A few weeks ago, 2-doctors appeared before Cornwall City Council urging that the city continue to fluoridate the municipal water. The fluoridation compound is hydrofluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6) that is a by-product from fertilizer manufacturing plants. It includes a breakdown product known as orthosilicic acid that is known to leach lead from water pipes in older buildings, see:
Cornwall is an old city with many old buildings that were constructed back in the days when lead was used in water pipes in buildings. The above link tells of lead leaching from water pipes in schools in the Seattle area back around 2004. We have old school buildings in Cornwall that include CCVS, ELC and East Front Public. Perhaps the questions begs to be asked as to whether the water pipes in those school buildings still contain lead.
With declining school enrolments over the past several years, numerous schools have closed and the list includes old school buildings such as:
– Ecole Nativite
– Ecole St Felix de Valois
– Ecole St Albert
– Holy Cross School
– St Columbans School
– Memorial Park Public School
– St Francis de Salles
– Ecole Gonzaga
Cornwall started fluoridating the drinking around 1962 when the aluminum plants across the river began spewing fluoride emissions from their smokestacks. Excess fluoride in the environment destroyed the Mohawk cattle and diary industry, by infecting the cattle with arthritis and severe dental fluorisis. Excess fluoride also showed up in fruits and vegetables grown on Cornwall Island.
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It is possible that an entire generation of school children living in Cornwall from 1962 ate home grown fruit and vegetables spiked with excess fluoride and they may have drank a regular dose of lead in the water from the school drinking fountains. Ingestion of lead is known to cause health problems in children, health problems they may carry into their adult years. Excess fluoride is known to cause obesity, diabetes, kidney problems plus numerous other health issues.
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The doctor swho appeared before Cornwall City Council even acknowledged that Cornwall has a high rate of illness and even recommended continued fluoridation of the municipal water as a remedy. Perhaps the doctors may care to measure the lead content in the drinking water in some Cornwall city schools.
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Except that the Supreme Court of Canada has upheld that a mentally capable adult may refuse medication, see:
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http://scc.lexum.org/decisia-
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A ruling from the Supreme Court does not allow doctors for forcibly medicate people.
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As well, Health Canada has NEVER undertaken any toxicology tests on hydrofluorosilicic acid . . . . Neither has Health Canada ever approved it as a drug nor as a nutrient. The manufacuturers even print the skull-and-cross-bones on the packages that contain the compound, along with a warning that it has NOT been tested for human consumption. By law, doctors may only prescribe or administer approved drugs, approved medications and/or approved nutrients for medical reasons.
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So the Head of the EOHU is soon to appear before Cornwall City Council to “deliver the facts” about hydrofluorosilicic acid. Will he uphold the ruling from the Supreme Court in regard to forcible medication? Will he prescribe that a compound that is neither an approved drug, nor an approved medication and not even an approved nutrient, be added to the municipal water to achieve a medical purpose?
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A few members of Cornwall City Council have already indicated that they would be ready to vote to terminate water fluoridation in Cornwall. Will the other councillors be willing to remember as to who voted them into office? Will they be willing to respect a ruling from the Supreme Court or will they resort to paternalistic behaviour in regard to the forced medication of the citizens of Cornwall on the issue of adding a by-product from a fertilizer factory to the municipal drinking water?
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I grew up in and around Cornwall. I don’t know much about the fluoride treatment but I know about the chemicals that were in the air from the plants near the border bridge. I also remember being able to swim in the St Lawrence as a child and then not daring to as I became a young adult. I have to agree that lead is probably a problem. I don’t think there is a lot of homes, schools that have retrofitted plumbing. As for the after affect of the environment. I have MS and my sister has MS. I have many relatives that have children with learning disabilities and numerous medical problems. Our families had to live in run down homes in the area and I’m going to assume that they weren’t updated to replace lead pipes. Not only lead in the pipes, lead paint and chemicals from the plants. I guess I’ll never know why or how these medical problems are happening in my family.
It is hard to believe that the city could conceivably continue adding fluoride into the water. Even if the product were from a medical lab or even better a purely natural source, I still would have to question the impact of injesting fluoride into our system. How is it that a chemical by-product introduced to our water system be responsible for toughening the enamel of our teeth without impacting the rest of our bones in our body?….is there someothing that magically happens that makes tooth enamel stronger but doesn’t make the rest of our skeleton more brittle. Is it .smart’ fluoride that swims through our arteries and only affects the enamel above our gumline leaving all the other calcium untouched? I haven’t heard an answer to that one yet? Are seniors breaking more hips these days because of bones being more brittle?
The second thing is that I can’t believe that someone, particularly the Canadian Dental Association, Canadian Medical Association and Health Canada would take it upon themselves to encourage this chemical be added to our water without first considering its source and second the science behind the proposed benefit…..from what I’ve read the source is a chemical fertilizer plant and the science supporting the adding of flouride to the water is by today’s standardss grossly inept.
Recent studies in China highlights serious negative impacts from adding fluoride, regardless of its source, to the water. One such study, Choi and senior author Philippe Grandjean, professor of environmental health and colleagues collated the epidemiological studies of children exposed to fluoride from drinking water. The China National Knowledge Infrastructure database also was included to locate studies published in Chinese journals. They then analyzed possible associations with IQ measures in more than 8,000 children of school age; all but one study suggested that high fluoride content in water may negatively affect cognitive development.
The average loss in IQ was reported as a standardized weighted mean difference of 0.45, which would be approximately equivalent to seven IQ points for commonly used IQ scores with a standard deviation of 15.* Some studies suggested that even slightly increased fluoride exposure could be toxic to the brain. Thus, children in high-fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low-fluoride areas. The children studied were up to 14 years of age, but the investigators speculate that any toxic effect on brain development may have happened earlier, and that the brain may not be fully capable of compensating for the toxicity.
“Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain,” Grandjean says. “The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us.”
I wonder if anyone of the people responsible for this decision drink unfiltered water from the tap? It will be a good question to ask at election time!