JAMES ROBERT DEAL ATTORNEY PLLC
PO Box 2276, Lynnwood, Washington 98036-2276
Telephone 425-771-1110, Fax 425-776-8081
James@JamesRobertDeal.com
July 10, 2012
SO-CALLED FLUORIDATION:
DO NOT BE NAÏVE ABOUT THIS HALF BILLION DOLLAR RACKET
Shannon Affholter, Councilman, Everett
Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, Councilwoman, Edmonds
Dave Gossett, County Councilman
Linda Grafer, Councilwoman, Mukilteo
John Koster, County Councilman
Mark Lamb, Mayor, Bothell, Chair
Dave Somers, County Councilman, Chair
Dianne White, Mayor, Stanwood
Donna Wright, Councilwoman, Marysville
Stephanie Wright, County Councilwoman
Sent by email to: mayor@ci.stanwood.wa.us; dwright@marysvillewa.gov; John.Koster@co.snohomish.wa.us; brian.sullivan@co.snohomish.wa.us; lgrafer@ci.mukilteo.wa.us; adrienne.monillas@ci.edmonds.wa.us; klonergan@ci.lynnwood.wa.us; stephanie.wright@snoco.org; joshua.thompson@snoco.org; dave.gossett@co.snohomish.wa.us; mark.lamb@ci.bothell.wa.us;
Dear Civil Servants:
To access the links in this letter go to www.Fluoride-Class-Action.com/press-releases/7-10-12. Look for the press release dated July 10, 2012.
DODGING RESPONSIBILITY
The Everett City Council feels it cannot vote against so-called fluoridation because it is not a “science court”, as the late Drew Nielsen liked to say, and must therefore suspend its critical thought processes and defer to Dr. Goldbaum and the Snohomish Health District.
The Everett City Council helped get Everett into this mess in 1991, but it claims to be powerless to get us out.
Dr. Mark Goldbaum, M.D., MPH, chief of the Snohomish Health District, professor at University of Washington Medical School, says that fluoridation is “safe, effective, and legal”. He is 100 percent wrong. Read https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/press-releases/not-effective-not-safe-not-legal-6-13-12
Dr. Goldbaum and other pro-fluoride physicians and dentists are urged on by their medical and dental schools, which in turn are urged on by giant chemical corporations which make big donations to the medical and dental schools, and which have left-over fluoride to sell – or pay to dispose of as toxic waste at great cost. Likewise, the sugar industry has donated heavily to academics who have supported fluoridation, seeing fluoride as the silver bullet which would allow us to keep eating a lot of sugar while avoiding tooth decay. Sugar interests pressured EPA not to declare fluoride to be a possible carcinogen in 1990. Connett, The Case Against Fluoride, pp. 263-265.
Dr. Goldbaum is apparently sincere in his belief. Nevertheless, he is apparently too naïve and too trusting. He apparently believes his professors back at medical school who skirted the subject and said that so-called fluoridation was OK, without themselves looking too deeply into the subject.
Dr. Goldbaum apparently has not studied this subject in depth. This is evident from some of the things he has said and written about the subject, as I will point out in this letter. He is a sincere man and an honest man, but he is sincerely and honestly wrong on this issue. I am out to convince him that he is wrong. I predict that someday he will thank me.
CONVERSION EXPERIENCE
Others have switch sides in this debate, including Dr. Bill Osmunson, who supported fluoridation for most of his career. When he figured out that so-called fluoridation was fast poison to the sensitive groups and slow poison to all of us, “it was like getting kicked in the gut”.
See https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/press-releases/dr-osmunson-6-3-12
Dr. Osmunson has reviewed what Dr. Goldbaum has to say and dissects each argument in great detail. He notes that Dr. Goldbaum bases his argument solely on endorsements and that he presents no scientific studies to back up his “safe, effective, and legal” mantra.
See: https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/wp-content/uploads/Osmunson-to-Everett-6-3-12.pdf
THE FLUORIDE MAZE – NON-RELIGIOUS CULT
All through history people have believed preposterous myths. Our ancestors believed that women should not have the right to vote or manage their own financial affairs. We believed that people of certain races could be enslaved and that children did not have rights. We believed for a long time that the earth was flat. When we realized it was a globe, we continued to believe that our globe was at the center of the universe and that everything else went around it. We believed asbestos company lies that asbestos was “safe and effective”. We believed medical doctors hired by Big Tobacco who presented cigarettes in full page ads in Life and Look as safe and useful for relaxation. We believed Big Oil which said that tetraethyl lead was the only way to reduce engine knock, when Big Oil knew it was harming the public.
So-called fluoridation works like a cult, although in this case it is not a religion. Those who have profits to gain hire trusted professionals such as physicians and dentists to propagandize the public and put them into a trusting trance by repeating endlessly “safe and effective”.
Dr. Goldbaum has modified the mantra. Now it is “safe, effective, and legal”.
NOT LEGAL
The SDWA specifically prohibits requiring the addition of any chemical to drinking water for medical purposes. See 42 USC 300g-1(b)(11)[3]:
No national primary drinking water regulation may require the addition of any substance for preventive health care purposes unrelated to contamination of drinking water.
No federal or state agency has ever approved so-called fluoride to be injected into drinking water. FDA, CDC, EPA transferred that responsibility to NSF, a fake, sham FDA which falsely approves fluorosilicic acid as safe.
See: https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/sham
So-called fluoride contains hydrogen fluoride, which is its most immediately toxic ingredient. It is illegal to market a product containing hydrogen fluoride without prior approval from the FDA.
https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/hydrogen-fluoride
I have studied the legal side of so-called fluoridation, and it is clearly not legal. A half dozen laws are being violated.
See: https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/letter-to-us-attorney-in-seattle
TETRAETHYL LEAD – DON’T BE NAIVE
The tetraethyl lead story is highly relevant because the same scam artists who sold us fluoride – the Kettering Institute and the Mellon Institute – had previously sold us tetraethyl lead, in both cases to make big profits. “Ethyl brand leaded gasoline – tetraethyl lead … one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters. [W]hole nations were poisoned”.
It was the same Robert Kehoe of the same Kettering Laboratories which promoted both tetraethyl lead and fluoridation. Captains of chemical industries will lie about a profitable product to make money even if it means poisoning their own children.
See https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/speeches/tetraethyl-lead
PROFITEERS WILL LIE FOR MONEY– ASBESTOS – RADIUM
Regarding asbestos:
The United States government and asbestos industry have been criticized for not acting quickly enough to inform the public of dangers, and to reduce public exposure. In the late 1970s court documents proved that asbestos industry officials knew of asbestos dangers since the 1930s and had concealed them from the public.[29] A similar situation had arisen in the 1920s with the careless handling of radium and the ensuing scandal of the Radium Girls.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
SO-CALLED FLUORIDE – SO-CALLED FLUORIDATION – MANY FLUORIDES
Seattle, Everett, and most US cities that fluoridate, do so with silicofluoride (SiF). SiF comes in the liquid form as fluorosilicic acid and in solid granular form as sodium silicofluoride. Around 8% of water districts, mostly smaller ones, use granular sodium fluoride (NaF). Fluoridation started in 1945 with NaF, but by 1950 there was not enough NaF, and so most water districts switched to SiF.
SiF contains lead and arsenic and leaches lead from pipes.
SiF and NaF are much more toxic than naturally occurring calcium fluoride (CaF). CaF can be fairly pure, depending on its source. NaF is industrial grade but relatively pure; SiF is industrial grade toxic waste, highly contaminated with heavy metals. SiF contains and breaks down into hydrogen fluoride, one of the most poisonous and penetrating of all substances.
The silicofluoride used is the unfiltered and unprocessed scrubber liquor from the smoke stacks of phosphate fertilizer plants in Florida, Louisiana, Mexico, and China. It contains trace amounts of nearly every element on the periodic table. It is not pharmaceutical grade. SiF has never been approved by the FDA, EPA, or any other federal or state agency for consumption in tap water. Fluorides have been approved for topical use, as in toothpaste, but the fluoride is to be spat out. If more than a small amount is swallowed, one is to call poison control.
There are many fluorides. It is scientifically irresponsible to refer generally to fluoride and fluoridation. Not all fluorides are the same and fluoridation with different fluorides is different.
See https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/the-many-fluorides.
ADJUSTING NATURALLY OCCURRING FLUORIDE TO OPTIMUM LEVEL
Another argument that Dr. Goldbaum and other fluoridationists make is that fluoride is naturally occurring and that so-called fluoridation is merely adjusting the fluoride to the “optimum level”. This is false. Naturally occurring fluoride is almost always calcium fluoride. Fluoride is relatively harmless when it is accompanied by a lot of calcium and magnesium, although there is no level of fluoride of any kind which is good for people. Nor is there any amount the body needs for any physical process. The so-called fluoride being added to drinking water is a different fluoride, flurosilicic acid, which contains no calcium and which contains hydrogen fluoride, which is extremely penetrating and poisonous.
So-called fluoridation does not “adjust” naturally occurring calcium fluoride. It adds man-made industrial fluorides of many kinds which are especially harmful because they do not contain calcium.
ARSENIC
The so-called fluoride which Everett buys from Simplot contains arsenic, enough to produce added levels of arsenic of up to 1.6 ppb in drinking water.
See: https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/wp-content/uploads/nsf-fact-sheet-fluoride-20001.pdf
Fluoridatioinists say this is okay because this is such a small amount of arsenic. However, arsenic is a confirmed Type 1, Class A human carcinogen. For arsenic the MCL is 10 ppb and the MCLG is zero. A zero MCLG for lead and arsenic means that there is no level of lead or arsenic which can safely be added to drinking water.
Fluoridationists also say it is okay to add arsenic to drinking water because there is some naturally occurring arsenic in source water. It is a false scientific argument to use the existence of some naturally occurring arsenic to justify adding more.
THE FLUORIDE-CALCIUM RATIO
It is not so much the fluoride that causes harm as low calcium and magnesium levels in the water. Where water is hard, meaning it contains a lot of calcium and magnesium, the fluoride will choose mostly to bind with the free calcium and magnesium and not with the calcium and magnesium in our bones, glands, and organs. Northwest water contains very little calcium and magnesium. It is very soft and slightly acidic in pH. This means we are especially vulnerable to fluoride of any kind.
Dr. Goldbaum cited the fact that ocean water contains around 1.0 ppm fluoride, as if this were some kind of evidence favoring adding so-called fluoride to our water. This is true, but it is also true that the fluoride in the oceans is mostly calcium fluoride, that ocean water contains hundreds of parts per million of calcium, magnesium, and other minerals which are highly attractive to fluoride and which tie it up, rendering it harmless.
https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/ask-dr-sauerheber/fluoride-calcium-ratio
THE SLIPPERY SLOPE – LITHIUM – TOILET TO TAP
If you support adding so-called fluoride containing lead and arsenic to our drinking water, what will you say when your water district wants to add other chemicals such as lithium? San Diego is all geared up to start recycling sewer water into drinking water after putting it through reverse osmosis filtration. It is called “toilet to tap”. Because reverse osmosis cannot remove the tiny lithium atom from sewer water, San Diego will in effect be adding lithium to San Diego water. Lithium is found in brakes and other commercial applications and gets into sewer water.
PHANTOM SAVINGS
Dr. Goldblum says: “Community water fluoridation costs about $1 per person per year, and saves $38 for every dollar invested”.
See https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/press-releases/goldblum-replies-4-5-12.
To Dr. Goldbaum I said
You make the standard pro-fluoridationist argument that fluoridation “saves $38 for every dollar invested”, a reference to Griffin’s Economic Evaluation of Fluoridation, which comes to such conclusions only by starting with the false assumptions that fluoridation (1) causes no collateral damage anyone drinking fluoridated water and (2) that there is a savings of $18 per hour in wages not lost by missing work to visit a dentist. However, Fluoride does cause harm, and the calculation presumes that even children and the unemployed save $18 per hour by not missing work. In her Tale of Two Studies, Carol Clinch shows this to be a contrived estimate based on incorrect assumptions.
See also https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/deconstructing-michael-easley.
Dr. Goldbaum’s response was:
Fluoride at the level of .7ppm to 1.2ppm does not cause harm. Fluoride at levels of 4 ppm or greater are not allowed in drinking water in the United States.
Economists may disagree on the assumptions and ultimately on the economic benefits. However, the health benefits are clear. Given the low costs of fluoridation, the health benefits are cost-effective.
See https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/dr-golblaum-replies-to-deal.
See: http://washingtonsafewater.com/savings-come-when-silicofluoride-goes/
MISINTERPRETING THE EPA
It comes as a big surprise to most people to learn that this 4 ppm limit is not an authorization to add fluoride of any kind up to 4 ppm, but a regulation requiring removal of any fluoride present in drinking water in excess of 4 ppm.
Further, the type of fluoride required to be removed is almost always naturally occurring CaF2, known as fluorite or fluorspar, which is very common.
Dr. Goldbaum suggests that because fluorine is the 13th most common element on Earth and is naturally occurring, that it is somehow safe to consume for life in unregulated quantities no mater what your physical condition. Many common elements such as lead and arsenic are common too, but that does not prove we should be consuming them.
In rare cases there are artificial fluorides which are found in source water, such as on the Colorado River, where cities are allowed to dump sewage into the river, to be used by cities downstream as drinking water, however, levels of SiF are typically around .2 ppm downstream from such dumping.
The 2006 NRC Report at page xiii and 2006 NRC Report at page 13 make this clear:
In 1986, EPA established an MCLG [maximum contaminant level goal] and MCL [maximum contaminant level] for fluoride at a concentration of 4 milligrams per liter (mg/L) and an SMCL [special contaminant level] of 2 mg/L. These guidelines are restrictions on the total amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water. … EPA’s drinking-water guidelines are not recommendations about adding fluoride to drinking water to protect the public from dental caries. … Instead, EPA’s guidelines are maximum allowable concentrations in drinking water intended to prevent toxic or other adverse effects that could result from exposure to fluoride.
A BAD BARGAIN
Dr. Goldbaum says so-called fluoridation is effective, and he cites studies showing an “18-40% reduction in caries”.
An efficacy rate of 18-40% means there is a failure rate is 60-82%. How is failure to prevent caries 60-82% of the time with fluoridated water being framed as a massive public health victory? The truth is that drinking fluoridated water will fail to protect children from cavities MOST OF THE TIME.
FLUOROSIS
Dr. Goldbaum says: “Severe fluorosis, which is cosmetically unsightly, is very rare in the U.S. provided fluoride levels are maintained less than 2 ppm as recommended by the EPA”. Dr. Goldbaum is wrong. Severe, moderate, and mild fluorosis are all unsightly. Around 41% of our children have dental fluorosis of all degrees. Around 12.2% of our children have severe, moderate, or mild fluorosis. Severe fluorosis is rare, but moderate and mild fluorosis. If there is visible fluorosis on enamel, then every bone and calcium-rich organ of the body have been equally poisoned.
See: https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/calculations/kids-with-fluorisis
Dr. Goldbaum in effect supports giving 12.2% of our children severe, moderate, or mild fluorosis in return for an 18-40% reduction in tooth decay. He says nothing about harm to fetuses, infants, the hypersensitive, those with arthritis, kidney disease, heart disease.
See my letter to Dr. Goldbaum dated May 9, 2012 at: https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/questions-for-dr-gary-goldbaum
KIDNEYS AND BONES
Fluoride builds up in kidneys and prevents them from functioning normally and may hasten death. Those on dialysis who quit consuming fluoride may recover and some may be able to quit dialysis. After a lifetime of drinking fluoridated water, bone can be up to 12,000 ppm fluoride, depending on water hardness and diet, making bones brittle. Fractured pelvises are twice as common in fluoridated areas. Fluoride of all kinds affects bones, joints, and tendons and exacerbates arthritis.
ALUMINUM UPTAKE
Water treatment plants add aluminum to precipitate dirt. The fluoride ion binds with the aluminum, and aluminum fluoride passes the blood-brain barrier, delivering aluminum into the brain, which is believed to cause or worsen Alzheimer’s disease.
ENZYMATIC ACTION INTERRUPTED
Fluoride interrupts and inhibits enzymatic action. It denatures proteins. SiF is an anticholinesterase inhibitor. It damages brain tissue and reduces IQ while the fetus is still in the womb. It attacks the thyroid, pituitary, pineal, and other glands. Fluoride incorporates into atherosclerotic plaque in coronary arteries and the aorta in patients with cardiovascular disease. Around 1% of the population is so hypersensitized to fluoridated water that they have to move to a place where the water is not fluoridated.
FETUSES AND BABIES
Fetuses and babies are highly sensitive to lead, arsenic, and fluoride because their cells are still dividing and because they drink so much fluids relative to their body weight. Their kidneys are not mature and excrete only 20% of fluoride consumed. CDC, ADA, AMA, and the surgeon general have advised that if formula is mixed using fluoridated water fluorosis will result. The poor are unable to buy fluoride-free water home or filter out the fluoride. Only an expensive reverse osmosis filter, ionizer, or distiller can remove the tiny fluoride ion. The poor are definitely being harmed, poor babies in particular. All are harmed; some more quickly than others.
FACTUAL ERRORS BY DR. GOLDBAUM
Dr. Goldbaum says:
The fluoride-rich by-products of the phosphate fertilizer industry are shipped to manufacturing plants for purification and recombination to create a variety of fluoride products for use in the treatment of drinking water.
This is a complete fantasy. There is no manufacturing plant middle man and no purification of so-called fluoride. Fluorosilicic acid comes directly from wet scrubbers in the smokestacks at the fertilizer plant to the tanker trucks and to Everett with no processing or filtration whatsoever.
LEAD
Dr. Goldbaum says:
There is no measurable lead in the treated drinking water leaving the plant. Mr. Deal was provided the results of the monitoring that shows this. Numerous samples have been collected from the treated water each year since fluoridation began in 1992.
Everett’s fluoride supplier is Simplot. Simplot admits that its fluoride contains lead and arsenic. The lead and arsenic are going in. If lead and arsenic coming from the water plant are not detected, it is because the detection levels are set too high.
Of more concern is the fact that fluorosilicic acid leaches lead from pipes.
Water at taps in Everett homes has been as high as 63 ppb.
Drinking fountain water in Seattle schools was as high as 1,600 ppb in 2004.
See: www.fluoride-class-action.com/questions-regarding-lead-in-seattle-water
Lead is common in water pipes, service lies, and brass fittings throughout Everett, particularly in old homes, old school buildings, old apartment buildings. Everett and Seattle both get their so-called fluoride from Simplot. There is no reason to believe why lead is not the same problem in Everett as it is in Seattle.
FINDING YOUR WAY OUT OF THE MAZE
Why do people believe harmful myths? Generally because they have not themselves done much study on the subject, because people they respect believe these myths, and often because the myth is profitable and hires missionaries go out and proselytize converts.
See https://www.fluoride-class-action.com/the-fluoride-maze
I have gone into detail explaining how the maze works so that you will be able to see the exit and find your way out of the maze.
I wish to emphasize that I do not question the sincerity and honesty of Dr. Goldbaum. However he is sincerely and honestly wrong on this issue. We should not be adding industrial grade toxic waste so-called fluoride, buffered by lead and arsenic, to our drinking water. Dr. Goldbaum is unfortunately trapped in the fluoride maze. I look forward to helping him find his way out.
DOCUMENTATION
To access the links in this letter go to www.Fluoride-Class-Action.com/press-releases/7-10-12. Look for the press release dated July 10, 2012.
Sincerely,
James Robert Deal, Attorney
WSBA #8103
fact is most likely the majority of the commission only was taking up space and ignoring the science that has been presented about fluoridation risks. The leaving the room is just a public insult to confirm their position to the pubic.
Penn State just released how Joe Paterno covered up and ignored child abuse reports 14 years ago to protect the image of the Football program it seems. Now that we have a Sandusky conviction we can only ponder how many more kids had to suffer how many times because people in charge ignored evidence over and over again. Go back and read the statements of EPA science union officials. Fraud was the most common charge of Dr. Robert Carton and he said it many many times while he tried to halt fluoridation. Dr William Hirzy spoke to congress in 2000 and then 11 EPA unions asked congress for a moratorium in 2005. Mr Deal has their letter at his excellent fluorideClassAction.com site.
Sadly your health department wants all to drink the fluoridated version of the kool aid the Jim Jones Cult offered their faithful followers. I am baffled how the health department could claim a very very remote risk of fluorosis. 41% of 12-15 year olds seem closer to half then ZERO. Actually one of the three studies showed 48% between 1999 -2005 that the CDC hid for nearly 10 years from mention to the public. They were still claiming 22% after 2005 and then 32% until last year. . Facts are this is only because they average in unfluoridated kids or the numbers would be higher because they are in fluoridated cities. Historical data showed 2.3 times higher in blacks for decades and still double for moderate and severe damage for blacks and hispanics per the CDC data. How can anyone from the health department not mention this double damage to those they claim need this program the most. Maybe the Joe Paterno method of public deception is widespread like the EPA science unions suggest based upon science.
But then the commission could just get up and walk out and show make their level of professionalism public knowledge. Seems slightly childish to me and a insult to those they are sworn to protect. Maybe the job is just too big for their abilities? Why not have the Utilities manager show the proof of safety and toxicology of their so called fluoridation product? Or maybe the health department has the proof of safety documents and could be asked to produce them. They certainly have the list of cut and paste endorsements that seem to be the basis of their faith in unprocessed smokestack toxic sludge. No product supplier has ever provided that proof of safety when asked. Sort of Paterno type trust maybe?