On February 12, 2004, the Mayor of Honolulu approved a bill passed 7-2 by the Honolulu city and county council that prohibits the introduction of unnecessary chemical additives, considered to be medication, into their water supply. (1) Fluoride, neither a nutrient nor essential to health, is added to 66% of U.S. water supplies in a failing effort to reduce tooth decay in people who drink it. Fluoride is never added to make water safer to drink. The new Honolulu law further stipulates that, if the Hawaii state legislature mandates fluoridation, against the will of the Honolulu legislature and residents, the chemical dispensed must be a pure, FDA-approved, pharmaceutical-grade medicine that will not corrode pipes. Currently, over 91% of fluoridating communities use industrial-grade impure silicofluorides which have never been safety tested in animals or humans and often requires a buffering chemical water additive to neutralize its acidity. Honolulu is one of four cities among the nation’s 50 largest cities that serves residents fluoride- free water. Ironically, tooth decay crises are occurring in many of those large fluoridated cities (2) What’s more, cavities are a leading cause of tooth loss and the most tooth loss occurs in Kentucky and West Virginia, where 42 percent lost all their natural teeth, but are 96 and 87% fluoridated, respectively. Conversely, only 13 percent are toothless in only 9% fluoridated Hawaii. (3, 4) Despite decades of dosing Americans with fluoridated water and a subsequently fluoridated food supply, 60% of US preschoolers still get cavities (5) – the same amount as never-fluoridated Manchester, England,(6) and Northern Ireland (7). And Africa, the country with the lowest exposure to fluorides and dental care, has the lowest cavity rates in the world, according to the World Health Organization.(8) The reason: low sugar diets. The rest with references: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/11749/107045 Sally Stride Suite 101 Fluoridation Editor http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/fluoridation
