Below is a chronological history of intimidation of opponents of water fluoridation. The list is non-exhaustive and we’re certain we’ve missed some important voices. We are now seeing in the current scientific literature what voices like Dr. William Marcus and Dr. Phyllis Mullenix warned us about years ago and were fired for. Todays scientists doing key research on #fluoride neurotoxicity are being intimidated as well. 

FIRING & JOB LOSS

1955

“In 1955, Dr. William Wolf, a clinical professor at New York University’s School of Dentistry, New York City, also observed four cases of poisoning from drinking water in nearby fluoridated communities. After verifying the diagnosis, he warned his colleagues of fluoridation’s danger to health. The following day the dean informed him that his services at the university were no longer needed. When Wolf in turn threatened to give wide publicity to the reason for the proposed action, the dean immediately dropped the matter. Nevertheless, Wolf was discomfited by the whole affair, and refrained from publishing a report of his cases.”

Source: George Waldbott, Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma, Coronado Press, p. 323, from William Wolf, personal letter to Waldbott, June 18, 1955.

1957

“In Calgary, Alberta, Dr. Gordon Bates, the leading Canadian advocate of fluoridation, ordered Dr. W.H. Hill, Medical Officer of Health, to support fluoridation – “or else.” Shortly thereafter, Dr. Hill was removed from the examining board of the Medical School of the University of Alberta, a post he had held for 25 years.” (1957)

Source: Waldbott, Fluoridation, The Great Dilemma, p. 327, from a letter to Mrs. G.L. Waldbott, Feb. 11, 1959.

1958

“Dr. Jonathan Forman of Columbus, Ohio, editor of the Journal of the Ohio State Medical Association for more than twenty-five years was abruptly dropped, according to the Columbus Citizen, November 13, 1958, because of his open stand against fluoridation.”

Source: George Waldbott, A Stuggle With Titans, Carlton Press, 1965, p. 228.

1959

“V.O. Hurme, D.M.D., director, for many years of Boston’s Forsythe Dental Infirmary for Children resigned his position because ‘restriction of his academic freedom on the question of fluoridation was repugnant’ to him.” (1959)

Source: Waldbott, A Struggle With Titans, p. 228., from a personal letter to him 8/9/59.

1979

Geoffrey Smith in 1979 worked as a dentist at Proserpine Hospital in Queensland (Australia) and supervised a dental therapist at a local primary school. He drew attention to the high level of dental fluorosis in children there, and began collecting data on this and on dietary sources of fluoride. He claims he was officially warned by the Queensland Health Department to cease the research and, after media coverage elsewhere in the country, was fired.”

Source: Brian Martin, Scientific Knowledge in Controversy, State University of New York Press, 1991, p. 95, citing Smith, “Fluoride: The Frightening Facts,” Simply Living, vol. 2, no. 1, 1983.

1990

Dr. William Marcus, MD, questioned government reports that downgraded cancer risks of fluoridation. “In the fall of 1990, EPA management fired William Marcus. He filed a wrongful dismissal suit against the EPA. On Dec. 3, 1992, Judge David Clarke, concluded that ‘the reasons given for Dr. Marcus’ firing were a pretext,’ and that ‘his employment was terminated because he publicly questioned and opposed EPA’s fluoride policy.’ Clarke ordered the EPA to give Marcus back his job with full back pay, legal expenses, and $50,000 in damages.”

Source: R. Allan Freeze, Jay H. Lehr, The Fluoride Wars, John Wiley & Sons, 2009, pp. 266-67.

1994

“Phyllis Mullenix (was) a leading neurotoxicologist hired by the Forsyth Dental Center in Boston to investigate the toxicity of materials used in dentistry. In 1994, after her research indicated that fluoride was neurotoxic, she was fired.”

Source: Christopher Bryson, The Fluoride Deception, Seven Stories Press, 2004, p. xxiv. (Complete interview with Mullenix available at the Fluoride Action Network website, https://fluoridealert.org/content/mullenix-interview/)


WITHDRAWAL OF FUNDING

1953

“When the University of Oregon showed that fluorine in food pellets caused death to a chinchilla herd (1953), the money for these studies was quickly withdrawn by the Public Health Service, which had financed the investigation.”

Source: Frederick Exner, MD and George Waldbott, MD, The American Fluoridation Experiment, The Devin-Adair Company, 1957, p. 186, citing W.R. Cox, “Hello, Test Animals,” Milwaukee, Olsen Publishing Co., 1953.

1956

“Dr. Reuben Feltman of Passaic, N.J. had administered fluoride tablets to children and to pregnant women. When he reported (1956) that about 1 per cent of his subjects could not tolerate the drug, the P.H.S. (U.S. Public Health Service) discontinued support for his research.”

Source: Waldbott, A Struggle With Titans, p. 238.


AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION

1955

“From a letter by the late journalist George Sokolsky: ‘I find that as many of those (dentists) who are members of your association (American Dental Association) are opposed to the process as favor it. I also find that they live in terror of being quoted. They tell me that they may be brought up (before the ethics committee) on charges should I quote their names.” (1955)

Source: George Waldbott, A Stuggle With Titans, Carlton Press, 1965, p. 43, quoting George Sokolsky, Letter to the Editor, Journal of the American Dental Association, 50:567, 1955.

1960

“In a letter by J.E. Waters, D.D.S., he stated that he had prepared a series of articles against fluoridation for publication in the California Journal Compass, and that he was told that he would be automatically expelled from the American Dental Association if these articles appeared under his name.”

Source: Gotzshe, The Fluoride Question: Poison or Panacea, p. 41.

1962

“These groups (opposing fluoridation) employ every device of propaganda, including distortion, untruth and personal attack to weaken the confidence of the public in this health-giving measure.”

Source: Editorial, “Dentistry – Foremost Champion of Fluoridation,” Journal of the American Dental Association, 65:716, 1962.

1962

“In November 1962 and 1965, ADA (American Dental Association) included in its journal long directories of information about antifluoridation scientists, organizations, leaders and others known to be opposed to fluoridation. Listed in alphabetical order were reputable scientists, convicted felons, food faddists, scientific organizations and the Ku Klux Klan. Information was given about each, including quotes from newspaper articles, some of which contained false data. The information was published for use by proponents of fluoridation in local fluoridation referenda . . . Consumer advocate Ralph Nader called it ‘an institutionalized witch-hunt.’”

Source: Chemical & Engineering News, Aug. 1, 1988.

1979

“Why would some persons deny the life-long health benefits of fluoridation to children? What kind of mentality would reject the opinion of those who are qualified by education, training and experience to recommend on a scientific matter and accept the advice of an individual whose claims are shown to be based on pseudoscientific studies, faulty interpretation of statistics and deliberate misrepresentation of facts?”

Source: American Dental Association White Paper on Fluoridation, 1979.


STATE AND LOCAL DENTAL ASSOCIATIONS

1955

“Dr. R. Pringle and Dr. D.H. Irwin were temporarily suspended from the North Carolina Dental Society for their persistent public stand against fluoridation.” (1955)

Source: George Waldbott, Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma, Coronado Press, p. 325, citing the Ethics Committee of the Journal of the North Carolina Dental Society, Vol. 38, No. 144, 1955.

1961

“In 1961 Dr. Max Ginns of Worcester, Massachusetts, was dropped from his state dental society after he refused to discontinue use of a petition, circulated in 1953, which listed 119 dentists and 59 physicians in Worcester who opposed fluoridation.”

Source: Waldbott, Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma, p. 325, citing the Boston Daily Record, Sept. 28, 1961.

1965

“May 13, 1965, every member of the Detroit District Dental Society was notified of a $20.00 assessment for the campaign to win the local vote for fluoridation in November, 1965. Members failing to comply within 4 months were threatened with loss of membership in the local and national dental societies as stipulated in the portion of the by-laws which was attached.”

Source: Waldbott, A Struggle With Titans, p. 343.

1965

“Ivan H. Northfield, a dentist living in Duluth, Minn., made a speech against fluoridation during a campaign in 1965. As a result, his local dental society suspended his membership for one year, without allowing him to speak in his own defense.”

Source: Brian Martin, Scientific Knowledge in Controversy, State University of New York Press, 1991, p. 93, citing notarized statement from Northfield, August 5, 1969.


FLUORIDE NEUROTOXICITY 

2012

World renowned neuroscientist Dr. Phillipe Grandjean testified during the TSCA fluoride lawsuit that he was threatened by colleagues and administrators at Harvard University to retract his 2012 conclusions of neurotoxicity from fluoride exposure.  As a person with integrity, he defied these threats:

“Well if you want the whole story, I was asked to meet with a professor from Harvard’s Dental School. He came to my office and essentially threatened me. He said I was endangering public health, and he demanded that I issue a statement similar to what you’re talking about now.

When I said that I would think it over, he went to the Deans of the medical school, the dental school, and the school of public health -that is my boss – without telling me, and the Deans did not know what was going on. They were just asked to sign a statement saying, in agreement with CDC that fluoridation is the cornerstone of modern public health. And so this way, the press office of Harvard school of public health said to me, we better issue a statement because the article we just published in a journal called Harvard Public Health has resulted in the largest number of letters from readers, mainly dentists – that is fluoridation proponents, including this professor/colleague from Harvard’s dental school – who demanded that Harvard retract the results of my study.

And I said ‘hey, my study, I can’t retract that, I can’t retract the conclusions.’ But I was then presented with the wording that you’re just referring to. So this is not my wording. It is an attempt to calm the tempers of the fluoridation proponents in the U.S.”

As Dr. Grandjean describes at the end of his statement, his name was added to a Harvard document intended to show support for the safety of fluoridation; essentially refuting his own study’s findings. However, Dr. Grandjean stuck to his guns, never signed the document, and later published a press release calling for fluoride levels in water to be lowered “right away.”  The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published the press release, quoting Grandjean:

“Just because we did studies over the last 70 years, it doesn’t mean that we did everything that is necessary to know for sure that fluoridation is not toxic to some processes in the body or development of the brain. Those studies have actually not been done.

I’ve worked in this field long enough to know that with time, we have found that lead, mercury, and pesticides were more toxic than we originally thought. I am not willing to sit here and say, okay, let’s expose the next generation’s brains and just hope for the best.”

2010

Dr. Paul Connett

2019

Dr. Robert Dixon

2020

Dr. Christine Till

 

Researched and compiled by:

Rick North
Durham, OR

April, 2020