NEW YORK, US, May 25, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — Today (May 25, 2021) the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) announced) that a diverse group of 112 professionals with expertise on fluoride have signed a letter to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new Director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They are urging Walensky to get up-to-speed on the latest scientific studies that indicate that fluoride (at the levels used in community water fluoridation programs) poses a risk to both the fetal and infant brain. If Walensky is sincere in her repeated claims that under her leadership “science is back” at the agency, then she and the CDC should act accordingly.

According to FAN director, Paul Connett, PhD, “It is an embarrassment for the USA to be perceived by the rest of the world as being willing to risk our children’s brains for anything let alone a highly questionable benefit to their teeth. The CDC’s Oral Health Division should not have put us in this horrible position. 97% of European countries do not add fluoride to their drinking water.”

Walensky and science

According to the Associated Press, Dr. Walensky said in an interview on Fox News Sunday, “I’m delivering the science as the science is delivered to the medical journals.” (CDC director defends decision to ditch masks, May 16, 2021.)

Walensky might be able to say that about face masks, but she can’t say that about CDC’s promotion of water fluoridation. She should read the 2019 study by Green et al. in JAMA Pediatrics about the risks fluoride poses to the fetal brain. We encourage Dr. Walensky to also listen to a podcast on the study with two of the JAMA editors, who discuss both the rigor and importance of this study at https://edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/audio-player/17802991

The CDC Oral Health Division’s repeated denials of harm

For decades officials at the CDC’s Oral Health Division have denied that water fluoridation causes any harm. These denials have been based on wishful thinking rather than a careful evaluation of the science. According to Connett, “This division sees its mission solely as promoting the benefits of fluoridation and has no personnel qualified to assess the health risks involved.”

These denials have continued despite the publication of four high-quality U.S. government-funded studies since 2017: 7 (Till 2020, Green 2019 (cited above) and Bashash 2017 and 2018). These studies have found a strong association between fluoride exposure and damage to both the fetal and infant brain.

A False Claim by Casey Hannan, CDC Director of the Oral Health Division

Here is his exact quote:

“The NIEHS-published studies and others published around the world were looking at levels which are much higher than the recommended 0.7 mg/Liter (ppm) that the US has.” (Casey Hannan’s statement can be viewed on videotape at https://youtu.be/BmqPU9Ap_fA?t=2163 )

Contrary to this false claim by the director of the Oral Health Division, during a March 2021 webinar, these studies were conducted at doses commonly experienced in fluoridated communities. In fact, fluoridated water was the primary source of exposure for two of these studies, Green 2019 and Till 2020.

Recommendations

In their letter to Walensky the 112 professionals recommended:

1) A pause on any further promotion of fluoridation by CDC;
2) An immediate CDC warning be given to pregnant women, as well as parents and carers who bottle-feed infants, to avoid fluoridated water as recommended by two of the authors of the above studies and Linda Birnbaum. PhD, former head of the NIEHS (see Op-ed: It is time to protect kids’ developing brains from fluoride).
3) Set up a committee consisting of CDC experts -independent of the Oral Health Division and the American Dental Association – to investigate the latest science pertaining to fluoride’s effects on the brain and other tissues.
4) Confine the Oral Health Division’s oral-health-promoting activities to the successful methods used in countries which do not use water fluoridation, including the ChildSmile program in Scotland.

Despite several efforts to get this letter to Dr. Walensky (emails May 3, May 11 and a Fed Ex hard copy on May 11) Connett has received no acknowledgment or response to the letter.

Letter made public today

We are making the letter publicly available today in the hope that members of the public, the media and, if necessary, members of Congress can persuade Dr. Walensky to respond to our concerns and restore both science and credibility to all divisions of her agency as well as protect the future mental well-being of our children.

Signers of the letter

Signers of the letter include Chris Bryson, former BBC producer and author of The Fluoride Deception (Seven Stories Press, 2004); all three authors of the book The Case Against Fluoride (Chelsea Green, 2010); Dr. Hardy Limeback, a member of the National Research Council panel that reviewed fluoride’s toxicity in 2006; Vyvyan Howard, an infant and fetal pathologist; Dr. Ted Schettler, director of the Environmental Health Network; Bruce Spittle, Editor of Fluoride, the quarterly journal of the International Society for Fluoride Research, as well as many other doctors, dentists, PhDs, water plant operators and citizens very sensitive to fluoride’s toxic effects.


*Original press release online at https://www.einpresswire.com/article/542072523/professionals-expose-cdc-s-false-safety-claims-and-call-on-director-to-rescue-america-s-children-from-fluoride-program?r=paBcYp8jMENqkPYOAh