The special City Council meeting to discuss fluoridation was filled to the brim, with 40 to 50 people standing out in the lobby. Even though council claimed to hear nothing new from those against fluoridation, new and shocking information was presented that the residents of Durango need to know.
Fact 1: Three of five members of the Durango Utilities Commission, the water advisory board to City Council, recommended against water fluoridation.These members’ recommendations concerning water fluoridation were sent to City Council on May 21, 2016. See these emails at cleanwaterdurango.org.
Fact 2: Durango uses industrial sodium fluoride waste from an aluminum factory in China.Recently, a member of the Clean Water Durango team visited the Durango water treatment plant and photographed bags of sodium fluoride used here for water fluoridation. The skull and crossbones and the poison warnings on the bags revealed that the fluoride used in Durango is industrial waste from an aluminum factory in China! This is not what we want in our drinking water. See these photos at cleanwaterdurango.org.
Sodium fluoride has been used since the early 1900s and was recommended at that time for use as both cockroach powder and rat poison. Somehow, sodium fluoride has miraculously transformed into something that is now good for people.
Fact 3: An independent laboratory analysis in Colorado, using the same methodology as the EPA for testing fluoride, ICP-MS, concluded that the sodium fluoride from Chinese manufacturing contains significant amounts of lead and trace amounts of aluminum, arsenic, strontium, uranium and tungsten. The lab analysis on sodium fluoride made in China is available at cleanwaterdurango.org.Fact 4: The true source of Durango’s fluoride is disclosed on the city’s consumer confidence website. The Consumer Confidence Report for our public water system lists the sources of our fluoride: “Erosion of natural deposits (naturally occurring fluoride); Water additive which promote strong teeth; Discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factories.”Also on the website is a statement about lead. “Lead levels at your home may be higher than other homes in the community as a result of materials used in your home’s plumbing.” As in Flint, Michigan, caustic acid-loving elements like fluoride have been shown to leach lead from older plumbing and even from the solder present in copper pipes. These studies are located on cleanwaterdurango.org.
Fact 5. Sodium fluoride is absorbed into the body at excessively high rates. The big difference between the differing types of fluoride is in their absorption rate by the body. In Durango’s water sources, we have .2 ppm of naturally occurring fluoride, which is bound to calcium. The rate of absorption of naturally occurring fluoride is less than 10 percent. This is the only good kind of fluoride and will remain in Durango’s water after fluoridation is discontinued.
In contrast, it is estimated that the absorption rate of sodium fluoride through the mouth is 80 percent, and when ingested into the body, through fluoridated drinking water, the rate is 95 to 100 percent. See cleanwaterdurango.org for absorption citations.
This is a big problem for the health of Durango residents, as sodium fluoride is a salt, and salt is used extensively throughout the body in functions too numerous to mention. Wherever salt goes, so goes this toxic cocktail of dangerous chemical/industrial waste products. In our case, this waste from aluminum manufacturing penetrates deeply into the body. Do you really want your children to ingest industrial waste from China?
This is one of the reasons why so many different disease conditions are now associated with fluoridation. These conditions include bone cancer, bone fractures, brain damage, lower IQ, dental fluorosis, diabetes, endocrine system disruption, pineal gland dysfunction, skeletal fluorosis (arthritis) and thyroid disease. These conditions are the findings of the 2006 National Academy of Science’s report, “Fluoride in Drinking Water,” considered the most comprehensive, authoritative resource ever written on fluoride toxicity. See a summary of this study at cleanwaterdurango.org.
In 1945, when fluoridation was introduced, there were no other sources of fluoride in the American diet. Today, there are hundreds. They include: toothpaste, all processed foods, most commercial beverages, beer, supplements, pharmaceuticals, inorganic fruits and vegetable pesticides, tea and dental products, among others.
On March 17, mail-in-ballots will be distributed. Votes must be received by April 4. Let’s eliminate this toxin from our precious water.
Even a little poison in our drinking water is unacceptable!
Vote it out by voting “for” 1A.
Jim Forleo, DC, has been a practicing chiropractor and health educator in Durango since 1976. He is the author of Health Is Simple, Disease is Complicated and can be reached at drjim@healthissimple.com.
