Dear Editor,
May I address some issues regarding the use of fluoride in our municipal water systems. Did you know that fluoride is a toxic by-product that comes from the manufacturing of the phosphate fertilizer and aluminum industries? Communities have put fluoride in their water because researchers have said it helps prevent tooth decay. But a growing body of scientists and medical personnel, including Nobel Prize winners, say that this is not the case and are calling for a worldwide ban.
Dr. Hardy Limeback, former Professor of Dentistry University of Toronto, former President of the Canadian Dental Association and National Research Council Panelist explained that swallowing fluoride doesn't work and that the public has to be informed of its dangers.
There is no total escape when fluoride is added to our municipal water systems. You are not only drinking, cooking and cleaning your clothes and dishes with it but your skin absorbs it from your bath or shower.
Fluoride in drinking water affects everyone regardless of age, health or vulnerability, including the unborn, infants, children and those who are sensitive to it. It disrupts the growing brain in a fetus, lowering its IQ and causing early delivery and low birth weight. Over time it accumulates in the body causing acute poisonings, fluorosis of the teeth, bones and soft tissue and it causes a series of complicated diseases frequently misdiagnosed.
Fluoridation is unethical. The Food and Drug Administration accepts that fluoride is a drug which must be controlled like a prescription. It is a form of mass medication when poured into the public water supply and this is not an appropriate place for drugs. It violates medical ethics because it is being administered without the individual's consent and delivered by people without medical qualifications. Is it time you ask yourself, "Do I as a voter have the right to say that my neighbor has to ingest a certain medication even if it is against my neighbor's will?"
97% of Western Europe has banned fluoridation. Since 1990 over 400 communities in the United States and Canada have also ended this practice. While writing this editorial, India announced that they too are banning fluoride. Owen Sound is in the minority. This has become a very personal issue to me because you see, "Fluoride is another silent killer! It has touched my home, will it touch yours?" For more information see www.fluoridealert.org
Additional references

Sandra Barker,

Owen Sound