I’ve been involved in my municipal government for a long time. I’ve served on numerous boards and commissions over the years. I’ve always put the people of my city first and have been an outspoken critic of our city government when I felt the city government needed it, even while serving on those boards and commissions.
While I do not currently serve on any boards or commissions, I’ve been busy with other things lately, I still keep in contact with many people within the city government and still speak at city meetings when I can and when there is something I have to say.
Recently I had the pleasure of complementing our city staff and a few others involved with our Public Works Commission. I have a friend that serves on that commission and he mentioned they were looking for agenda items.
I told him about my long standing concerns about water fluoridation and its health consequences. He was unaware of the issue so I sent him a few links to more info.
These were the three links I sent him:
http://www.holisticmed.com/fluoride/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ys9q1cvKGk
He forwarded those links to the City Engineer who sent them to the Director of the Water Department, who then went to the City Administrator with the information he had learned.
Based on that information, the City Administrator approved the discontinuation of the addition of fluoridating chemicals to the water.
I was expecting this to be a long battle of education. I was preparing myself to speak at the Public Works Commission, as well as before the City Council. I fully expected I’d need to talk with members of the City Council individually to make the case concerning the health issues.
I was more than pleased that my goal of stopping fluoridation of our water was achieved within two weeks of my making the issue known.
In fact, the Director of the Water Department told me he was a bit embarrassed he did not know the information in those links. He’d been adding the chemicals for nearly 20 years and had never thought much about it.
Now the City is saving thousands of dollars each month in chemical costs, the employees in the water department no longer have to deal with the most dangerous chemical they had to use, the equipment will last longer due to the elimination of a corrosive saving the city even more money, and everyone who drinks or consumes via food the water our city provides will have one less risk to their health.
There is still natural fluoride in the water, our city water is well based, but that is minimal and does not pose the same health risk.
I made a point of appearing at both the Public Works Commission and the City Council to publicly thank all involved in making such a speedy and correct decision.
I’d advise anyone who wants to stop fluoridation to do what I did. You might be just as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Actually, just get involved in your local government, no matter what issue concerns you.
They say, “All politics is local”. I say, “All that is local is not always politics”.
Update:
For what it is worth, here is the video of me speaking at the City Council meeting thanking those responsible. I began by running down some of the health concerns for those who were unaware this was even an issue.
It is not my best presentation ever, but here it is anyway. The video has the pre-meeting workshop and other agenda items before the Citizen’s Comments portion. My part begins about 1:46:30 into the video and lasts 5 minutes which is the maximum time allowed for citizen’s comments.
mms://69.29.124.18/TRMSVOD662-1CityCouncil9-23-10.wmv
– End –
See also, page 309 of the City of O’Fallon’s 2012 Annual Budget:
“… One such improvement is the elimination of the addition of fluoride to the potable water supplied by the Water Treatment Plant (WTP), this change in treatment has saved the City $18,000 annually and reduced the hazard for the operators in that they do not have to handle the dangerous chemical on a regular basis…”
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