NOTE FROM FAN:

This is an in-depth special investigative report in pdf format that was introduced on a dramatic front cover with: How Safe is the Fluoride in Your Drinking Water?

Available at http://www.fluoridealert.org/so.carolina.4-9-08.pdf

The first two paragraphs of the report:

The year was 1965 when Columbia city council voted unanimously to add one part per million of fluoride to our water supply – a program which continues to this day. Back then, lead was still used in house paints and as an additive in gasoline despite 20 years of knowledge that lead exposure was causing brain damage in many children. Asbestos was still in widespread use for fireproofing and insulation, despite knowledge of the lung diseases it caused. Here at home, Columbia was still dumping its raw sewage into the Congaree River, causing drivers on the Gervais St. bridge to roll up their windows because of the stench. We no longer paint with lead paint, use asbestos in buildings, or dump our raw sewage in the Congaree River. However the intentional contamination of our water supply with what is now 1.1 million lbs. of fluoridation chemicals per year just keeps going, with little public attention or protest.

1965: Debate raged over initial fluoridation of Columbia water supply

It wasn’t always that way. Water fluoridation was actually one of the major issues of the1950s and 60s, both locally and across the U.S. When Columbia city council called a public hearing on water fluoridation to take place on Feb. 18, 1965, the Columbia Record headlined the fluoridation controversy as a “Politician’s Nightmare.” The Record predicted that the fluoridation hearing “promises to be one of the liveliest and most interesting in years.” Even with special rules in force to limit debate, the hearing lasted almost 3 hours in a Columbia city chambers packed with close to 200 people. …

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