NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 8, 2008 -- "Fluoridation of drinking water is scientifically untenable, and should not be part of a public health initiative or program," says the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) in a new published statement. CAPE is Canada's leading voice on environmental health issues.
Against a backdrop of intense opposition to the fluoridation of public drinking water in several communities in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, CAPE asserts:
• fluoridation is unlikely to be the cause of the cavity decline in Europe and North America,
• the potential for fluoride's adverse effects is real, and
• current evidence points in the direction of caution.
Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network says, "CAPE joins a growing list of environmental health experts who have called for an end to the fluoridation of public drinking water.
They include:
• Vyvyan Howard, MD, PhD, President, International Society of Doctors for the Environment
• Ken Cook and Richard Wiles, Environmental Working Group
• Lois Gibbs, Center for Health, Environment, and Justice
• Joseph Mercola, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
• Theo Colborn, PhD, co-author, "Our Stolen Future"
• Sam Epstein, MD, Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition
• The current and six past Presidents of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
• Board of Directors (2007), American Academy of Environmental Medicine
• FIVE Goldman Prize winners.
These are among over 1800 professionals who have signed a statement calling for an end to fluoridation worldwide.
>> Read the statement
According to Connett, "Citizens facing well-financed efforts to fluoridate their communities need to know that US governmental agencies (particularly the CDC) are ignoring the voluminous body of scientific evidence on the adverse effects of fluoride. The National Research Council of the National Academies published a landmark report on these effects in 2006. More than 2 years after its release, CDC and fluoridation promoting agencies in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and the UK act as if this report was never published. We urge communities to reject fluoridation proposals until promoters can provide a rational scientific response to fluoride's dangers, which includes 23 peer-reviewed and published studies indicating that fluoride can lower children's IQ. Fluoridation exposes infants to 250 times the level of fluoride in human breast milk. That is reckless."
>> Read CAPE's statement online
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