Brenda Staudenmaier who attends NWTC [Northeast Wisconsin Technical College] in Green Bay, participated in the filing of a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect people from brain damage caused from ingesting fluoride in city water. On behalf of their children, five US mothers, along with the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, Food and Water Watch, International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Organic Consumers Association, Fluoride Action Network, and Mom’s Against Fluoridation filed a petition on Tuesday, Nov. 22 with Gina McCarthy of EPA in Washington, DC. The petition calls for the EPA to protect the public and susceptible subpopulations from the neurotoxic risks of fluoride by banning the addition of fluoridation chemicals to water pursuant to section 21 of the Toxic Substance Control Act (“TSCA”), 15 U.S.C. § 2620.
The petition includes over 180 studies conducted in the past decade linking fluoride to neurotoxicity and references fluorides predominate effect as topical. Fluoride poses a threat to infants, children, the elderly, those with dietary deficiencies, diabetes, renal impairment, and/or genetic predispositions. Staudenmaier stated, “There is no need to indiscriminately dose fluoride through the public water supply for ingestion to every person, and pet regardless of their health status. The local fluoridation program exposes millions of water consumers to neurological and neurotoxic health risks. Tooth decay is an issue of nutrition and we should address nutrition before using a neurotoxic unapproved drug.”
Endocrine disruptive and neurotoxic fluoride is added to public drinking water and given to kids to combat the epidemic of tooth decay, she added. Prescription fluoride drugs are a health hazard and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently pulling them from the market [sic: this sentence is not correct. FDA is not taking any action to ensure that fluoride supplements are removed from the market]. Sodium fluoride tablets have never been evaluated or approved by the Food and Drug Administration yet many pediatricians prescribe these drugs and some local pharmacies carry them.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), fluoride has harmed 41 percent of children with white spots or dental fluorosis which is suffered at significantly higher rates in blacks and Hispanic populations. These white spots may be an indicator that a child’s cognitive abilities or IQ have been compromised. Many civil liberty leaders have been referring to this as the Fluoridegate Scandal. Tooth decay remains the number one chronic disease in both adults and children in this country after being fluoridated for over 70 years while sugar consumption is overlooked.
According to Staudenmaier, “Neurotoxic fluoride will not eliminate the chronic disease of tooth decay. The only thing that will solve the epidemic of tooth decay is to stop eating processed sugars and to get them out of schools. Sugars are highly addictive, suppress the immune system, and lead to obesity and other diseases. Removing sugars from schools will help keep students healthy and improve attendance rates. Green Bay is a resource rich environment and there is a duty of care to ensure children are being fed well and chronic diseases are minimized before neurotoxic substances are promoted or used.”
Staudenmaier graduated Peshtigo High in 1997 and she spent her 20’s as a photographer in NYC working for Vice, numerous blogs, and international magazines and published a book in 2008. At NWTC as an Environmental Engineering student she is focusing on drinking water quality and human health. Next semester she will transfer to UW-Green Bay for cellular microbiology.
She plays an active role in the Farmory indoor test grow farm in downtown Green Bay where she and her 6 year old son, Ko conduct grow experiments with a variety of water structures and plants. She is working to help raise $3.4 million to expand the Farmory where they currently raise over 200 perch fish and grow salad mixes for restaurants.
She is on the Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce 2017 Leadership Team and a member of Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin. In October, she received a scholarship and attended the 11th Annual Conference on the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Staudenmaier said she became interested in the problems associated with fluoride added to public water while reversing some of her health issues and watching a friend die from osteosarcoma. Research was being debated during the same time period, finding that 7-year-old boys who drank fluoridated drinking water had a higher risk of developing osteosarcoma or bone cancer in later teen years. Now age 14, her son was under the age of 7 at the time when the osteosarcoma study came out from Harvard so it peaked her interest for further research.