Is Bay Area Water Safe for Bottle-Fed Babies?
The Centers for Disease Control and the American Dental Association agree that babies fed formula made with tap water are at risk of ingesting too much fluoride. Yet most Bay Area water districts fail to warn parents of the risk.
On Saturday, March 22, concerned citizens will march to urge water suppliers and health officials to issue public warnings about the risks of feeding babies formula mixed with fluoridated tap water. The march begins at 11 a.m. at Union Square and concludes with a 1 p.m. rally at Justin Herman Plaza.
Kristie Lavelle of Clean Water California, organizers of the march, explained that fluoridated water contains 200 to 250 times more fluoride than breast milk. Babies who ingest too much fluoride are at risk for developing dental fluorosis, a disease of the tooth enamel that results in discoloration and chipping and is now found in more than 40 percent of U.S. children ages 12 to 15. And that’s just the beginning of the widespread misunderstandings about fluoride in tap water.
“What’s added to our water is not naturally occurring calcium fluoride, but fluosilicic acid, a hazardous waste that is a byproduct of producing chemical fertilizers,” said Lavelle. “This chemical has never been studied for its long-term health effects.”
Michael Connett of the Fluoride Action Network, who will speak at the rally, said that in recent years research has turned on its head the outdated notion that adding fluoride chemicals is a safe way to promote dental health. This month, in a peer-reviewed study in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet Neurology, authors Dr. Philippe Grandjean and Dr. Philip Landrigan revealed that fluoride can lower children IQ’s.
“We should listen to the evidence and act to protect our children’s brains, not the water fluoridation industry,” said Connett.
Other speakers at the rally include public health expert and dentist Dr. Bill Osmunson; Arlene Goetze, who led a successful campaign to convince Sunnyvale to issue fluoride warnings for infants; Jacques Durand of the Sierra Club’s Loma Prieta chapter; LULAC Executive Director, Henry Rodriguez, who authored the 2011 LULAC resolution against fluoridation; and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jeff Blokker.
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