PRESS
NOTICE from National Pure Water Association, UK 21
May, 2002
TOP
US GOVERNMENT AGENCY REVEALS NEW FLUORIDATION FEARS.
The
US Environmental Protection Agency has been forced to acknowledge
concerns about fluoridation chemicals which have been flagged
up for decades by anti-fluoridation campaigners.
In
the 1990s, three scientific studies showed that aluminium fluoride
compounds similar to those created by artificial water fluoridation
caused brain damage in rats. Eighty per cent of the rats died
before the end of each of these experiments.
Declaring
themselves "astounded", the scientists wrote: "Not
only did the rats in the lowest dose [aluminum fluoride] groups
die more often during the experiment, they looked poorly well
before their deaths. Even the rats in the lowest dose group that
managed to survive the 45 weeks looked to be in poor health."
In
October, 2000, after reviewing the experiments, the USEPA formally
called for further research into the health effects of aluminium
fluoride compounds found in tap water.
In
April 2002, the Risk Management Research Laboratory of the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted a "REQUEST FOR
ASSISTANCE" notice on its website.
"The
release of fluoride proceeds through a complex, multi-step equilibrium
process that is not well-understood," it says. "The
primary objective . . . is to investigate the reactions that take
place when fluorosilicates are added to drinking water supplies
and what concentrations of which fluorosilicate species may be
monitored in finished drinking water supplies."
Government
scientists now suspect that the fluorosilicates used to artificially
fluoridate drinking water combine with other water treatment chemicals
and contaminants to form highly toxic compounds. In their Request
for ssistance, they stated: "These data are expected to aid
in the development of pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies
and to further the understanding of the fate of fluoride, including
its interactions with other species in drinking water."
Jane
Jones, campaign director of the National Pure Water Association,
said "For fifty years Government officials have promoted
water fluoridation as a completely safe public health measure,
routinely denying that fluoride chemicals added to tap water can
create highly dangerous compounds. At last, science is exposing
the spin doctors' propaganda. They can't hide behind pseudo science
any more."
Last
August, the NPWA president, Dr Paul McCormick, wrote to the Medical
Research Council asking them to recommend safety testing of these
chemicals. "We didn't expect them to take any notice,"
said Ms Jones. "But now that the US EPA admits that legitimate
scientific fears exist, we expect the MRC to advise the Government
to stop fluoridation forthwith. How many red flags do they need?
Public health officials who parrot that artificial water fluoridation
is safe must be silenced. Our 42-year campaign against fluoridation
is completely justified." ends
