An historic moment in the battle against water fluoridation

AUGUST 2007: It took about forty days for a dedicated team working with the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) in several countries and across North America to achieve an historic moment in the battle against water fluoridation.

On August 9, 2007, FAN released a Statement signed by over 600 professionals calling for an end to fluoridation and a call to legislators in fluoridating countries to hold hearings to determine why, after the release of the landmark National Research Council report in 2006, aggressive promotion of fluoridation continues.

The over 1,000 signers represent a remarkable coming together of those concerned about fluoride and those concerned about mercury issues; doctors practicing conventional medicine and those pursuing alternative treatments and the public health and the environmental health communities. All believe that public health policy should be determined honestly with full attention paid to sound science and to ethical principles.

According to Dr. Paul Connett, the Executive Director of FAN, “What we are seeing here is the judgment of professionals across the world, not trapped by a ‘fluoridation belief system,’ that the information on the health effects contained in the National Research Council report of 2006, together with a growing number of peer reviewed studies showing that fluoridation has only weak or no benefits, leads to one conclusion: the meager benefits do not outweigh the serious risks and fluoridation must be stopped.”

Connett adds, “Now our task is to get health officials, regulators, and the media to exercise due diligence in this matter and seriously examine the information presented in the Professionals’ Statement. Fluoridation will only end in the US when officials in the Oral Health Division of the CDC are forced to defend, under oath, their zealous promotion of this practice. They appear to be oblivious to its ineffectiveness and the dangers it poses to the American people – and people in the handful of other fluoridated countries.”

To this end, FAN has organized an ONLINE ACTION PETITION to Congress allowing citizens to add their support to the Professionals’ Statement and the call for new Congressional Hearings.

August 9, 2007, was an historic day for this movement because it marks the day when those who promote fluoridation can no longer claim that they represent a single “authority” on this matter. Over 1,000 professionals have seen through their hollow rhetoric and are demanding an end to this outdated practice. August 9, 2007 marked the beginning of the end of fluoridation worldwide.

Connett concludes, "The Professionals’ Statement is the rock on which we will build the rest of our campaign."