Back in September, Paul Brisebois from Fluoride Free Cornwall appeared before Cornwall CIty Council asking that the City terminate the practive of adding fluoride to the city’s municipal drinking water. In response, Cornwall city administration has invited the head of the EOHU to present his response at the Cornwall City Council meeting of Tuesday November 13, 2012. The head of the EOHU will be accompanied by a representative from Health Canada..
Let us recall that many years ago, people and cattle on Cornwall Island began experiencing health issues after Reynolds Aluminum and ALCOA set up aluminum smelters at Massena. The plants emitted high amounts of fluoride into the water and atmosphere. At the time, a representative from Health Canada concluded that health problems on Cornwall Island were unrelated to fluoride. Except that the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (the MCA) rejected the claim and engage independent researchers that included Dr Shirley Conibear from the University of Illinois, to investigate the problem.
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The independent research team indeed found fluoride contamination in the soil and vegetation on Cornwall Island. The Head of Environment for the MCA presents some of the findings re the harmful effect of fluoride in this region, in the following presentation:
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The findings of the research team suggest that the representative from Health Canada presented false and misleading information in regard to dismissing fluoride as the cause of health problems on Cornwall Island. In short, the MCA did not believe the findings of Health Canada at the time.
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Given the past record of Health Canada’s previous claims in regard to fluoride in this region, why should anyone in this area want to believe any statements made by representatives of Health Canada at the present day, on the alleged benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water in this particular geographic location? We still have an industrial smokestack across the river pumping out gaseous fluoride emissions. How do we know that Health Canada may not again lead us up the garden path as they did many years ago?
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Subsequent to Health Canada having told fairytales that dismissed fluoride related health problems on Cornwall Island, the MCA successfully sued the aluminum companies for having contaminated the river and vegetation with a variety of chemicals that included fluoride.
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In more recent years over the past 2-decades, the St Lawrence River has been measured to contain about double the concentration of fluoride (0.25mg per liter) that the standard recommended in the Canadian Water Quality Guideline (0.12mg per litre). Information to this effect is mentioned at:
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There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that elevated levels of waterborne fluoride harms or kills off numerous species of aquatic water life. Except that such a matter is outside of the mandate of Health Canada. The concentration of fluoride in the St Lawrence River may also be outside of the mandates of government funded environmental groups in this area. They may remain very silent on the harmful effects of waterborne fluoride on small aquatic life such as dafnia.
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There have beenl reports about declining stocks of Lancaster Perch and also of pickerel, fish that were at one time a mainstay of the Mohawk diet. The Mohawk Grand Chief even publically stated his wish that fish in this region will once again form a main part of the Mohawk diet. The MCA may need to initiate a lawsuit to reduce fluoride concentrations in the St Lawrence River, requiring municipalities located near and upstream of the reservation to either install fluoride filters at sewage treatment plants. Or they may alternately join the growing list of Canadian cities such as Orillia, Waterloo and Calgary that have stopped adding fluoride to their municipal drinking water.
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There is conservation authority that oversees both fish and waterfowl in this region. Either they over-protected the waterfowl that is feeding excessively on river fish to the point of near depletion of the fish stocks, or high concentrations of fluoride in the river may be contributing to the depletion of the fish stocks.
With regard to the cost of Cornwall adding fluoride to the municipal drinking water, all levels of government are curtailing expenditures. In Ontario, teachers whose salaries are paid by taxes are facing reductions in salary increases while the federal government is laying off workers. In Australia, the national government is reducing expenditures due to present economic conditions and has cut the funding that had previously paid for the fluoridation of drinking water in several districts.
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The economic reality of the times has resulted in Cornwall city staff being asked to seek areas to reduce expenditures. Cornwall could save some money by joining the growing list of Canadian municipalities that no longer fluoridate their drinking water. Except that the head of the EOHU along with a representative from Health Canada will undoubtedly attempt to sway Cornwall City Council to disregard the economic reality of the times and disregard the high fluoride content already in the St Lawrence River. City staff may be asked to treat fluoride as if it were sacred . . . and continue to contribute to the commercial interest of companies the supply the industrial waste byproduct that contains fluoride.
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The fluoride added to tap water is fluorosilicic acid – which is toxic waste from phosphate fertilizer factories. It is more poisonous than lead and only slightly less so than arsenic. The fluoride waste added to tap water is contaminated with arsenic, lead, mercury and radioactive radionuclides. It is not of pharmaceutical grade, unlike that added to dental products.
Please visit http://dentalcare.mercola.com/ for an un-biased report on flouride in water and in toothpaste. Common sense needs to prevail here. The only ones escaping these ill-effects of flouride are those with wells on their property. Health Canada is merely a spawn of corporate Canada and the sooner we realize it the better.
just for interest, my position is neutral.
BTW, Mercola is neither a medical doctor nor a scientist. He’s a very wealthy salesman.
http://www.ilikemyteeth.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Myths-and-Facts-Sheet-2.pdf
Hi Ann,
You are quite correct. The suppliers of hydro-fluorosilicic acid even admit that the product has never been certified as being safe for human consumption . . . . it quietly replaced the more costly sodium fluoride (a waste by-product from aluminium smelters) and the even more costly calcium fluoride to treat municipal water.
The toothpaste industry adds sodium fluoride (NaF) to their product while calcium fluoride (CaF) occurs quite naturally. The fluoride proponents claim that people who live in regions where they drink ground water that contains calcium fluoride, have good teeth.
The majority of Western Europe’s municipal water has zero fluoride added to it . . . yet studies re children’s dental cavities have shown zero difference in the cavity rate compared to children living in areas where fluoride is added to water.
Your point is well taken.
Harry
Hi Brian,
Thanks for posting your comment. I too am having doubts about Health Canada in regard to their support for various industries.
It was subsequent an official from Health Canada dismissing claims that fluoride was causing health issues on Cornwall Island, that independent researchers found the smoking gun of excess fluoride contamination across the Mohawk territory. At that point in time, First Nations citizens were marginalized by government officials and treated as 3rd class citizens.
It is therefore quite possible that at an earlier time, an official from Health Canada dismissed the fluoride concerns of the Mohawk community for the commercial interest of the aluminium industry located across the border.
At the present time, the fluoride levels in the St Lawrence River are double the recommended level . . . and high enough to be harming aquatic life.
An official from the same Health Canada is scheduled to address Cornwall City Council on the alleged benefits of adding fluoride (the untested hydro-fluorosilicic acid) to municipal drinking water. Will this official repeat the behaviour of a previous Health Canada official and totally disregard concerns about high levels of fluoride already in the St Lawrence River and its potentially harmful affects on aquatic life?
All the municipal sewage treatment plants located at and upstream of Cornwall allow fluoride to flow into the rivers and lakes. Is Health Canada aware of this or are they purposefully ignoring the high concentration of fluoride already in the St Lawrence River? Why are officials and researchers at the departments of environment and at environmental organizations remaining silent on the high levels of fluoride in the St Lawrence River?
The Mohawk people are our neighbours and high levels of airborne and water borne fluoride decimated their cattle industry and their fishing industry at an earlier time. During this time period, we could reduce the amount of fluoride that is being dumped into the river. Or will the powers-that-be disregard interests of the Mohawk community as was done many years ago?
We will find out at the next Cornwall City Council meeting as to whether Health Canada has any regard for the environment in this region.
There is currently no justifiable reason to include fluorine or fluorides into our water. The need was based on old evidence and NOBODY can prove there has been any further need for ingesting this product further. Teeth are more then compensated for low levers in toothpaste and moth washes. Besides most people now drink bottled water which eliminates fluorides
We also have the RIGHT to stop medication with no reprisals.
@ Ann…about the “toxic waste” comment.
Perhaps you’re a chemist and aware that fluorosilicic acid is made from rocks excavated for their mineral content. So maybe you could elaborate?
Again, I’m neutral on the this issue but given the source, might not your detractors argue the process is environmentally friendly, as it maximizes the use made of natural resources, and reduces waste?
How would you respond to them?
Seems simple to me… Fluoride is a medication. Medication should be a choice because of side effects. And when side effects include and are not limited to, skeletal fluorosis, kidney disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal distress, it is just absolutely ridiculous that we are even discussing keeping fluoride in our water… http://www.facebook.com/FluorideFreeCornwall
Hi Liz,
The pharmaceutical industry earns BIG $$$$ from the government payroll. It is a secure form of income. So we have compulsory HPV vaccinations in Texas and in California, paid for by the taxpayer. The pharmaceutical industry employs many lobbyists and they are politically very well connected.
The reputation of the dental industry and the earnings of some fluoride makes and suppliers is at stake as jurisdictions stop adding fluoride to municipal drinking water, as Orillia, Waterloo and Calgary have done.
So expect Health Canada to persuade Cornwall to continue adding fluoride to the city drinking water . . . . and the hell with excess fluoride levels in the St Lawrence River!
@ Harry V.
Am confused but curious
1) You mention the pharma industry. Industry makes drugs. Fluoride is not a drug, so what does the industry have to do with it?
2) Some people in the anti-flouride lobby insist it causes cancer.
3) HPV vaccine prevents cervical cancer. Thus saves money…not to mention suffering and loss of life.
So is your lobby against cancer of for cancer? And, if there was a vaccine that could prevent prostate or breast cancer rather than cervical cancer would you be against that?
Hi Soc,
The fluoride that is added to municipal drinking water has mainly been an industrial waste product from the aluminium smelting industry. Bauxite (Al2O3) melts at over 2000-deg C, however, when Cryolite (Na3AlF6) is added to it, the melting temperature drops to around 1,000-deg C . . . they use electric power to separate out the aluminium . . . and sodium fluoride (NaF) is one of the by-products that is added to toothpaste.
While calcium fluoride (CaF) occurs naturally in nature, sodium fluoride does not . . . it is an industrial by-product and it is treated as a pharmaceutical product . . . we even have a designation “pharmaceutical grade fluoride”. It is marketed like a pharmaceutical product that is paid for via the public purse.
Fluoride does concentrate in the pineal gland at the back of the brain, proven through autopsies in the UK. The pineal gland is less than a centimetre from the thyroid gland . . . fluoride has been linked to thyroid problems, including in the Mohawk community. There is circumstantial evidence linking fluoride to some forms of cancer.
With regard to HPV vaccine, only a very small percentage of the teenage female population (1%) would ever need such a vaccine . . . these would be the sexually active segment. Back before 1920, girls had their first period at age 17 to 19-years . . . today we have girls having their first period at age of 10-years, the mostly likely cause being growth hormones injected into beef cattle . . . and Health Canada approved the drug.
Teenage girls (and boys) who are not sexually active or who are using condoms, are immune from contracting the STD’s that would require HPV medication. I have come across several cases where girls were forcibly vaccinated against HPV then subsequently developed other illnesses and disabilities as a direct result of having being forcibly vaccinated.
The liaison between the pharmaceutical industry and government has led to abuse of governmental power. Forcible medication boosts the earnings and profits of the drug companies . . . voluntary medication by citizens drastically reduces these earnings and profits.
I am all for medication that can help people, providing that medication occurs by voluntary freedom of choice . . . and not by forcible coercion of the state.
Harry
The numbers you site are very much off in terms of epidemiology. They also don’t consider or include the terrible infectious disease of condyloma.
HPV doesn’t require sexual intercourse or transmission of body fluids. HPV is transmitted by a single skin cell during intimate contact. I am in agreement that girls – before the age of sexual activity – (which begins in our society around age 11) should have the benefit of protection from cancer. It’s too late, for many, by age 15. Prevention is key and can save our overburdened healthcare system additional financial burden.
I am all for freedom of choice too. Unfortunately fear mongering is not the road to choice.
Incidentally, considering aboriginal communities, cervical cancer and death rates from cervical CA are significantly higher among aboriginal women. NOT because of higher sexual activity than non-native females.
Ask the fluoridation lobbyists to provide the 2 studies that best prove their rhetoric ‘safe and effective’. After 60+ years of this experiment it shouldn’t be hard for them to provide just 2 studies – the one that best shows water fluoridation is safe and the one that best shows it is effective. They’ll try and pass off reviews of studies – but ask them to simplify it and just present the 2 best primary research studies that convinced them of SAFETY and EFFECTIVENESS.
Don’t hold your breath though. Studies prove that there is little to no difference in the tooth decay rates of non-Fing and F’d communities. And the product used to fluoridate has never been tested for safety of ingestion by humans – NEVER! Listen for the fluoride lobby to claim, after assuring you the product is ‘safe and effective’ that it doesn’t need to be tested for safety because it hydrolyzes or dissociates when diluted in your water – that’s right folks, this is magical hazardous waste that is illegal to dump directly in the river but disappears and become harmless when dripped into your drinking water.
Ask Peter Cooney what the REAL NUMBER of saved tooth surfaces water fluoridation can claim? After a lifetime of ingesting a hazardous waste grade fluoridation chemical, the best the fluoride lobby can claim is LESS THAN ONE CAVITY prevented – the F lobby just presents it as a percentage because 25-40% actually sounds impressive and who in their right mind would drink a hazardous waste grade fluoride chemical their whole lives to save less than one cavity?! I’ve heard a recording of Cooney admitting to this – see if you can get him to admit it in Cornwall. Besides, who would listen to a dentist when it comes to water quality anyhow or systemic toxicity for that matter – clearly outside the purview of dentists, even federal level ones.
Mercola, very wealthy salesman. Neither a doctor nor a scientist. Excellent quote.
SOC, thank you for demonstrating critical thinking. I thoroughly enjoyed your questions, concerns, and guts in taking a neutral position.
Hi Safe Water Please,
Thanks for posting your observations. Most Western European cities no longer add fluoride to their municipal drinking water . . . studies undertaken on children’s cavity rates in non-fluoridating regions of Europe indicate a steady decline in cavities. Even near the Poughkeepsie and Kingston areas of New York State, children’s cavity rates were no higher in some non-fluoridating communities than in nearby fluoridating communities.
Right now, we have an environmental problem with excess levels of fluoride in the St Lawrence River . . . the Gov’t of BC was able to access that data before Ontario officials conveniently pulled the webpage containing the data, off the internet. So we have a cover-up re the high levels of fluoride in the river . . . except that the door is open to take action in this regard.
Many years ago when Heath Canada denied that there was an excess fluoride problem on Cornwall Island, the Mohawk Council called in an independent expert and uncovered the smoking gun. They may have to repeat the strategy and have a neutral and independent source measure fluoride levels in the river around their reservation.
There may be an avenue by which to legally compel fluoridating municipalities upstream of the Mohawk Reservation to either install fluoride filters on their sewage treatment plants, to prevent the release of fluoride into the environment . . . or go the way of many Western European countries.
Except that there are officials on the payroll of the Ontario Ministry of Health and also Health Canada who would fight tooth and nail in the commercial interest of the fluoride suppliers.
Harry
The college of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
http://www.cpso.on.ca/policies/policies/default.aspx?ID=1544
Consent to Medical Treatment
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to clarify when and how a physician can obtain a patient’s consent to treatment and what constitutes consent.
Principles
1. The best interests of the patient are central to all physician-patient interactions.
2. Respect for the autonomy and personal dignity of the patient is central to the provision of ethically sound patient care. Through the translation of these ethical principles to law, the Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed the fundamental right of the individual to decide which medical interventions will be accepted and which will not.
3. In order to exercise their autonomy, patients must be capable of making informed decisions about their health care.
4. The goals of the Health Care Consent Act (HCCA) include promoting individual autonomy and decision-making capacity, and facilitating communication between health care practitioners and their patients.
5. Physicians have the obligation to secure consent and patients have the legal right to either consent to or refuse treatment.
Therefore unless there is some information we are not recieving
Points 2 and 5 pretty much speaks volumes….they must stop
Hi Hailey,
Thanks for posting. I just received some data from Europe re dental cavity rates following the end the fluoridation in several countries that included Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Over the long term following fluoride – free water, cavity rates declined. It was only over the immediate short term that cavity rates briefly spiked.
Following the end of water fluoridation, people changed their dental habits and cavity rates actually dropped to below the rates that occurred during fluoridation.
Should Cornwall end fluoridation as have 41-other cities across Canada, cavity rates would likely decline over the long-term (3 to 5-years after the end of fluoridation) as people change their dental habits.
Very true Harry and thank you for your support.
I wish I could be present for this meeting, We seem to neglect the importance of facts or too oftern just accept there is nothing we can do….
So many systems in north america are based on peoples lack of education or they are so busy trying to make ends meet they have little or no time to take part in bettering their own lives….
Dear Soc,
Here are Dr. Mercola’s education:
University of Illinois at Chicago – (UIC) 1972-1976
Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine 1978-1982
Chicago Osteopathic Hospital 1982-1985 Family Practice Residency. Chief resident 1984-1985
Board Certified American College Osteopathic General Practitioners July 1985
State of Illinois Licensed Physician and Surgeon
Because you claimed that Mercola is not a medical doctor, how can anyone trust anything else you say?
Hi Stacey,
Thanks for taking a stand by speaking out
Stacey, he’s an osteopath…that’s not a medical doctor, or a scientist, or a researcher.
My own family member is a naturopath who is called “doctor.”
But he is not a medical doctor.
I’m not playing with you. You’re just not aware what “medical doctor” means.
@Stacey, if I’ve confused you, I’m really sorry. I’m glad you spoke up.
I hope it never happens, but if you suddenly experience anything from miscarriage to myocardial infarction, meningitis, measles, massive hemorrhage, mania, or melanoma…and end up at a specialist’s office or Emerge, you’ll never be treated by an osteopath. Believe me. They’re not medical doctors.
If you go to a family doc, cancer specialist, dermatologist, gynaecologist, urologist, ophthalmologist, thoracic surgeon…they’re medical doctors. Osteopaths are not.
I’m not saying osteos can’t provide some value. But Mercola doesn’t even focus on applying osteopathic care.
He’s one of the richest Americans because he sells stuff. Lots of stuff.
He’s quite brilliant. Wish I could have done what he’s done.
BEWARE
Why not spike the public drinking water with vitamins and antidepressants too? A healthy and happy population is a good thing.
People may reduce the amount of fluoride that comes from the taps in their homes, see webpage:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/11/18/update-to-purificup-review-more-fluoride-info/
Also of interest, the anti-fluoride group in Quebec had to use the Freedom of Information Act to legally compel Health Canada to release information that pertained to the harmful effects of fluoride . . . information that was kept from the public eye. Its the reason why only 2.5% of Quebec still has fluoride in the drinking water. As a result, the Health Canada representative who provided some pro-fluoride propaganda to Cornwall City Council, has zero credibility in the eyes of the present provincial government in Quebec . . . when they get the chance, Quebec will likely go 100% free from fluoride.
I just fell on this article and for years now I have been following up on what is going on in the US and Canada and especially in the US the people have been educating themselves about the toxic use of fluoride. Fluoride was used by Hitler in the camps in Germany and Poland to help calm the dissidents down (the Jews, Gypsies, etc.) before they went to their death. Fluoride is found in toothpaste (which is a poison if swallowed) as well as water (and yes even in Danon bottled water) and maybe in other bottled waters – those plastic bottles are a hindrance as well because of “Bisfenal A” which is a chemical found in plastics which harms the body and a lot of foods have those plastic bottles.
Fluoride is found in a lot of pharmaceuticals like those anti-depressants and some of those psychotic drugs have a terrible after affect instead of calming the patient down.
Many people are writing into their city officials about banning all the fluoride in their drinking water. There is a lot of news on the net about this subject. We all need to stand up on this subject and do something.