BY Donna Westfall
After months of behind the scenes lobbying directed by one of Oregon’s top political hired guns, Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard, Mayor Sam Adams, and Commissioner Nick Fish announced they would support a rushed process to add fluoridation chemicals into Portland’s drinking water. They didn’t bother hearing the public’s concerns and weren’t open to input from the numerous medical professionals who strongly oppose water fluoridation. Instead, they met only with the pro-fluoridation lobby and then announced how they planned to vote.
Kim Kaminski, mother of two, has led the brigade in this current battle. On 3 previous attempts, the public defeated any plans to add fluoride. This time, on August 22, 2012, a ballot measure was filed with the the City of Portland that would prohibit the addition of any chemical or substance that was a “byproduct of any industrial or manufacturing process” to the City’s drinking water. The measure would similarly restrict the addition of any chemical that could cause the City’s drinking water to exceed the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Maximum Contaminant Level Goals for drinking water. Clean Water Portland held a press conference at City Hall at noon on Wednesday the 22nd to formally announce the measure and it was well attended by TV, radio and newspapers.
On Wednesday Sept. 5th at 5 pm at City Hall, the public is invited to attend as the Clean Water Portland Group lets the City Council see the opposition to their closed-door decision to force fluoridation chemicals into their water! They plan on delivering a real 55 gallon drum of fluorosilicic acid (empty and cleaned) to Commissioner Randy Leonard so he has some idea what he actually wants to put into Portland’s drinking water.
SPEAK OUT at the Thur. September 6th Portland City Council meeting AT 12 PM
Clean Water Portland members, friends and public will attend the council meeting and let their Mayor and commissioners know they detest their abuse of the democratic process and threat to their water personally.
Portland kids actually rank as having the 15th lowest cavity rate in the United States even when compared to states that are heavily fluoridated. While we should improve access to care and dental health prevention, there is no basis for framing Portland as having a dental health crisis when compared to the rest of the country.
Scientific evidence supports that there are real reasons to be concerned about the health effects of fluoridation chemicals. The fluoride lobby likes to say that there is “not one study” that shows fluoridation chemicals are unsafe. This could not be farther from the truth. A broad spectrum of scientific studies in top scientific journals and from credible researchers show serious reasons to be concerned about fluoride’s role in everything from decreased IQ in children to increased risks of bone fracture in the elderly. The 2006 report by the National Academy of Sciences is likely the single best resource that summarizes many of these studies. Fluoride Action Network has a wealth of information on their website.
There are no good reasons to add fluoridation to the public water of any city, state or country any longer. The days of water fluoridation are quickly coming to an end as more and more people of the public are harmed. The next step is to have legislation that guarantees that medications will not be put into the public water supply for any reason.
