BY KATHERINE KELLY

Just as we, Del Norte Clean Water Coalition, tried to warn our city council about the liability they share for refusing to address the concerns of water fluoridation because of potential lawsuits, it is beginning to happen. Around the country, lawyers are preparing to stand up to the big web of money and lies that has surrounded the water fluoridation program since its inception in the late 1940s.

In Maryland, such a case is going forward against Dannon, Nestle, Nestle Waters, and Gerber by a young woman with dental fluorosis caused by consuming products containing fluoride from these companies. Dental fluorosis is a permanent condition and requires expensive cosmetic procedures that have to be repeated every 8 to 10 years.

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius gave notice in the January 13, 2011 Federal Register (pages 2383-86) that 41% of all people in the U.S. who were 12 to 15 years old between 1999 and 2004 have dental fluorosis from ingesting too much fluoride, primarily from drinking fluoridated water and swallowing fluoridated toothpaste, both occuring before they were 9 years old.

Dental fluorosis results in lacy white marking on teeth in milder cases and brown stains and pitted, crumbly teeth in moderate to severe cases. Secretary Sebelius states that 3.6% (or 1 in 27) of all people in that age group in the U.S. have moderate to severe dental fluorosis. Many experts state that dental fluorosis is the first visible sign of fluoride poisoning.

Former Councilwoman Donna Westfall brought this to the attention of the Crescent City, city council and was successful in getting the parts per million (ppm)  reduced to .7 reminding the council that the type of chemical used was a toxic industrial waste and calling it “poison”. stating, “Reducing the ppm was a step in the right direction, but not enough”. Then, it was disclosed months later that the water department had problems maintaining it at .7ppm; that it consistently  tested at higher ppm’s.

Thanks to water fluoridation, our children are inundated by fluoride in their foods as well as their tap water because most food products are made using fluoridated municipal water, while other foods are contaminated with this insidious poison by way of pesticides.

Grape products, including raisins and fruit juices, contain high levels of fluoride from Cryolite, a fluoride-containing pesticide used on grapes. Wheat is another food containing high levels of fluoride due to pesticides, and is featured predominately on children’s breakfast tables in the form of cereal. Soda pop, another childhood favorite, also contains high levels of fluoride. Deboned chicken, the kind kids love to eat in the form of chicken tenders, contain some of the highest levels of fluoride.

The case in Maryland is just the beginning. A blog for activist lawyers has a series of posts outlining different avenues that municipalities and companies, even the EPA, can be sued for damages such as fluorosis. The evidence, they find, is clear that fluoride is harmful and that agencies know this, as do food producers. It won’t be long before more people wake up to this fact and start thinking of ways to redress a grievance against these agencies or city governments.

People with thyroid disease, kidney disease, diabetes, skeletal and dental fluorosis – to name a few – will soon have an avenue to pursue collecting for these damages from their local governments and food producers. Those highly allergic resulting in seizures may have an avenue as well.  Our own city council and all members of the water department and city hall were served with a constructive notice two years ago to inform them of their own liability and complicity, to the harm of the citizens of this community, and have been presented over the course of the past three years with mountains of evidence showing how fluorides harm the human body and cause disease. But they preferred to stick to their industry propaganda and refused to act on the information (with the exception of Westfall).  In some cases, I’m sure the information was not even looked at.

But this paves the way for the lawsuits from Crescent City/Del Norte citizens to file their complaints for the city has clearly been warned. The best news is that there are lawyers out there preparing for these cases when they finally begin to come forward. People are not aware that they have such options. Most people accept that adding a poisonous unapproved drug to the water must be okay or they wouldn’t do it. But they are wrong! It is not okay, it does harm people, and lawyers are taking advantage of the vast collection of evidence to provide redress for those of us harmed.