Unprecedented Lawsuit Could End Water Fluoridation in US Based on Neurotoxicity Studies

See Also: My letter to the Trump Administration Re: EPAs Involvement in Water Fluoridation

By Stuart Cooper
Campaign Director, Fluoride Action Network

The Fluoride Action Network (FAN), along with a coalition of environmental and public health groups has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to their denial of our petition under Section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) seeking a ban on water fluoridation.

We believe this lawsuit is an unprecedented opportunity to end the practice once and for all in the U.S., and potentially throughout the world, based on the well-documented neurotoxicity of fluoride. You may read the official complaint here. According to FAN’s attorney and adviser, Michael Connett:

“This case will present the first time a court will consider the neurotoxicity of fluoride and the question of whether fluoridation presents an unreasonable risk under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

And, in contrast to most other legal challenges of Agency actions, TSCA gives us the right to get the federal court to consider our evidence ‘de novo’ — meaning federal courts are to conduct their own independent review of the evidence without deference to the EPA’s judgment.”

Industry, legal and environmental observers following the EPA’s implementation of the new TSCA law have pointed out that a lawsuit¹challenging the EPA’s denial of our petition would provide a test case for the agency’s interpretation that petitioners must provide a comprehensive analysis of all uses of a chemical in order to seek a restriction on a particular use.

Legal experts have suggested the EPA’s interpretation essentially makes the requirements for gaining Agency action using section 21 petitions impossible to meet, making the outcome significant for all U.S. residents and public health or environmental watchdog groups.

Lawsuit Background: EPA Served With Citizen’s Petition

On November 22, 2016, a coalition including FAN, Food & Water Watch, Organic Consumers Association, American Academy of Environmental Medicine, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Moms Against Fluoridation and several individual mothers, filed a petition calling on the EPA to ban the deliberate addition of fluoridating chemicals to the drinking water under provisions in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The petition includes more than 2,500 pages of scientific documentation detailing the risks of water fluoridation to human health.The full petition can be accessed here, a shorter eight-page summary here and our press release here.

We presented the FDA with a large body of human and animal evidence demonstrating that fluoride is a neurotoxin at levels now ingested by many U.S. children and vulnerable populations. We also presented the agency with evidence showing that fluoride has little benefit when swallowed and, accordingly, any risks from exposing people to fluoride chemicals in water are unnecessary.

We believe an impartial judge reviewing this evidence will agree that fluoridation poses an unreasonable risk. On February 27, 2017, the EPA published their response.² In their decision, the EPA claimed:

“The petition has not set forth a scientifically defensible basis to conclude that any persons have suffered neurotoxic harm as a result of exposure to fluoride in the U.S. through the purposeful addition of fluoridation chemicals to drinking water or otherwise from fluoride exposure in the U.S.”

As many independent scientists now recognize, fluoride is a neurotoxin.³ The question, therefore, is not if fluoride damages the brain, but at what dose. While EPA quibbles with the methodology of some of these studies, to dismiss and ignore these studies in their entirety for methodological imperfections is exceptionally cavalier, particularly given the consistency of the findings and the razor-thin margin between the doses causing harm in these studies and the doses that millions of Americans now receive.

EPA’s own Guidelines for Neurotoxicity Risk Assessment highlights the importance of having a robust margin between the doses of a chemical that cause neurotoxic effects and the doses that humans receive. FAN presented the EPA with over 180 studies showing that fluoride causes neurotoxic harm (e.g., reduced IQ), pointing out that many of these studies found harm at levels within the range, or precariously close to, the levels millions of American children now receive.

Typically, this would be a cause for major concern. But, unfortunately, the EPA has consistently shied away from applying the normal rules of risk assessment to fluoride — and it has unfortunately continued that tradition with its dismissal of our petition.

Fortunately, the TSCA statute provides citizens with the ability to challenge an EPA denial in federal court. For too long, EPA has let politics trump science on the fluoride issue (see examples). FAN welcomes having these issues considered by a federal court, where scientific evidence has a better chance of being weighed objectively.

To accompany our lawsuit, FAN is offering a new DVD and a comprehensive campaign flash drive package. The DVD features the video, “Fluoride and the Brain,” in which Michael Connett explains that fluoride’s ability to lower IQ in children is just the tip of an iceberg of over 300 animal and human studies that indicate that fluoride is neurotoxic.

We have also made a comprehensive collection of campaign and educational videos available on a single flash drive for a limited time. It also includes our EPA petition and supporting documentation. This is a must-have for every fluoride-free campaigner’s toolkit.⁴  Another must-have is the book “The Case Against Fluoride,” by environmental chemist and toxicologist Paul Connett, Ph.D., which contains a comprehensive science-based argument for the end to artificial water fluoridation.

Winning this lawsuit will require a full team effort, and we want you to feel a part of that team and a part of this moment in history. Please consider playing a larger role in this potentially fluoridation-ending lawsuit by making a tax-deductible contribution.

New Study Quantifies Fluoride’s Potential to Lower IQ in Children

Since submitting our citizen’s petition to the EPA, we have learned even more about the threat to the next generation. Some children in the U.S. may be consuming enough fluoridated water to reach doses of fluoride that have the potential to lower their IQ, according to a research team headed by William Hirzy, Ph.D., a former senior scientist at the EPA who specialized in risk assessment and published an important risk analysis in the journal Fluoride last year.⁵

Current federal guidelines encourage the addition of fluoride chemicals into water supplies to reach 0.7 milligrams per liter (mg/L). Hirzy followed EPA risk assessment guidelines to report: “The effect of fluoride on IQ is quite large, with a predicted mean 5 IQ point loss when going from a dose of 0.5 mg/F/day to 2.0 mg F/day.”

Many children in the U.S. commonly consume these levels of fluoride within this range from all sources (i.e., water, food, dental products, medicines and air pollution). Hirzy explains the significance of this study:

“The significance of this peer reviewed risk analysis is that it indicates there may be no actual safe level of exposure to fluoride. Groups of children with lower exposures to fluoride were compared with groups having higher exposures. Those with higher exposures performed more poorly on IQ tests than those with lower exposures.

One well-conducted Chinese study indicated that children exposed to 1.4 mg/day had their IQ lowered by 5 IQ points. Current average mean daily intakes among children in the United States are estimated by EPA to range from about 0.80 mg/day to 1.65 mg/day. Fluoride may be similar to lead and mercury in having no threshold below which exposures may be considered safe.”

Dr. Bill Osmunson, FAN’s interim director, noted that this risk analysis adds further weight to the petition submitted to the EPA by FAN and other groups in November to ban the addition of fluoride chemicals to drinking water under provisions in the Toxic Substances Control Act.

FAN’s Persistence Pays Off: US Government Funding Neurotoxicity Studies

FAN progress isn’t limited to the legal world. Our relentless effort to get the U.S. government to take fluoride’s neurotoxicity seriously is also beginning to pay off in other ways. For many years, American regulatory and research agencies have failed to finance studies seeking to reproduce the many studies undertaken abroad that have found harm to the brain (over 300).

When toxicologist and pharmacologist Phyllis Mullenix, et al., published their groundbreaking animal study⁶ on fluoride and animal behavior in 1995, she was fired from her position as chair of the toxicology department at the Forsythe Dental Center. That sent a chilling message to U.S. researchers — research on fluoride toxicity is a “no-go” area. But that is changing. Now, with the U.S. government funding several important toxicology studies, this should encourage other Western researchers to get involved:

•There is a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded fluoride/brain study.⁷ Our Canadian friends are extremely excited by this research funding to Christine Till and Ashley Malin, the co-authors of the important study that found a correlation between fluoridation and increased ADHD rates in the U.S.⁸ This could definitely be one of the most important developments in water fluoridation to date.

•The National Toxicology Program (NTP) is in the process of completing a rodent study using low levels of fluoride exposure. However, we have concerns over the consultation process NTP had prior to when this study was undertaken (see “Vigilance Still Needed” at end of this article).

•Dr. Philippe Grandjean, Harvard School of Public Health, is leading an ongoing study of fluoride and intelligence among a group of schoolchildren in China. Grandjean published the preliminary results of this study in the January-February 2015 issue of Neurotoxicology & Teratology.⁹

•A National Institute of Environmental Health (NIEHS)-funded human epidemiological study titled “Prenatal and Childhood Exposure to Fluoride and Neurodevelopment” is investigating the relationship between fluoride and IQ among a cohort of children in Mexico. A summary of the study¹⁰ is available online.

•An NIEHS-funded animal study, “Effects of Fluoride on Behavior in Genetically Diverse Mouse Models,” is investigating fluoride’s effects on behavior and whether these effects differ based on the genetic strain of the mouse. The principal investigator of the study is Dr. Pamela Den Besten. A summary of her study¹¹ is available online.

•The NIH is funding a study investigating the impact of fluoride on the timing of puberty among children in Mexico. This study is pertinent to the assessment of fluoride’s impact on the pineal gland’s regulation of melatonin. The preliminary results of the study were presented at the 2014 Independent School Entrance Examination ISEE conference and can be accessed online.¹²

•Though not funded by the U.S. government, Jaqueline Calderón Hernandez, Ph.D., Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is currently working with Diana Rocha-Amador, Ph.D., on three studies on fluoride neurotoxicity:

1.An examination of the cognitive effects from fluoride in drinking water

2.Estimating the global burden of disease of mild mental retardation associated with environmental fluoride exposure

3.Investigating the impact of in utero exposure to fluoride (via drinking water) on cognitive development delay in children

Rocha-Amador is also examining the impact of fluoride on thyroid hormone levels in pregnant women, and published a fluoride/IQ study in 2007.¹³

Vigilance Still Needed

We still have to be vigilant to make sure that those determined to protect the fluoridation program don’t skew the results. For example, it is worrying that the NTP specified that an animal study should be conducted at 0.7 ppm — which is a ridiculous provision for an animal study on fluoride. For example, it is well-known that rats need a much higher dose of fluoride in their water to reach the same plasma levels in humans.

Moreover, it is standard practice in toxicology to use much higher doses in animals to tease out effects. To conduct experiments on animals at expected human doses would require a huge number of animals, which would be cost prohibitive. These studies also raise a significant question for those who continue to promote fluoridation in local communities and legislatures around the world.

“What primary scientific studies (not bogus reviews conducted by pro-fluoridation agencies) can you cite that give you the confidence to ignore or dismiss the evidence that fluoride damages the brain as documented in over 300 animal and human studies (including 50 IQ studies)?”

As shown by its support for these new neurotoxicity studies, our own government has acknowledged the risk fluoride poses to our children. If proponents cannot provide an adequate scientific answer to this question, then fluoridation should be halted immediately, and should under no circumstances be initiated.

National Fluoridation Stats Show Tipping Point Has Been Reached

Progress is also being made on the political front. U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) fluoridation statistics for the U.S. have been released for 2014,¹⁴ and they show exactly why the fluoridation lobby has been pouring more money and resources into promoting the practice and fighting our efforts: WE ARE WINNING!

For the first time in nearly 40 years, the percentage of the U.S. population served by community water systems receiving fluoridated water decreased, from 74.6 percent to 74.4 percent. The percentage of the U.S. population receiving optimally fluoridated water (natural and artificial) also decreased, from 67.1 percent to 66.3 percent. Also decreasing:

• The number of water systems providing fluoridated water (natural or artificial)
• The number of water systems adding fluoride
• The number of water systems providing naturally “optimal fluoride” levels

Momentum Continues to Build Thanks to Citizens Like You

More than 460 communities throughout the world have ended existing fluoridation programs or rejected new efforts to fluoridate either by council vote or citizen referendum since 1990. Since January 2016 alone, we’ve confirmed that at least 33 communities with nearly a million collective residents voted to end fluoridation, bringing the number of victories since 2010 to at least 225 communities,¹⁵ representing approximately 6.5 million people.

Most of these victories were the result of citizens organizing local campaigns and voicing their opposition to public officials, with many working in coordination with FAN or using our materials to educate their neighbors and local decision makers about the serious health risks associated with the practice. Some of the latest victories in the U.S. and abroad include:¹⁶

OWASA Over Fluoridation Disaster Blow-Out!

In Response to the recent over-fluoridation of the community water supply, the citizens make their voices HEARD!

OWASA is extremely upset and disturbed by the awakening public who has forced their hand in revisiting this longstanding practice.  They are doing all they can to perform damage control and avoid negligence in this costly and dangerous disaster but given the fact that we have notified them as early as 2012, they are in an extremely compromised position!

1 Step Plan To Make America Great Again

Dear President Elect Donald J Trump, the Trump family and the new Trump administration,

Congratulations on your momentous landslide victory in the 2016 presidential election.  Against all odds your team has out-maneuvered the most powerful and corrupt political and media establishment which has had heretofore an iron grip on the minds of the public.  You experienced first hand the collusion, dirty tricks and uniformity of action against a rising populist sentiment in America.

You intimately witnessed how the DC propaganda machine is able to manipulate large swaths of the electorate to believe a false narrative, and I’m sure you have been frustrated by the gullibility of many voters to do so.

Now that you have won the election battle I note that you have quickly begun the transition process and all the ensuing machinations of “assuming office.”  Before you know it, your cabinet positions will be filled and you will have to set about fulfilling your campaign promises, which to use your own words is to “make America Great again.”

Surely I know that every brand of politico, lobbyist, industrialist and well meaning citizen are pitching their ideas to you and your team – lord knows there is a lengthy list of things to do in order to begin to reverse course, and everyone seems to have their own ideas about how best to achieve that.   From monetary to foreign policy, it is all a great big beautiful mess and you have taken on the unenviable role of trying to fix it.

Easier said than done, I know!

But the key question is, how does one prioritize which issue to tackle first? 

As a builder you know well that in any new construction the most important step is to construct a solid foundation first and foremost.  The rest of the process is only made possible by having a level and properly supported foundation.  In cases of renovation, sometimes you must repair the foundation in order to revive a property that has fallen into disrepair.

Similarly, the outward manifestation of society’s behavioral ethics, intellectual achievement and moral direction as a whole is built upon the foundation of our “group intelligence quotient” which is simply the average intelligence quotient of a civilization’s individual constituents.

One should expect that the more enlightened a society is, the more ethical and constructive they will be.

In business and in life I am sure you have discovered yourself that low IQ is directly related to project delays, corruption, back stabbing, financial mishandling, mistakes, confusion, unnecessary aggression, dishonor and every other negative attribute of human being.  This is self evident because any enlightened individual or society with a high intelligence would realize the diminishing returns of such behavior patterns and immediately reorient them for their own self interest.

In light of this revelation, it becomes apparent that your success depends less on your own personal persuasiveness, cunning or intelligence but much more heavily on the reciprocal intelligence level of the rest of the individuals who constitute the civilization you are attempting to uplift.

Consequently in order to effectively and comprehensively deal with such myriad political quandaries one must first address the foundational problems of society (Group IQ), before attempting to fix any of the dependent structures for them to have proper and sustainable support.

Otherwise, the incalcitrant minds of a dumbed down electorate will not be able to properly perceive the truth and will revert back to debased, unengaged, selfish and programmed behavior patterns.  Under such psychological conditions the public will still be easy for the corporate media to manipulate and it will be difficult at best to get anything of great magnitude done.

Luckily there is a feasible, remarkably fast and effective way for a new administration such as your own to boost America’s group intelligence from the top-down, which will greatly open the hearts and minds of everyone involved and subsequently accelerate the collective intellectual and emotional evolution needed for you to properly address the major policy issues which have come to characterize American apathy, degeneracy and serfdom in the last few decades.

Coincidentally such a singular fix easily fits into your existing contract with the American voter, under Section 2.7:

SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure.

Source: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contract/

While there are many issues with our water supply and other environmental infrastructure perhaps the most influential on the group IQ of our nation is the well known state health policy of “Public water Fluoridation.”

Over 70% of American municipalities make a regular practice of spending millions of dollars purchasing untested, hazardous waste byproducts of the fertilizer industry and distributing the IQ reducing agent through their public water supply. (See: Harvard study Impact of Fluoride on Neurological Development in Children)

Consequently, America has seen an average intelligence quotient stunted over the same period of time it should have been growing due to improved living standards, which is undoubtedly influenced by this persistent and largely unobstructed policy. (See: Are we becoming more STUPID?)

The amount of value this one policy has destroyed is impossible to evaluate, because it has unquestionably prevented significant economic production including inventions, innovations and interpersonal acumen that we can only imagine but not measure in real terms.

Perhaps more concerning than the deleterious effect of water fluoridation on our average intelligence is the well known problems it causes with our thyroid health.  The purpose of your thyroid gland is to make, store, and release thyroid hormones into your blood. These hormones, which are also referred to as T3 (liothyronine) and T4 (levothyroxine), affect almost every cell in your body, and help control your body’s functions (including emotions, reproduction, and intelligence!).

We all know how unbalanced hormones can make people act crazy, and this is precisely what is happening when our society ingests tap water on a regular basis that is laced with the halogen Fluoride.  The thyroid absorbs the fluoride, instead of the iodine it needs and is consequently prohibited from serving it’s proper function in the biology of our people. (See: Clinical Studies on Fluoride’s effect on the Thyroid)

Despite the unfortunate fact that most people are still living under the self interested mantra of the state dental lobby that “Water fluoridation is a significant public health achievement,” many of them are nevertheless acutely aware that our water infrastructure is not altogether safe – with the Flint lead crisis and other recent controversies the public temperament towards the public water authorities has never been more open to change.

Fortunately, we can capitalize on the fact that public water fluoridation and overexposure to lead are in fact closely related since the addition of fluorosilicates to the city water infrastructure is admittedly known to have a corrosive effects on brass joints that results in the leeching of lead into the tap water and blood stream of America (See: Effects of fluoridation and disinfection agent combinations on lead leaching from leaded-brass parts.)

With this one issue a Trump administration has the opportunity to do immense foundational repair to the underlying intellectual and bio-physiological deficits which make enlightened thought patterns a scarcity in the halls of government and elsewhere.  In my estimation there isn’t a single issue that could more effectively change the overall psychological ether in this country than reversing this long standing attack on the literal operating system of the American people.

Reversing public water fluoridation would immediately result in a softening of our hearts and a sharpening of our minds which would accelerate our opening to enlightened transcendental ideas that can give birth to a new epoch of political, socio-economic and legal reforms.

Here are my specific recommendations on how a Trump administration could maximize their use of the office to influence this situation and change the overall calculus with respect to the state sacrament of public water fluoridation.

1. Use of the Bully Pulpit: Hold a  press conference at the White House and outline the legal, financial, moral, and scientific reasons why the people should demand their municipalities change the policy.
2. Leverage the Appointee Power of the POTUS seat; recommend the senate approve a new commissioner of the FDA who will enforce existing drug laws which prohibit the prescription of a medical agents without the proper medical license and informed consent.

The FDA’s definition of a Drug/Medication is; “articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease”  [FD&C Act, sec. 201(g)(1)].  The only stated purpose of public water fluoridation is to PREVENT tooth decay, which is considered a disease of the tooth. Under current FDA law, city council members are therefore criminally liable for continuing public water fluoridation, but no court will ever hear the case because they too are inculcated by the effective fluoridation propaganda of the dental lobbies and misguided state health representatives – the FDA commissioner should put all participating municipalities on notice to come into compliance with the existing FDA laws or face commercial liability for any damages that can be argued in a court.  When activist law firms see the opening to make money via class action lawsuits that hold weight, the city councils will come into compliance very quickly.

3. Use the Health and Human Service Apparatus: In this video presentation I cover the little known history of our Department of Health and Human Service agency which has its roots in a secret biological weapon research arm of the Department of War.  It was later in the 1950’s that the HHS apparatus began to work with renown propagandist Edward Bernays and the Democratic Rockefeller operative and proginitor of the Research Triangle Park Oscar Ewing to implement a nation wide PR campaign that lead to a national public fluoridation policy.  Use your appointee power and executive action to either cut funding to the HHS or embed citizen patriots there who understand the historical role the HHS has had in attacking American health so that they can use the levers of power to turn the spigots off.

4. Re-examine the Environmental Protection Agency’s role in the perpetuation of the public water fluoridation scheme.  In my two part interview with long time EPA toxicologist and fluoride activist William Hirzy, who blew the whistle and testified before congress on this issue in the early 2000s, he explains how the EPA is responsible for covering up the health dangers in order to maintain the status quo.  In my personal experience I have found some cities will rely on the EPA’s allowable environmental fluoride concentration level to suggest that the amount the city adds to the water is therefore safe, but when confronted with scientific evidence to the contrary the EPA says that they don’t regulate municipal water supplies. We need to stop the onion of bureaucracy and inter-agency collusion which leads to a perpetuation of our most pressing problems.

Mr. Trump, if you are for real, then please give consideration to taking these 4 straightforward recommendations to make a monolithic change that will have the largest return on investment of any single tenant in your 100 Day contract with voters.

Thank you for your time,

Corey Sturmer

http://www.durhamagainstfluoride.com

Lab official admits faking coal water quality reports

Source: The Charleston Gazette

ByKen Ward Jr., Staff writer for the Charleston Gazette

A Raleigh County man pleaded guilty Thursday to repeatedly faking compliant water quality standards for coal companies, in a case that raises questions about the self-reporting system state and federal regulators use as a central tool to judge if the mining industry is following pollution limits.

John W. Shelton, 47, of Daniels, admitted to a charge of conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Water Act, saying he diluted water samples, substituted water he knew to be clean for actual mining discharges and did not keep water samples refrigerated, as required by state and federal rules, court records show.

Shelton was a field technician, and then a field supervisor, for Appalachian Laboratories Inc., a Beckley company that was certified by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to sample and analyze water discharges from mining operations as part of the Clean Water Act program.

In a criminal charge filed in early September, Assistant U.S. Attorney Blaire Malkin alleged that Shelton took part in a conspiracy from the time of his hiring at Appalachian Laboratories, in 2008, through at least June 2013.

“The objects of the conspiracy were to increase the profitability of Appalachian by avoiding certain costs associated with full compliance with the Clean Water Act and to maintain and increase its revenue by providing its customers and the agencies regulating those customers with reports purporting to show that those customers were operating their sites in compliance with the CWA and thereby allow those customers to avoid fines and other costs associated with bringing their operations into compliance with the CWA and thus encourage and maintain for Appalachian the patronage of those customers,” the charging document alleged.

Appalachian Laboratories officials did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story. Other coal industry officials also did not respond to a request for comment.

In an agreed-to “stipulation of facts” filed in court Thursday, prosecutors and Shelton said that, throughout his time with the company, another Appalachian Laboratories official — referred to as “First Known Person” — stressed to him the importance of “pulling good samples,” a term that was understood to mean samples that would comply with permit limits, not necessarily samples that were taken properly.

Among other things, the stipulation says that employees of Appalachian did not maintain water samples at the proper temperature, by putting them on ice in coolers, unless they knew that DEP inspectors were in the area.

Shelton and other Appalachian employees “falsified and rendered inaccurate” water samples by diluting them with distilled water or replacing them with water they knew to be in compliance with permit standards, according to the stipulation. The document says that Appalachian officials used the term “honeyhole” to refer to water from certain sites that would always test within permit limits and could be used in place of or to dilute “bad water.”

“Each time that Shelton and others at Appalachian diluted the sample water or replaced the sample water with water that would pass, they allowed water that they believed exceeded permit limits to discharge into the waters of the United States,” the stipulation stated.

Shelton pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Irene Berger and was released on $10,000 bail. He faces up to five years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced on Feb. 26, 2015.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said his office’s investigation into the water sampling issue, conducted jointly with the FBI and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is continuing, but he did not offer further details.

David McLeon, special agent in charge of the EPA’s regional criminal enforcement program, said Shelton’s plea “demonstrates that laboratories and their senior managers who callously place the American people at risk by submitting false reports will be held accountable.”

Prosecutors said Appalachian does water sampling for more than 100 mine sites in West Virginia. Court records, though, do not indicate which mining operations were involved in the falsified samples or how widespread a problem Shelton’s plea indicates exists.

Under the Clean Water Act, companies with water pollution permits are required to take periodic samples and submit reports to the DEP on whether those samples indicate their operations are in compliance with allowed pollution discharge limits. State and federal agencies take some samples themselves, but the majority of sampling is done by companies, with results filed with the government for its review.

Problems with this system have come up before in West Virginia. In 2008, after federal officials sued Massey Energy over widespread water violations at its mines in the state, DEP officials revealed that, for about five years, they had not been monitoring the discharge reports filed with them by the coal-mining industry. Agency officials said that problem has been remedied.

Derek Teaney, senior staff attorney with the group Appalachian Mountain Advocates, said the DEP — the state agency with primary Clean Water Act responsibility in West Virginia — needs to investigate what was going on with Appalachian Laboratories. Teaney said the DEP should audit any water quality sampling performed by Appalachian Laboratories and, perhaps, do an increased program of its own sampling at mines that could have been involved.

“The whole Clean Water Act system relies on self-reporting,” said Teaney, whose group monitors coal industry compliance and files lawsuits against water quality violators. “If that self-reporting can’t be trusted, then the system just falls apart.”

Kelley Gillenwater, a spokeswoman for the DEP, said the agency gave federal investigators all the results it had from water sampling performed by Appalachian Laboratories.

“We haven’t, at this time, conducted any additional testing at those sites because of these allegations but have continued with our routine field sampling,” Gillenwater said.

The DEP Division of Mining and Reclamation’s goal for each quarter is to conduct its own field sampling for at least 25 percent of water pollution outlets, so that all outlets are sampled at least once annually, Gillenwater said.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.

– See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141009/GZ01/141009217/1419#sthash.3XvBD0QM.dpuf

On the EPA’s Complicity in Maintaining the Fluoridation Status Quo

September 14, 2014

Part I:

During the 5th Annual Citizen’s Conference on Fluoride  I was fortunate enough to get an exclusive 45 minute discussion with world renowned risk assessor & decades long anti-fluoride activist Dr. William (Bill) Hirzy Ph.D. Hirzy is well known in the anti-fluoride circles thanks to his keystone contributions as a whistleblower from within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters.

Hirzy’s most famous contributions to the anti-fluoride movement came when he was acting as senior vice president of the EPA union of scientists and professionals.

According to Hirzy this union was initially organized to protect EPA staff members from unethical pressure by EPA management. In other words – let them do their jobs as risk assessors, etc. properly! They later became aware of the risks of public water fluoridation & began working within the EPA to try & do something about it.

Dr. William Hirzy Former Risk Assessor at the Environmental Protection Agency

Sad to say that such a union would even be necessary in a government agency who makes such bogus & impossible claims that they protect human health & the environment, but unethical pressure from high ranking bureaucrats is no big surprise to us is it? The union, with Hirzy as spokesman, earlier this century appealed to a Senate subcommittee on the reality of fluoride’s developmental neurotoxicity & its many other latent adverse health effects, which are negatively affecting the entire daydreaming American public as a result of the government’s 60 year old public water fluoridation policy. Dr. Hirzy’s role as risk assessor, is ostensibly to warn the government of possible financial or criminal risk by evaluating certain policies – yet his advices heretofore have fallen on deaf ears! See Hirzy’s powerful statement below, from the Year 2000:

It is the EPA union’s collective testimony combined with the 2006 National Research Council’s 400+ page report on Fluoridated drinking water which makes the government’s continued inaction on this issue now irrevocably criminally negligent.

As you hear Dr. Hirzy explain his role as risk assessor, we can easily extrapolate that this union behaved almost like an immune system antibody, deployed within an otherwise healthy system to identify & defend against foreign invaders (unethical pressure aka corruption). That would be the traditional roles of each group anyway, if we believe that the EPA was formed to legitimately protect the environment. But what we see over time is an increasingly politicized federal agency, easily manipulated by rank, paygrades & external organizations, constructed hierarchically with a lack of traditional checks and balances . This has obviously motivated the white hats, who actually wish to perform a legitimate civic duty, to organize to better resist the embedded junta bureaucrats.

In America this Union concept can be considered the “check” on power. What we discover through Bill’s testimony however is that the system itself was corrupt & consequently the tables turned! It was the union who was treated like a virus infecting the EPA with truth & Dr. Hirzy walks us through many of the dirty tricks, administrative shifts & railroading attempts to prevent the truth from getting out. Although a valiant effort, the organization was proven not strong enough as we listen to Dr. Hirzy tacitly admit that it only took veto action by an ever changing & growing administrative landscape within the EPA to thwart the Union, which brings us to where we are today – the same place we were 50 years ago after fluoride was successfully implemented in the first place!

This interview however strays far from the minutia of fluoride politics & instead takes on a more personal character as Bill walks us through his own life experiences waking up to the fluoride deception while embedded within big corporate & governmental giants like Monsanto and the EPA. Unbeknownst to me, Dr. Hirzy had previously been arrested for protesting the construction of nuclear power plants in the midwest. This led not only to his ousting from Monsanto & his eventual hiring at the EPA, but the now famous theoretical physicist Michio Kaku had interestingly come to his defense at this time in the 80’s.

Perhaps even more noteworthy is the clear bias Bill describes within the bureaucracy of the EPA, contrasting it with his experiences at Monsanto which would on occasion express the same pattern of promoting & rewarding those who maintain the status quo while shunning those who challenge it. Bill seems to have had a lifetime of struggles due to his predisposition to tell the truth.

It is especially interesting that Bill’s specialty is in risk assessment which is to determine the amount of financial risk a corporate or governmental entity is exposing themselves to by selling or promoting a particular product/policy. This has obvious implications for Monsanto who’s chemical & genetic productions have the potential for vast profits, accompanied by serious financial risk should a product have an unintended detrimental health effect. Big institutions pay Big money for Bill’s intelligence because the cost of his salary pales in comparison to the potential lawsuits they might otherwise be exposed to.

But the nature of Bill’s work from the perspective of the EPA is even more damning of the EPA as an institution, than compared to a profit driven company like Monsanto, given their charter to actually PROTECT human helath & the environment, accompanied by the fiat regulatory power it is able to wield.

One should definitely question the true motives of said agency when someone like Bill, who is trying to save the EPA’s ass as much as he is trying to alert the public, gets completely ignored.

Hence the EPA have, for more than 10 years now, become criminally negligent by refusing to change the maximum allowable contamination level of water supplies with respect to fluoride, which consequently allows the various agencies under the EPA (Health & Human Services, Water Companies, City Councils, Health Boards, etc) to continue adding toxic waste to the public drinking water without criminal or federal legal repercussions.

Actually this was the essence of the 5th annual citizen’s conference on fluoride which culminated in an official petition to the EPA to answer an amalgamation of groundbreaking fluoride science which was presented to them by Dr. Hirzy & an army of other scientists, medical professionals & concerned citizens.

To understand the gravity of Bill Hirzy’s testimony on the dangers of fluoridation and the dark political manifestations which maintain the policy, one first has to fully grasp the true melange of federal, state & local bureaucracies who stand in the way of common sense, civil rights & the science. Given my own personal experience trying to enlighten local politicians on the

The multi-headed hydra that is big government

dangers we face, and thus end fluoridation, I will attempt to break it down as best as I understand it so that you may comprehend what a monumental task it is just to overcome the bureaucracy & generational indoctrination.

By the end, you may agree that the only way to kill this hydra is to make sure we get all the heads.

1. First – the buck stops with your local city council. Like it or not ultimately the politicians who hold positions there have seized power & are the ones administering fluoride to the population by way of majority vote. Thus – they have the power to end it. But if you challenge them, they will defer to the water management department or some similar agency who is tasked with repeating propaganda hatched by Edward Bernays & the former Federal Security Agency; now known as the Department of Health and Human Services
2. The water company will claim that they are only following orders from the state department of health and human services, who in the 20th century were the unapologetic propagandists promoting the mass fluoridation policy in the first place & still claim that it is one of the top 10 public health achievements of the last 100 years. They will deny they are violating any laws because they are not over 4 parts per million, EPA’s maximum contaminate level for that substance set originally in the ironically named “Safe Drinking Water Act“
3. If you challenge them on the basis that this constitutes forced medication of the drinking water, they claim it is not a drug, it is a mineral/nutrient & they are only “adjusting” the levels to one that is “optimal” for preventing tooth decay. This is based on the junk science produced in the 1930’s which was funded by the aluminum industry to promote fluoridation.
4. Depending on your geography, the actual levels of fluoride in the groundwater might be quite low, which provides the impetus for city councils to perform a public service by “bringing up” the concentration level of fluoride to one that the public health department claims is “Optimal” for preventing tooth decay. Luckily, there is a long line of fertilizer & aluminum companies who have excess fluoride they need to dispose of. This is how they get away with adding fluoride while simultaneously not taking accountability for the fact that it is adding for medicinal / preventative purposes
5. When you challenge the public health board that this is illegal & a crime given all science showing such, they will say they are regulated by the EPA’s 4.0ppm Maximum Allowable Contaminant Level & since they are only fluoridating at .7-1.1ppm, no crime committed!
6. Rinse, Repeat.

Part II:

When asked what is driving these deliberate obfuscations of the truth by the various corporate & governmental structures, Bill responded, “I don’t go there.”

For More Real News for Real People visit: http://www.bullcitybulletin.com

Join me in Crystal City Virginia to Fight Fluoride

9/1/2014

Attention Durham Against Fluoride Readers:

You are officially notified that I  will be attending the 5th Citizen’s Conference On Fluoride, in Crystal City Virginia this coming Friday – Sunday (September 5 – 7).

On this weekend it is here that activists, researchers & hundreds of other transnational truthseekers will convene to collectively raise the global awareness quotient on the most massive public health fraud in human history & certain crime against humanity; public water fluoridation.

As you can see from the agenda details below – in attendance will be a dizzying array of fascinating individuals, of differing backgrounds & from all over the planet who have contributed enormous energies to this cause.   To my estimation this means there is no more seminal a conference taking place anywhere on earth this year, for beings who want to forever unglue a core deception in eugenics based approach to Government, than this one!

Therefore I will contribute my energies in the form of attendance, with Camera & Microphone in hand, to meet, greet, interview, discuss, all the issues of the day regarding Fluoride.  If you recognize me – please don’t hesitate to approach!  I will be accompanied by compatriot Eric B, who appeared with me in a crucial 1 hour dissection of the Sociological Significance of Durham North Carolina & the “Research Triangle Park” in the mass Fluoridation scheme.  Together we will be capturing  audio/video of the different sessions as well as in-person interviews.

To fully grasp this writer’s struggle so far, one only has to browse in chronological order all the posts of this website which first originated in January 2012.

To summarize, DurhamAgainstFluoride.com was re-actively created, in a very disorganized ad-hoc way rather than in some deliberate premeditated manner.  After some self reflection I learn the core reason for this approach; I had way too much trust in my city council to rationally, objectively evaluate the evidence which I first presented to them in December 2011.  Nearly 3 years later I could have initially never imagined how deep & sinister this policy actually went. When I was summarily dismissed after presenting hardcore evidence that should make even the most dumbed down person agree Public Water Fluoridation violates the Precautionary Principle,  my soul was given no choice but to do something.  Combined with a total lack of uncompromised media made for fertile breeding grounds for resistance & this spells the basic genesis of DurhamAgainstFluoride.com

I must admit the local WTVD Channel 11 team later changed this dynamic with their mostly fair 2012 piece, featuring yours truly & entitled “How Safe is Fluoride In Our Water,” but some unknown force has made the media be largely quiet on the issue since then.

Fast forward to today, almost 3 years later & materially nothing has changed in the City of Durham.  I was forcibly removed by deputy Sheriff at one point for exposing the facts in a so-called “public health board meeting”,  a fact WTVD declined to report.  The city government with their vast stolen resources  & copious use of  the CIA plausible deniability tactic have heretofore successfully stifled my efforts to alert the unconscious public. All of this is well illustrated in my 2013 documentary “21st Century Dawes Project.”

Therefore the council continues resting on its illegitimate claim to wisdom, continues buying massive quantities of fluorosilicic acid from MOSAIC fertilizer company, and charges you money to dispose of it in your tap water with or without your consent.  Meanwhile America has seen historic coal ash spills in North Carolina & epic public health crimes in West Virginia, all enumerating precisely why our local municipal governments are completely untrustworthy to manage our most precious natural resource; water.

In spirit of resisting these developments I hope to see you in Crystal City.

-Corey Sturmer

http://www.durhamagainstfluoride.com

 

Organizing to protect our children’s brains
from public health policy that demands fluoridation

September 5 – 8, 2014

WHERE: Hyatt Regency Hotel, Crystal, City, Virginia

IMPORTANT NEW DEVELOPMENTS:

Dr. Mercola’s keynote presentation has been moved to 2-3 pm on Sunday, Sept 7.

Jennifer Luke, PhD, will be attending the conference. Dr Luke was the first to study the uptake of fluoride in the pineal gland (1997, 2001). She found the levels in the pineals of elderly cadavers in the UK contained levels of fluoride to be the highest ever recorded in the human, with some exceeding 21,000 ppm. Dr Luke will give a presentation on Saturday to update us on fluoride in pineal research since her study was published followed by a Q & A.

AIRPORT:

Fly into Regan Washington National. Free Shuttle from airport to hotel

ACCOMODATION:

We recommend that you reserve rooms at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Crystal City, Virginia. Call: 703- 418-1234

AGENDA

Go to http://fluoridealert.org/content/conference-agenda/

CONFERENCE FEE:

The Conference fee is $50 for students, $75 for those who are part of a group fighting fluoridation, and $150 for all others. You can pay either by check or online. See the Registration form for more details.

REGISTRATION:

If you plan on attending this conference please fill out this form and return to Ellen Connett (Ellen@fluoridealert.org).

MEALS:

You will be on your own for food, but there are many restaurants and eating-places within a short walking distance of the hotel.

MATERIALS:

This will be a Zero Waste conference. We will email all conference attendees copies of the relevant papers and a list of the attendees and their contact info. Printed copies of the agenda will be available.

See

• Agenda

• Registration Form

• Past conferences

Huge Victory Against Fluoride in Australia

Source: WhyDon’tYouTryThis

Nearly 200,000 Australians have been released from the medical slavery that is artificial water fluoridation thanks to a major governmental policy change.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) government of the Australian state of Queensland has not only cut $14 million of funding that had previously been used for fluoridation, but has also decided to allow local councils to decide for themselves whether or not to fluoridate, a move that has already prompted the northern city of Cairns to end its water fluoridation program.

As reported by The Australian, former “One Nation” member of parliament (MP) Rosa Lee Long, who is now mayor of the north Queensland Tablelands Regional Council, successfully lobbied LNP to end a longstanding policy that compelled local communities to fluoridate without approval from local residents.

The government of Queensland last year also ended a policy that required larger communities to fluoridate their water, which is similar to existing fluoridation mandates in California and elsewhere.

So by the middle of March, Cairns’ more than 150,000 area residents will no longer be exposed to fluoride chemicals in the water, making it the seventh community in Queensland to end water fluoridation so far this year. Murgon, Wondai, Kingaroy, Nanango, Blackbutt, and South Burnett have all ended their water fluoridation programs since January which, combined with the area population of Cairns, represents nearly 200,000 people who will no longer be forcibly medicated with an unapproved drug.

“If people want to have access to fluoride, they need to take that up with their dentists,” said a local Cairns council spokeswoman about the policy change. “The decision has been made … [fluoride] shouldn’t be forced on people without consent.”

Australian health authorities admit water fluoridation is ‘involuntary medication’ of public

The Australian Dental Association (ADA) and various members of the establishment government in Australia raised their usual fear-mongering in response to the landmark decision — children’s teeth will rot out of their heads without fluoride, has been their response, which mimics the same tired and unproven argument used by many American officials to defend the outdated and dangerous practice of water fluoridation.

But Queensland’s LNP has remained steadfast in its decision, declaring forced water fluoridation to be “involuntary medication” of the public, regardless of someone’s own personal opinion on the efficacy and safety of fluoride. This declaration is key, as it highlights a reality about fluoride that few people are willing to admit — fluoride is a chemical drug that has never been proven safe and effective, but that is routinely added to water supplies without informed consent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) likewise admits that water fluoridation is akin to forced medication, as the agency’s official stance on the chemical is that it is an “unapproved drug” when added to water supplies. It is a fact that the FDA has never approved fluoride as a safe and effective water supplement, which means adding it to public water supplies is an illegal administration of a drug without FDA approval, and without the informed consent of every person exposed to it.

You can learn more about the dangers of fluoride by visiting the Fluoride Action Network (FAN)

Sources for this article include: http://www.theaustralian.com.au – http://www.hangthebankers.com – http://www.fluoridealert.org/content/communities/
Related:

• The Great Culling: Our Water (Documentary)
• This is What Your Tap Water Looks Like (Video)

My Raleigh Ideas: Stop Medicating the Public Water Supply!

Make your voice heard at the new “My Raleigh Ideas” website where citizens have demanded to stop the medication of their public water supply.  Register at the link below and vote this idea up!

My Raleigh Ideas – Stop Medicating the Public Water Supply

Medicated Water Supply

The citizens of Raleigh who pay municipal water bills spend more than $100,000 dollars per year on adding medication to the water supply.  The “medication” is called Hexafluorosilicic acid, commonly known as Fluoride and has been added to the water supply by majority vote since the 1950′s.

Since that time numerous studies have shown that even moderate levels of exposure to fluoride can lead to lower IQ (Intelligence Quotient), thyroid malfunction, brittle bones, early arthritis, dental fluorosis (white spotting of the teeth), and even cancer.

On July 24, 2012 Harvard released a study in the Federal Government Journal concluding Fluoride lowers IQ. (Source: Reuters) Choi et al write:

“The children in high fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ than those who lived in low fluoride areas,” write Choi et al.

Further, the Environmental Protection Agency says fluoride is a chemical “with substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity” and In 2011 the EPA reversed it’s longstanding claim that public water fluoridation was one of the public health breakthroughs in the 20th century. Then offering advise to municipalities to lower the base amount of fluoride added to their water. (Source)

Do yourself a favor and URGE the City to STOP fluoridating the public water supply!  The reasons are very clear:

•  The City and citizens can save $100,000 per year by not having to purchase the chemical
•  Citizens will no longer face the risk of suffering Fluoride toxicity, an ailment that can lead to numerous documented medical and neurological disorders
•  Mothers who feed their baby’s formula will be able to use Tap water without fear of overexposing the children to fluoride
•  The City can put that 100,000 dollars to something more healthy and beneficial to the population

Washington Judges set to hear case on water fluoridation

Source: EXAMINER.COM

This Monday three appeals court justices in Tacoma, Washington will hear cases for and against fluoridation of the public water supply.

Those in opposition to water fluoridation point out that those in support claim fluoridated water is promoted as tooth decay prevention, thus fluoride should be recognized as a drug, (any substance used with intent to treat or prevent disease) and protected drug laws should apply. At this time the government does not consider it a drug.

As more citizens begin to question the safety of fluoridated water, the EPA has had to recently admit that the amount in the water supply is dangerous to children. A Harvard study recently linked fluoride to lower IQ’s but was quickly changed to say that “IQ’s were only lowered outside the United States.” The West Virginia University Rural Health Research Center recently reported that U.S. children in urban areas, with a higher exposure to fluoridated dental care and water, have just as many cavities as less fluoride-exposed rural children. A study by Dr. Dean Burk, former head of the Cytochemistry Section at the National Cancer Institute and Yiamouyiannis, showed a massive cancer increase in areas who received water fluoridation.

Many countries like Sweden, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands have discontinued water fluoridation and several areas within the United States are following suit. A recent hidden camera video inside a water treatment facility has pushed the anti-fluoridation movement even further with its attempts to remove the substance from the water. Just last year citizens in Wichita, Kansas and Pulaski, New York joined the more than 130 communities across the country to ban water fluoridation.

The Politics of Fluoride