EPA Scientists Take Stand Against Fluoridation
The EPA scientists, engineers and attorneys who assess the scientific data
for Safe Drinking Water Act standards and other EPA regulations have gone on
record against the practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water.
On Wednesday, July 2, 1997, National Federation of Federal Employees, Local
2050, which consists of professionals at EPA headquarters in Washington,
D.C., voted unanimously to co-sponsor the California Safe Drinking Water
Initiative that would reverse the State Legislature's 1995 law mandating
fluoridation.
Both proponents of fluoridation and the sponsors of this initiative consider
the result of the fluoridation battle in California to be crucial to the
federal government's plan to fluoridate the entire United States by the year
2000.
Citizens for Safe Drinking Water and their sponsors are circulating
petitions to gather 500,000 signatures by October to place the initiative
prohibiting fluoridation in California on the June 1998 statewide ballot.
In its endorsement of the initiative, the EPA professional's union states,
"It is our hope that our co-sponsorship of the Safe Drinking Water
Initiative to prohibit fluoridation will have a beneficial effect on the
health and welfare of all Californians by helping to keep their water free
of a chemical substance for which there is substantial evidence of adverse
health effects and, contrary to pub
lic perception, virtually no evidence of significant benefits."
The statement from NFFE Local 2050 continues, "Our members' review of the
body of evidence over the last eleven years, including animal and human
epidemiology studies, indicate a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation
and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment, and bone pathology. Of
particular concern are recent epidemiology studies linking fluoride exposure
to lowered IQ in children.
"As the professionals who are charged with assessing the safety of drinking
water, we conclude that the health and welfare of the public is not served
by the addition of this substance to the public water supply."
After numerous attempts to correct EPA management conclusions that were not
supported by the available facts, the union attempted to join a lawsuit
against their own employer in 1986, citing "fraudulent alterations of data
and negligent omission of fact to arrive at predetermined Agency political
positions regarding fluoride."
Dr. Wm. L. Marcus, Senior Science Advisor in EPA's Office of Drinking Water,
was fired for a 1990 whistle-blowing memo calling for a review of the
cover-up of the National Toxicology Program study that shows fluoride is a
"probable human carcinogen [cancer causing agent]".
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, that finding alone prohibits the addition
of fluoride to the public water supply. Although Dr. Marcus won his
whistle-blower lawsuit, with punitive damages, and returned to work at the
EPA, the classifications were never reviewed.
Historically, fluoridation is mandated by government and rejected by
citizens. Communities all over the U.S. are currently fighting for their
right to choose. Japan and nearly all of Europe have rejected fluoridation.
The California Safe Drinking Water Initiative reads:
The public water supply should be safe for all to drink.
In order to protect the public health from increased risk of hip fracture,
cancer, dental fluorosis and other harmful effects which have been linked to
fluoride in the scientific literature, and whereas data from the U.S. Public
Health Service and the State of California show no significant difference in
decay rates of permanent teeth and dental costs in fluoridated and non
fluoridated areas in Ca
lifornia;
Section 116410 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:
No fluoride or fluorine-containing substance may be added to public water
systems. All laws to the contrary are hereby repealed.
For more information on the petition drive, contact Citizens for Safe
Drinking Water at 1 (888) 704-3833. Or visit: http://
www.sonic.net/~monty/fluoride.htm
Reference June 19, 1997 News Release: FDA Requires New Poison Label for
Fluoride Toothpaste and Other Fluoride Products.
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