12

Support for Fluoridation Diminishes in America

Is it true that several American organisations have withdrawn their endorsement of fluoridation?

BFS suggested answer

No. Neither the American Dental Association nor the US Public Health Service is aware of any reputable organisation which has withdrawn its support for fluoridation.

BFS suggested answer refuted

The ACLU has never endorsed or taken any position on the merits of water fluoridation, nor have we ever to my knowledge authorized the American Dental Association to list the ACLU as endorsing the practice.

Ira Glasser, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union, 21 January 1997

In the introduction to this book I listed the organisations that, the British Fluoridation Society claims, endorse and support its stance on the compulsory mass medication that is water fluoridation in Britain. The American Dental Association publishes a similar list. However, some of those listed, like the American Civil Liberties Union, from which I got the above quote, have never supported fluoridation, and others that formerly supported it have had second thoughts. Below is a list of those organisations that have withdrawn their support recently. The BFS, the ADA and US public health service might like to use it to update their lists.

US organisations that have withdrawn their support for fluoridation since 1990:

American Academy of Allergy and Immunology

American Academy of Diabetes

American Cancer Society

American Chiropractic Association

American Civil Liberties Union

American Diabetes Association

American Nurses Association

American Parent–Teachers Association

American Psychiatric Association

Child Study Association of America

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Activation Network

Commission on Chronic Illness

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education

National Kidney Foundation

National Institute of Municipal Law Officers

Society of Toxicology

The BFS’s suggested answer is qualified, as they talk of no ‘reputable’ organisation withdrawing its support. Perhaps the BFS doesn’t consider the organisations listed above to be reputable?

Many North American communities have also rejected fluoridation since 1990. On 7 November 2000, there was a nationwide referendum on fluoridation in the USA’s unfluoridated communities. Two-thirds of them voted No. Other referendums in Canada in 2000 also produced votes against fluoridation.1

References

1.http://www.fluoridealert.org/e-2000.htm. Accessed 30 December 2000.