Page 22 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2017

Fluoride-Free Water Closer Than Ever
By Dawna Gallagher-Stroeh
Healdsburg is the only town in Sonoma County that uoridates its water. In the 2014 Measure M campaign to stop uoridation, and the 2016 Measure T campaign to require safety- related information on Healdsburg’s uoridation chemical, the California Dental Association (CDA), almost exclusively, funded both campaigns to keep uoridation, swamping the many small local contributions for safe water.
Healdsburg ‘s Measure T
Protection Agency (EPA) a petition, accompanied by over 2,500 pages of scienti c documentation, to ban the use of uoridation chemicals because of the neurotoxic risks of uoride ingestion.
Measure T didn’t pass, but it was worth the e ort. The evidence is in the numbers: In 2016 the safe water position gained 966 votes, and gained 7.4% points, over the 2014 Measure M results. Education takes time, and signi cant progress is being made in Healdsburg.
Historically, when a chemical has evidence of neurotoxicity, for example lead, it has been banned. In 2014, EPA added uoride to its short list of chemicals, including arsenic and lead, with scienti c evidence of developmental neurotoxic harm to humans.
Thinking about Santa Rosa
The Petition presents a comprehensive list of human, animal and cell studies on uoride’s neurotoxicity, 196 of the studies published since 2006 alone. The amount of uoride from all sources, regularly consumed in uoridated U.S. water districts, exceeds the levels that cause IQ loss. The scienti c evidence meets TSCA requirements, more than enough for EPA to halt uoridationoftapwater.Fromthedateitreceived the petition, EPA has 90 days to respond. If EPA does not comply with its own policy, a lawsuit will follow.
EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) gives EPA the authority and duty to prohibit the “particular use” of any chemical that presents an unreasonable risk to the general public or susceptible subpopulations, including the authority to prohibit drinking water additives.
Sonoma County residents should be heartened because three other cities have o cially rejected uoridation, which will probably prevent future attempts to uoridate through the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA). However, on September 25, 2016, the Sonoma County Department of Public Health declared a renewed focus on uoridating Santa Rosa. Let’s keep our eyes open.
Some good news at the federal level
Dawna Gallagher-Stroeh, California Certi ed Nutrition
Educator, is Executive Director of Clean Water Sonoma-Marin
(501c4) and Clean Water Sonoma-Marin Charitable Trust (501c3), working for toxin-free water, and practical, nontoxic solutions to children’s oral health challenges. CONTACT: phone 707-547-7006; email dawnagal19@gmail.com; www.cleanwatersonomamarin.org
On November 22, 2016, the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (IAOMT), Fluoride Action Network (FAN), and others, hand delivered to the US Environmental
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