Lawrence, Kansas, fights to end water fluoridation

Friday, May 18, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: Lawrence, fluoridation, water

(NaturalNews) A health freedom advocate in Lawrence, Kansas, the sixth largest city in the state, is pushing to have artificial fluoride chemicals removed from his city's municipal water supply. Lawrence-area resident Richard Simms recently created a petition at Change.org that he hopes will garner enough signatures to convince city officials to follow the lead of hundreds of other towns and cities across North America that have nixed the poison from their water supplies in recent months.

You can view and sign Simms' petition here:
http://www.change.org

Concerned about the extreme toxicity of fluoride when the chemical is ingested, Simms wants to raise awareness about the issue in order to convince the local water treatment division to stop forcibly medicating his entire community with fluoride chemicals. Unlike the naturally-occurring element fluorine, sodium fluoride, a highly-toxic byproduct of industrial manufacturing that is commonly added to water supplies, is known to cause considerable health damage, including tooth decay.

"Sodium fluoride comes from the aluminum industry, it's a byproduct of where aluminum is created. And it's unfortunately a very expensive toxin to be able to dispose of, and they even told them it was too dangerous to pour into the ocean for disposal," said Simms to 6 News Lawrence during a recent interview. "So, it would seem that they decided to dilute it down and just start putting it into drinking water. If it's listed as a poison, it does not need to be in drinking water."

Simms refers, of course, to sodium fluoride's Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) listing, which clearly indicates that sodium fluoride may be fatal if inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin (http://www.sciencestuff.com/msds/C2579.html). Lawrence's roughly 90,000 area residents, in other words, are exposed to toxic sodium fluoride in each one of these ways every time they wash their hands, take a shower, or drink a glass of tap water that has not been filtered through a reverse osmosis system.

In a sorry attempt to counter Simms' efforts, Dan Partridge, Director of the Lawrence Health Department, told 6 News Lawrence that fluoride is naturally-occurring, and that it "would occur in the public water supply whether we add it or not." Not only is this statement patently false, as artificial fluoride chemicals are far different from naturally-occurring fluorine, but it also supports the idea of not adding fluoride chemicals to water if they already occur naturally.

The pseudo-science backing water fluoridation is quickly crumbling

Try as they might to maintain the illusion that fluoride chemicals are safe and effective at preventing tooth decay, pro-fluoride apologists simply do not have sound science on their side. Dozens of studies, many published just within the past year, have proven unquestioningly that ingestion of fluoride chemicals is dangerous, and provides no legitimate health benefits (https://www.naturalnews.com/fluoride.html).

This is why city after city, and town after town, continue to end their water fluoridation programs. Not only will the cut save these communities thousands of dollars a year in needless expenses, but it will also save local residents from developing dental fluorosis, thyroid problems, cancer, bone disorders, and the many other conditions caused by fluoride ingestion (http://www.fluoridealert.org/fluoride-dangers/health/index.aspx).

Be sure to sign Simms' petition at:
http://www.change.org

Sources for this article include:

http://www.6newslawrence.com