To the editor:

I was one of the dozen or more opponents of fluoride in our drinking water who spoke at the Newburyport Council on Monday, Jan. 15. My sources of knowledge were from the Fluoride Action Network whose information comes from peer review scientific research.

The Daily News article, “Fluoride vote under review,” referenced the degrees and professional affiliations of Dr. Merubi, the only person at that meeting who spoke in favor of continuing the fluoridation of our public water supply. He did not provide any concrete data to support his position.

Frankly, I am not impressed with degrees and affiliations when it comes to my health and the health of my fellow community members but prefer concrete scientific studies to inform my beliefs.

However, if degrees are important, I would like to point out that the opponents to fluoridation who spoke included a medical doctor, a pharmacist, and a number of people with master’s and advanced degrees, informed citizens and people with direct experience with the dangers of fluoride. Somehow we were all lumped into the category of the Internet browsing, “fear-mongering” group by the dentist, Sam Merubi, who described himself as the “expert.”

I believe living with an open mind and with questions offers far more possibilities than living with certainty and answers. The mind that knows it does not know is much more open to learning and discovering than the mind that thinks it has the answers. There is a lot for us to learn about fluoride, a neurotoxin, that was placed in the public drinking waters across the cities and towns in the U.S. 40 to 50 years ago.

Let’s open up to learning more, just like the residents of Amesbury who removed it from their water supply years ago and 97 percent of European countries that have done the same. Do we really want to believe it is good because Dr. Merubi speaks about how it is endorsed by the American Dental Association that receives close to $3 million a year in donations from the fluoride lobby?

And if someone can tell me something good about it, then let’s leave it in the hands of doctors and dentists to administer it. Why should we get it in our water if we don’t want it? It is illegal to force a person to take a drug!

I ask all citizens of Newburyport to begin with an open mind. We were all deceived many decades ago but that was then and this is now. It is time to create a change and take fluoride out of our drinking water.

Chris Morton, Newburyport

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