Letter to the Editor – Dianne Marshall and the Fight Against Fluoridation in Cornwall Ontario – January 12, 2011

Since my first Letter to the Editor, many people of Cornwall have contacted me,wanting to know more  about fluoridation.  Across Canada and the U.S. many cities are starting to say no to fluoride. Waterloo, Ontario voted it out on October 29, 2010. Calgary, Alberta is working on voting it out this month.
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A bill aimed at ending water fluoridation in New York City will be introduced to the city council there on January 18th. Gatineau Quebec voted 62-2 against fluoridation. Ottawa, Ontario now calls itself a “fluoride free Ottawa”.Thirteen other communities in the U.S. Have said no to fluoridation in 2010.
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Owing to concerns of children being overexposed to fluoride, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Health and Human Services recently lowered the recommended maximum fluoride level in drinking water, from 1.2 to 0.7 ppm  I have contacted Mayor Kilger and each Council member about this issue. Mayor Kilger responded by phone to say that he knows nothing about fluoridation. I have emailed them links to the website of the Fluoride Action Network (www.fluoridealert.org), and have provided relevant scientific studies for their review. In response I have been told several times that I will be contacted by a Dr. Paul of EOHU (Eastern Ontario Health Unit). My assumptions were that this Dr. Paul would attempt to convince me that ingesting fluoride is necessary for healthy teeth. But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) admits that any benefits of fluoride on the teeth are topical (not systemic), and the World Health Organization (WHO) states that dental health of 12 year-olds in non-fluoridated industrialized countries is as good, if not better, than those in fluoridated countries. Maybe Dr. Paul knows this, and that is why
he hasn’t called.
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Dr. Paul Connett, a very busy toxicologist and Executive Director of the Fluoride Action Network, contacted me recently and offered to come speak to our Council on Dec 10th. Denise Labelle(city clerk was suspose to contact me by Jan. 5th which never happened.
At a time, when so many other cities are questioning the safety of fluoridation, why is Cornwall continuing to refuse to address this issue? We cannot in good conscience allow our children to keep drinking this toxic chemical. Look at your children’s teeth. Do you see discolouration? Two shades of white? Pitting? If fluoride is doing this to their teeth, imagine what it is doing to their bones and other body systems.
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Cornwall, we need to get our city to care about our children. Please take the time to contact Mayor Kilger and the members of City Council to voice your concerns about the dangers of water fluoridation.  Demand that they listen to the real science, not just to endorsements given by the dental lobby.  We owe our children that much.
If you would like additional information, you can email me at notinmywater@gmail.com, or join my Facebook page, Notinmywater Cornwall.
Diane Marshall – Cornwall Ontario

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of the Cornwall Free News, their staff, or sponsors.)

Scott BeckIsland Ink Jet

15 Comments

  1. “At a time, when so many other cities are questioning the safety of fluoridation, why is Cornwall continuing to refuse to address this issue?”

    Because they’re busy, trying to find an expert, to hire another expert, who’s job it is to find an expert that can talk to city council and the people you need to contact you, all the while they need an expert hired for them to tell them how to speak, how to get paid, and of course, don’t forget the committees that need to be formed to choose the first expert that needs to get the ball rolling..

    By the time you get someone to call you, it will probably cost us a couple hundred grand again which will be footed once again on the taxpayers dime..

    Some of us are no experts, and are listening, but that makes no difference because another expert will need to be hired to explain it all properly to city council and the rest of the taxpaying citizenry before they need to hire an expert that knows how to use a phone to be able to call you..

  2. So true Girmalot, I gave them a plan to reduce garbage waste and A GOOD Plan, They choose to hire someone to tell us we have a problem :). There are companies out there that will do the recycling for cities and actually give citizens incentives for the more recycling boxes they fill. Like points that work at grocery stores etc. But Mayer Kilger decided to do it is way and reduce garbage pick up to once every two weeks. As far a fluoridation goes. If mayor Kilger does not know about fluoride he should learn, do what the rest of us do when we come home from a hard days works and RESEARCH!

  3. Author

    Diane don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh against our mayor? There are a multitude of challenges a city faces and its management and staff. I think it’s amazing that you received a reply as quickly as you did from the Mayor of Cornwall. You should be congratulated for that.

  4. Think the garbage is a problem here? Be glad you aren’t in other places such as Guelph for example.. everyone had blue boxes there.. what does Guelph do? They force everyone not to use the blue boxes, and sell them 20 clear blue bags for a high price. Also, they must buy clear green bags at a high price for food, and clear bags for regular garbage. Then, all these bags go into landfill, thereby adding to the bags that are already going to landfill when at least using the blue boxes didn’t go and fill up the landfill with needless bags.

    To top it all off, they have garbage cops. A friend of mine, goes to throw out his garbage, and it is 3 feet from the curb. The garbage truck doesn’t pick it up. So he calls the city. They send a garbage cop in his Ranger. After he pulls out a measure, he says to my friend, “well there’s your problem right there, the garbage isn’t within 12 inches of the curb..” To which my friend spit up his coffee on himself while the garbage cop is calculating 800+ houses, times 2 or 3 feet difference, blah blah blah, turns out 3200 extra feet to walk, which is an extra mile, so they don’t have to pick it up.

    My friend of course is asking “are you kidding me?” when after all the taxes they pay for garbage removal, plus having to purchase all these special bags, only to have the paid garbage men not do their job, and reach just a little further.. so he asks the garbage cop (who’s probably making 70+ grand a year over there) what can he do? So the cop says we’ll overlook it this time, picks up his garbage, tosses it into the ranger, and takes off..

    So to avoid 2 feet, they sent out a garbage cop, in a ranger, which only costs even more money, to do the job they were supposed to do in the first place. You can be sure he didn’t make that mistake again.

    I await the day we here in Cornwall, will be footed for yet another tax bill, in order to hire an expert, to hire another expert, to find a garbage cop, all of whom need to be paid of course, in order to re-organize how we have to do our garbage here.. It’s all make work situations that are going on.. And the work is made for the wrong people while those that are calling the shots, are making the most ridiculous decisions for us at times, soaking up even more of our money…

    It’s a sign of the times unfortunately.. so much red-tape bureaucracy find all the experts make work for everyone crap to accomplish very little in the end.. but what gets accomplished is the taxpayer pays more tax in the end..

    I agree with you Diane, these people that are supposed to be “educated”, should do their research and get on issues that affect us all, and make sound and solid decisions for once instead of hiring even more experts to tell them how they should be doing their jobs…

    But what should be simple common sense, seems to elude many… Its sad, but its true..

    I hope you get the responses you are looking for.. All the best of luck to you Diane.

  5. Thanks Grimalot, I probably will not because I have been working on this fluoride thing since the fall and many people on the street thank me but no one actually picks up the phone and calls their city councilor to say they want something done. They all want me to do it all for them. Well I can’t unfortunately unless someone is going to pay me for it as I have to work and eat too. We need citizens coming together as a team. I applied to be a volunteer at city hall and they rejected me. Yet they complained in the Freeholder that hardly anyone stepped up and volunteered, yea I did and what happened? Last time I will volunteer! They do not really want new ideas or they would of interviewed me. I had great ideas for garbage control as I had been researching it. It would of cost them a lot less!

  6. This City Council is not going to appoint anyone to their committee’s that they personally have not vetted! They are not interested in being shown-up by an outsider. With the Council it’s “All for One and One for All”.

  7. I am wondering why Admin removed my reply to their comment. People have a right to see my reply.
    which was the truth. The truth is I have been after the Mayor since October on the garbage control. Since November on the fluoride. I was told he was a kind person and cared about our children.
    I care, and, I see children’s smiles when I am out on my errands. It is not right their teeth are being ruined. As they get older those spots that are discolored will chip away! I been very patient with the city and the mayor. I have offered to help. I have been very fair! It is breaking my heart to watch children smile. It is the poor who are suffering the most because they cannot afford alternatives to city drinking water.

  8. Author

    Diane we remove comments that violate our guidelines. We cannot allow anything to be said that could put us in a liability position. Someone stating what someone said was said to them doesn’t necessarily make it true or not. I’m not suggesting whatever you said wasn’t true, but the comment section perhaps isn’t quite the location to make such a statement.

    As you can see we are concerned with the Flouride issue and I personally would like to see it out of our water supply which is why I have posted a poll on the homepage.

  9. grimalot
    next time Cornwall needs to update their waste manegement it should be interesting. In order to recieve funding they must reduces the amounts. Don’t be suprised if you get a one ro two bag limit.

    Also I undersand the townships are going to need their recycling plan modified. You can bet it will be the sole responsibility of the constituents and not industry again

  10. If you want fluoride in your water, put it in your own glass of water, leave the rest of us out of it.
    If fluoride were “proven,” there should be evidence of its glory in the U.S. state, Kentucky, which has been 100% fluoridated for over 40 years. Kentucky, however, leads the nation in the number of dental cavities in children, and in the number of completely toothless adults, according to government records. The same ineffectiveness is evident in many states and cities.

    Most of Europe (16 countries) has rejected fluoridation and is 98% fluoride free. and the WHO reports that they have a better tooth decay rate than any fluoridated country.
    There are many large scientific studies to show that that drinking fluoridated water has no effect on cavity reduction and to show that it causes cancer and other health problems. The best source for scientific information on fluoridation can be found here: (www.fluoridealert.org).

    Both the CDC and the ADA have stated polities that infants and babies should not consume fluoride. Exactly why won’t they publicize this policy for young mothers?

  11. Diane, so much time and energy is spent trying to control and legislate our lives we will be further upset if people try to control and legislate our garbage too. If you don’t want our garbage to be toxic, ban the industries from using/importing toxic packaging. Let’s rediscover wax paper, use cotton filters for cigarettes, stop packaging everything in plastic film wrap – don’t blame us. As for Admin deleting comments – admin deletes our comments all the time. Thank goodness, we say. If we really want to make the point that bad, an unlicensed internet stands loaded and ready. Odds are, Admin moderated on the side of sensibility. We like that you stood up to talk about Fluoride. We don’t know anyone with the guts to do that. Don’t touch our garbage though. Stay out of our garbage, unless you have a warrant. We keep our garbage in dark opaque green bags because the contents are very secret and private and confidential and have been that way for many generations.

  12. I understand how you guys feel about the garbage. I admit it was I who brought it up to the mayor that we need garbage control. I walk down the streets of Cornwall, and very few people recycle. The Cornwall dump is almost full. It will cost them much money to find another dump. Myself, I am interested in garbage control as we have to be realistic, We cannot keep dumping like we are. I see opened green bags on the side of the road with plastic bottles sticking out, its sad. I myself fill half a large green bag a week, sometimes less. In Montreal, my garbage was even less as where I lived the city gave us com-posters and discounted price ($25.00). All the municipalities around Cornwall have garbage control. Cornwall is behind the times and the Mayor admitted it and is doing something about it, Unfortunately, there are other means he could be using. In Vancouver, they are given a garbage bin and once its full, too bad, wait till next week to put out the rest of your garbage. In other municipalities they are given a number of tags per year. Other cities give out free recycling boxes. Cornwall also needs to update their recycling plant because other cities recycle plastic bags & milk cartons. The city of LaSalle makes park benches out of their plastic.(try to carve your name in one of them) LOL.We need garbage control, I already told them for free what this person who got paid to tell them the same thing.

  13. Hippie, they will not be looking at your garbage, they will be asking you only to produce less. We cannot keep doing what we are doing. Is hard to change habits but we have to for our children’s sake or do we leave them with the mess after we are gone?
    As far as cotton filters, cotton is now massively produced by Monsanto using seeds that have been genetically tampered with. You do not want to use the cotton they are producing now. In other words, they put the pesticide in the seed to produce plants that do not have to be sprayed while growing. The chemical is right in the cotton now. Warning check some peanut butter labels. Some have cotton seed in them. I would avoid them if I were you.

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