To Spokane Mayor & City Council: Regarding Saturday digital issue of the Spokesman regarding fluoride

By Donald Brockett

Mayor and City council members,

An unfortunate article appeared in the Saturday digital issue of the Spokesman regarding fluoride. It was unfortunate because it referred to “old news” rather than being updated which usually occurs with proper journalism.

For example, it referred to those who do not believe we should taint our filtered water source with a chemical produced from industrial waste as people who have been “sold a bill of goods”. On the contrary, many of those concerned have been carefully following the developing evidence from reports that show it can be harmful. In addition, there was apparently no effort by the writer of the article to update any statement from the organizations concerned about fluoridating our water such as Safe Water Spokane.

I would invite you to follow the federal case, Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. U.S. EPA  (https://fluoridealert.org/wp-content/uploads/2023_01_20_Court-Order.pdf) in which several parties have sued the EPA. You may be interested in the recent development concerning a report which the government refused to release publicly until the federal judge order it. That report clearly finds that putting fluoride in a water source has a detrimental effect on the IQ of children. Why would any rational person want to take any action that would have a harmful effect on all the children in their community?

In addition, serious consideration should be given to the legal liability to which the city will be subjected in the event you continue on the path to fluoridation in view of the release of this report about the effect on children.

Now that this evidence has become public, I hope you will seriously re-consider whether you should continue with any consideration of fluoridating our water source. All efforts to this end should be canceled.

Don Brockett, former Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney

We need to keep sending letters to them opposing Fluoridation.

Please see following impactful report: 

Suppressed Government Report Finding Fluoride Can Reduce Children’s IQ Made Public Under EPA Lawsuit

NEWS PROVIDED BY Fluoride Action Network Mar 15, 2023, 10:45 ET

NORTH SUTTON, N.H., March 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The final report of a 6-year National Toxicology Program (NTP) review of fluoride neurotoxicity was blocked from public release by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Administrator in May 2022 according to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). But under an agreement reached in an ongoing lawsuit against the EPA, the report was made public today with a table of contents. Included were comments from external peer-reviewers and internal HHS departments, along with NTP’s responses. The review considered all human studies of fluoride’s effect on the developing brain. Its conclusion confirmed and strengthened the findings from two earlier drafts released in 2019 and 2020.  External peer-reviewers all agreed with the conclusion that prenatal and early life fluoride exposures can reduce IQ.

The report was issued in two parts, a monograph and a meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that 52 of 55 studies found lower IQ with higher fluoride exposures, demonstrating remarkable consistency. Of the 19 studies rated higher quality, 18 found lowering of IQ. The meta-analysis could not detect any safe exposure, including at levels common from drinking artificially fluoridated water.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show government agencies that promote fluoridation, allied with dental interests, have tried to water down the report. When the NTP held firm, these agencies got HHS Assistant Administrator Rachel Levine to block its release. Only one historical example exists of an NTP report being blocked from release, a report on the carcinogenicity of asbestos-contaminated talc. Talc industry groups conducted an aggressive lobbying campaign, enlisting friendly congresspeople to intervene. FAN was able to force today’s release of the NTP report by using leverage from the ongoing lawsuit against the EPA.

Fluoridation defenders have falsely claimed draft versions of the report had been “rejected” by a National Academies committee. In fact, the committee recommended that NTP clarify their methods and reasoning for reaching their conclusions because the issue was considered so contentious. The NTP has done that in the report released today. There is now little question that a large body of scientific evidence supports a conclusion that fluoride can lower child’s IQ, including at exposure levels from fluoridated water.

With the release of this report, dental interests may have to rethink their denial of the evidence that fluoridation can reduce children’s IQ.

SOURCE Fluoride Action Network