoo settlement money) or Delta Dental. Watsonville City Councilor Emilio Martinez pennedthis Op-ed on Tuesday giving a revealing look of how political ambitions and unethical influence can lead to forced fluoridation. February 7 - The Mayor of Bolivar, Missouri was the deciding factor in a tie vote to end fluoridation for the cities approximately 11,000 residents. Councilors and the Mayor have been searching for ways to reduce the city's budget, and felt that fluoridation was not as economical as previously believed. |
|
Great News in New Hampshire!
This past week, the New Hampshire House's Resource, Recreation, and Development committee voted 13 to 2 in favorof mandatory infant fluoride warnings on all water bills in fluoridated communities throughout the state (HB-1416). The bill will now go before the full NH legislature with the committee's recommendation, and will be voted on before March. On the House floor, the Chairman of the Resources committee, along with the Chairwomen of the fluoride sub-committee, will speak in favor of the infant warning legislation.
Similar legislation was introduced last year in NH, but was not approved by the House's Health and Human Services committee where the dental and oral health coalition lobbyists spend much of their time during the legislative session and have built strong relationships with committee members.
HB-1416 was originally written to prohibit the addition of fluoride into the public water supply (Here is the background). However, the subcommittee of six felt that the full Resources committee needed to collect more information and review fluoridation further before they could pass legislation prohibiting the practice. They decided to continue their review of fluoridation, including whether or not it's even constitutional, and take action next legislative session. In the meantime, they felt that the least they could do was pass an infant warning on water bills. As one committee member stated, "anything less would be negligent and unethical."
We would like to thank all of you who contacted NH legislators and committee members. They all said that they received hundreds of emails, dozens of letters, and many personal phone calls, all of which influenced their decision significantly.
We will keep you updated as the legislation moves onto the House floor and into the Senate.
|
Fundraising Gifts are on the Way
|
Comments