With the “Safe Drinking Water Disclosure Act” – H.B. 72 – the state of Utah is holding the companies that “fluoridate” Utah’s drinking waters accountable for pouring huge amounts of other toxic chemicals in the water along with the fluoridation chemicals.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill last week that requires chemical companies to fully disclose all the chemicals they are dumping into Utah’s water along with the toxic fluoride which has been represented for more than 60 years across the U.S. as a means of preventing dental caries. The bill – H.B. 72 – is not designed to permanently stop water fluoridation or make a statement about whether fluoride’s rewards (its alleged property of preventing dental caries) outweighs its risks for causing various types of cancer, osteoporosis, MS and a host of other diseases. The bill is simply designed to force companies such as Thatcher and Mosaic Chemical to disclose exactly what is contained in the entire witches-brew batch of fluoridation chemicals being dumped in Utah’s drinking water.

The fluoridation companies came under intense scrutiny after Utah’s analysis of various spills and releases of the fluoridation chemicals revealed that in addition to fluoride, there were several other toxic chemicals far in excess of allowable limits for safe drinking water – chemicals that included aluminum, arsenic, lead, mercury and berillium which, when mixed with fluoride, become especially active and dangerous to human health.

On Aug. 31, 2007, when 2,500 gallons of raw acid were released at a Utah water treatment plant, the cost of the cleanup brought the attention of Utah law enforcement and the eventual realization that despite many millions of dollars being spent by Utah to fluoridate its water, the state had no idea what exactly was being dumped into its water supply along with the fluoridation chemicals. Utah discovered it was getting way more than it had bargained for.

The new bill requires any company “fluoridating” Utah’s water to disclose precisely what chemicals are in the fluoridation batches. The bill also lets each county or township vote on whether it wishes to fluoridate its water.

The big question now seems to be whether it is even possible to separate fluoride from the other toxic chemicals that are gathered in the process of mining fluoride in order to put it in the drinking water or scraping the fluoride from industrial waste sources to put it in the water.

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