(WICHITA, Kan.) — You may have seen the signs or read on Twitter, there is poison in the tap water. That’s the message a group of Wichita activists are trying to get out. “We’re trying to shock people into the reality of what’s going on. We want to get them concerned enough to research on their own and see what’s going on.” said Wichita activist James Gragg.
Gragg’s group is worried fluoride in drinking water is poisoning people. “Our concern about fluoride being added to the water supply, not just in Wichita but anywhere in the country has severe adverse effects on people’s health,” Gragg said.
But Wichita doesn’t add fluoride to it’s water. “We do not put fluoride in our drinking water period,” said Wichita Water Director Chris Carrier. Yet Gragg posted the signs and spread the topic on-line that the water is poisonous. “That’s bad for us to have signs hanging all over town that our drinking water is poisonous because that’s not true,” Carrier said.
“This got a head of us before we were able to get our facts in place. This is a national campaign as opposed to what’s going on here locally. I haven’t had a chance to talk with city officials, granted I’m flat footed on that. But it still comes down to their own reports whether they’re adding it or if fluoride is leaching in,” Gragg said.
Carrier says small amounts of fluoride do naturally occur in the water. He says Wichita’s water has .33 parts per million of fluoride, while the EPA allows up to 4 parts per million. Carrier says the fluoride levels are safe and if they weren’t the city would remove it from the water.
Gragg says the city should remove any level of fluoride. He’s also hoping the campaign will convince other communities to stop adding fluoride all together. He says people need to learn the difference between calcium fluoride and sodium fluoride and which is in their drinking water.
The Kansas Department of Health and Enviornment does have statistics about what Kansas communities add fluoride to its water, but the information is not accessible because of a database issue.
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