Dear Supporter,
Before we get to Fluoridegate, here is an update on our fundraiser. As of Sunday evening we had received $68,122 from 398 supporters.
With $5,315 still left in our matching grant from a very generous supporter we need to raise $6,563 to reach our mini-goal of $80,000 by midnight Christmas Eve.
That’s still a lot of money in just two days but I am beginning to think we can do it. When we reach our mini-goal another $6,000 in pledges will kick in.
The DVD of Fluoridegate – An American Tragedy, is available for $34 (or two DVDs for a premium of $52).
Thanks to all of you who have donated so generously, especially for the magnificent challenge pledges.
If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation – large or small -you can either:
- Donate by using our secure online server.
- Donate by sending a check – payable to Fluoride Action Network – to: FAN, 104 Walnut Street, Binghamton, NY 13905
Remember, a donation of $75 will get you the FAN Flash Drive. You can also choose one of our exciting gifts available at different donation levels.
NOTE: We have received many enquiries from supporters as to how to access back issues of this bulletin. You will be happy to know that they are all being archived here.
An introduction to David Kennedy, DDS, by Paul Connett
I first met David in October of 1996 at a Fluoridation Forum held at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. On the panel along with David and myself was Dr. Phyllis Mullenix (1), the author of the first animal study to show that pre-natal and post-natal exposure to fluoride interfered with animal behavior. Also on the panel was Cliff Honecker who was the person who discovered the formally classified papers on Harold Hodge’s fluoride activities on the Manhattan project. I remember Phyllis being stunned by Cliff’s revelations, because for a time she had worked with Harold Hodge at the Forsyth Dental Research Institute and she had no idea that he had originally proposed doing animal studies to probe fluoride’s interaction with the brain. So this was quite a momentous event and David captured it all on videotape, which he later circulated. The panel for this forum was put together by Deborah Moore, PhD, who has twice successfully kept fluoridation out of Worcester (even though hugely outspent by the proponents) and who later went onto form the group Second Look, which today continues to collect case studies on people injured by fluoride.
This video of the Clark University forum was one of quite a number of videotapes that David has made on both fluoride and mercury, including the famous “smoking teeth” video on mercury amalgams and the powerful video on what fluoride did to Cathy Justus’s horses in Colorado.
In addition to everything else, David is one of the funniest people in the anti-fluoridation movement. No matter how serious the moment, David has a way of finding the funny side to things. He always makes me laugh –whether its over the phone or at a meeting. David is also one of the most generous people in the anti-fluoridation movement. Not only has he poured countless hours and years into this effort but he has also sunk thousands of dollars of his only money as well.
David is a founding member of the International Association for Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) and one of its past presidents. He is also on the Board of Directors of Fluoride Action Network’s parent, the American Environmental Health Studies Project, Inc (AEHSP) for which Cliff Honecker mentioned above, was the first director.
The name Fluoridegate was coined by Daniel Stockin of the Lillie Center in Georgia to describe the cover-up by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) of the vulnerability to fluoride of the black American community. The spark for this video was David’s trip to interview some of the civil rights leaders in Atlanta who were inspired by the information provided to them by Dan Stockin to come out against fluoridation and call for an investigation of this Fluoridegate. But in the process David found more cover-up than that occurring in Atlanta – and much of that is in Washington, DC. Now over to David.
Fluoridegate– An American Tragedy
by David Kennnedy, DDS
Fluoridegate opens with 5th grade students demonstrating alongside New York City Councilmember Peter Vallone in 2012 on the steps of city hall, where the children eloquently explain what they have learned during their study of fluoridation.
In essence, Fluoridegate is a new documentary film about the U.S. government’s response to scientific concerns about the safety of ingested fluoride. It starts with Dr. Robert Carton reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 1987 demand that employees falsify documents in order to raise the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) for political and economic reasons. This behavior is in total violation of the EPA’s congressional mandate and the sworn duty of their employees. This discussion evolves into the U.S. Public Health Service’s response when a congressionally mandated National Toxicological Program (NTP) study that found animals receiving substantial doses of fluoride were “awash with disease.” The documentary evaluates the implications of a policy of poisoning vulnerable children and what that means for the future of our nation.
Viewers will be shocked that instead of responding to this issue with moral and ethical considerations, the U.S. government took the previously existing deceit and fraud (documented by Chris Bryson in his book The Fluoride Deception) to an even higher level. An interview with Attorney Steven Kohn in the documentary provides a detailed description of the events in Dr. William Marcus’s whistle-blowing trial, during which the Justice Department shredded documents, obstructed justice, tampered with witnesses, and conducted themselves in a manner that audiences are sure to recognize as totally opposed to the values upon which our country was built. At the time he was fired, Dr. Marcus was the senior toxicologist in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water. According to Attorney Kohn the Justice Department went after Marcus with a “vengeance.”
This hard-hitting documentary also explores the disproportionate impact of silicofluorides (the chemicals used in over 90% of the fluoridation programs in the US) on minority populations and especially their babies. In one scene, Professor Boyd Haley (former Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky and world renowned expert on mercury’s toxicity) shares his calculations of 16,000 excess U.S. infant deaths per year potentially caused by flawed public health policies still in place today.
Professor Haley asks, “Why are our children dying at such a high rate? Why are our elderly dying at a faster rate and at younger ages than people from 28 other countries when we supposedly have the best medical care in the world?”
Fluoridegate establishes that an overall increase in children’s blood lead levels, along with systemic exposure of newborns to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines injected into both babies and pregnant mothers, are likely to be at least partially responsible for the unacceptable infant death rates in the U.S.
To further demonstrate how serious of a problem it is when mercury and lead are combined at low levels, the documentary provides an animated overview of Schubert’s landmark experiment, which reported the dramatic synergistic impact of these two heavy metals when administered together as opposed to seperately (2).
In this powerful documentary, Roger Masters, PhD, also summarizes his groundbreaking work linking silicofluoridation (i.e. fluoridation using silicofluorides) with large increases in blood lead levels in children, and he warns in a very direct fashion on camera,
“Exposing a child to chemicals in the first six years of life that will harm that child’s learning capability, self-control and have effects on his brain function that are lifelong– to permit that to happen when you know it’s happening and not to interfere by stopping the use of something like silicofluoride, which makes it worse– is immoral. It is evil to harm children by poisoning them in the first six years of life once you know you’re doing it.”
This project was originally conceived and funded by David Kennedy. The idea came to him after reviewing the fluoride issue for more than 20 years. Of particular concern was the never-ending parade of dentists and industry lobbyists making completely unfounded claims of fluoridation’s effectiveness and safety.
The toxicity of fluoride has been thoroughly reviewed in the scientific literature and as an example the recent 2006 National Research Council of the National Academies authoritative review is cited (3). There are very good reasons for the public and professional confusion and it is called fraud. The US government has paid millions if not billions of dollars to deceive the citizens of this country and others into believing that the practice of adding one of the most biologically active and toxic ions to the public drinking water is “safe and effective”.
Every person interviewed for this documentary willingly agreed and often encouraged us to push ahead and complete this important project. Not one person asked for any compensation. Mr. Kohn set aside a considerable portion of his day so he could describe the events that overturned Dr. Marcus firing and subsequent successful lawsuits. Dr. Masters generously escorted Monica, her partner and the children out to dinner in Dartmouth. In addition Daniel Stockin of the Lilly Center in Georgia was very helpful in finding black leaders willing to appear on camera and address disproportionate harm to their communities. This documentary has been a joint effort by the producer and director that would not have been possible without enormous amounts of help and encouragement from all of those who appeared in the film.
In 2013, Fluoridegate was shown at numerous film festivals around the country. It has so far received two honorable mentions.
The producer, Monica Esteban, helped build a website devoted to the film. It can be accessed at www.fluoridegate.org where it can be seen free of charge and with the opportunity for viewer questions and comments. Each individual interviewed for the documentary has their own segment available for viewing under the “Proof” tab of the website, which additionally includes many of the PDF documents mentioned in the film, such as the “May Day Memo” authored by Dr. Marcus in his normal capacity as EPA ODW’s senior toxicologist and the key piece of evidence in his successful lawsuit described by witnesses as the only reason for his termination. Thus, viewers wishing to investigate matters discussed in the documentary can review and download documents and even ask questions on this interactive website.
Fluoridegate is also available in individually wrapped DVD’s from FAN, and the critically-acclaimed documentary film makes an excellent gift to improve understanding about the issue of toxic health practices for friends, family, and everyone else who needs to learn the truth about the poisoning of our nation.
NOTE from FAN. We are making this DVD available as a premium for a donation of $34 (or two DVDs for a premium of $52). Please forgive the funny numbers but these are a simple code for us to know which premium our supporters want.
References:
1. Mullenix PJ, Denbesten PK, Schunior A, Kernan WJ. 1996. Neurotoxicity of Sodium Fluoride in Rats. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1995 Mar-Apr;17(2):169-77.
2. Schubert J, Riley EJ, Tyler SA. 1978. Combined effects in toxicology–a rapid systematic testing procedure: cadmium, mercury, and lead. J Toxicol Environ Health. Sep-Nov;4(5-6):763-76.
3. The National Research Council of the National Academies. 2006.Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards. Available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.
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