References to Fluoride: Commie Plot or Capitalist Ploy

by
Joel Griffiths

Reprinted with permission from Covert Action Quarterly, Fall, 1992, Number 42

1. Janet Raloff, The St. Regis Syndromes Science News, July 19, 1980 pp.42-43. The account w as verified by F. Henry Lickers, director, environmental division Mohawk council of Akwesasne, Cornwall Ontario, Canada. For primary data on cattle damage at Akwesasne, see Krook, L and Maylin, G. A. "Industrial Fluoride Pollution," The Cornell Veterinarian, Vol. 69, supplement 8 April 1979.

2. The pollution continues today, but at reduced levels; cows survive to about half their normal life spans.

3. Robert Tomsho "Dumping Grounds" Wall Street Journal. November 29 1990.

4. Karen st. Hilaire, "St. Regis Indians to Settle Fluonde Dispute" Syracuse Post-Standard, January 8, 1985.

5. See also accounts cited above for further documentation.

6. Author's 1992 interview with F. Henry Lickers,op cit.

7. Summary Review of Health Effects Associated with Hvdrogen Fluonde and Related Compounds,' s EPA Report Number 600/8-29/002F, December 1988 p. 1-1.

8. John Yiamouyiannis, Lifesaver's Guide to Fluoridation (Delaware Ohio: Safe Water Foundation, 1983), p. 1; see also D. Rose and J.R. Maner "Environmental Fiuonde," National Research Council of Canada Publication Number NRCC 16081,1977.

9. Enginering and Cost Effectiveness Study of Fluoride Emissions Control, U.S. EPA repon, Volume 1, Number SN 16893.000, January 1972, p. 1-3, et seq.

1O Final Draft for the Drinking Water Criteria Document on Fluoride, EPA Repon Number PB85-199321, Apnl 1985, p. 11-5.

11. "Treatment and Recovery of Fluoride Industrial Wastes," EPA Repon Number PB-234 447, March 1974, p. 5.

12. E. Jerard and J.B. Patnck, "The Summing of Fluoride Exposures," International Journal of Environmental Studies, Volume 3, 1973, p. 143.

13. G.J. Cox, "New Knowledge of Fluoride in Relation to Dental Caries," Journal of American Water Works Association, Volume 31:1926-30, 1939; see also standard toxicology manuals. Tube terms "fluorine" and "fluoride" were used interchangeably in early literature.

14. Air Pollutants Affecting the Performance of Domestic Animals U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 380, August 1970, p. 41.

15. Kaj Roholm. Fluorine Intoxication (London: H.K. Lewis & Co., 1937), pp. 64-65.

16. Jerard and Patnck, op. cit., pp. 149-50.

17. USDA Handbook, op. cit., p. 46. Around industrial plants, how-ever, grazing animals such as cows get the highest doses.

18. Author's 1992 interview.

19. Roholm, op. cit., p. 46.

20 H. Ost," The Fight Against Injurious Industrial Gases." Angew Chem Volurne 20,1907, pp. 1689-93. Also Roholm op.cit, pp. 36 41.

21. Kaj Roholm "The Fog Disaster in the Meuse Vallev: A Fluorine Intoxication" Journal ofIndustrial Toxicology Vol. 19, 1937, pp. 126-37.

22. Lloyd DeEds, "Chronic Fluorine Intoxication," Medicine. Vol. 12, 1933, pp. 1 60.

23. R. Berk, et al, Aluminum: Profile of the Industry (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985), p. 5.

24. Cox, op. cit

25. G.L. Waldbott, et aL, Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma (Lawrence, Kans.: Coronado Press. 1978), pp. 304-05, and F.B. Exner, Economic Motives Behind Fluoridation (monograph) (Toronto: Westlake.~, Press, 1966), pp. 1-2.

26. Elise Jeranl, ed., The Case of the Protected Pollutant (New York: Independent Phi Beta Kappa Study Group, privately printed, 1969).

27. ALCOA's sponsorship was verified in a 1992 interview by the author with a Mellon Institute public information spokesperson

28. GJ . Cox, ' Discussion, " Journal of the American Medical / Associate on Vol. 113, 1938, p. 1753.

29. In his 1939 public address in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. before any safety studies had been conducted, Cox urged that city to fluoridate its water supplies immediately. They turned him down. See Waldbott, op. clt., p. 304.

30. Waldbott, op.cit., pp. 296-301; Exner, op. cit., p. 4. Fluoride has also been the worst pollutant in the phosphate and iron industries (Exner, pp.3, 6) re: iron and steel see Engineering and Cost, EPA, op. cit., pp.111 5940.

31. "ThreeWin in Fume Suit, " The Oregonian (Portland), September 17,1955.

32. 'Seven Enter Fluoride Case," The Oregonian, October 15, 1957.

33. Heanngs before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, 83rd Congress, Second Session on H.R. 2341, May 25 27, 1954, pp. 46-48.

34. Ibid The accuracy of Birrningham's testimony concerning the Wrentham school was confirmed by John Small, Information Specialist, Fluorides and Health, National Institute of Dental Research. Interview with author, 1992.

35. Birmingham testimony, Op. cit, p. 51. Newspaper accounts from the period also refer to Ewing as ALCOA's "chief counsel." Later ASIA responding to charges that it had been behind the fluoridation scheme, claimed that Ewlng was just another of its many lawyers and that his fees had been much lower. Undisputed, however, is that Ewing was an extremely wealthy corporate lawyer and that his major client was ALCOA

36. Time, "Aluminum," November 10,1941.

37. Birmingham testimony, op.cit., confirmed by Bernays, at age 100, in a 1991 interview with author.

38. 'The Original Spin Doctor. " Washington Post, November '3, 1991, p. B 1.

39. Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: H. Liveright, 1928), p. 18.

40. Ibid, pp.9, 49.

41. Ibid., p. 53.

42. Bette Hilernan, 'Fluoridation of Water," Chemical and Engineering .Views, Volume66, August 1,1988, p. 37.

43. Author's interview with Exner's associate Len Greenall, 1992, Bntish Columbia. Canada; more recently a similar case of possible arson involved the files of Greenpeace scientist Pat Costner in 1991 (CAIB, Number 41, Summer 1991, pp. 42 44).

44. Letter to author from American Water Works Association, Denver Colorado, public information department, 1991.

45. A 1983 letter from an EPA administrator dessnbes the system: "In regard to the use of Sulfuric acid as a source of fluoride for foundation, this agency regards such use as an ideal environmental solution to a long-standing problem. By recovenng by-product sulfuric acid from phosphate enilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized, and water utilities have a low cost source of blonde available to them...." (Rebecca Hammer, EPA Deputy assistant administrator for water, March 30, 1983.)

46. "Engineering and Cost...," op. cit., pp. 1-1, II-1, 11-L

47. Ibid., p. 1-3.

48. Ibid, p. 1-2.

49. Primary Aluminum: Draft Guidelines for Control of Fluoride Emissions from Existing Aluminum Plants, EPA report Number Ps2s4s38, 1979, pp. 11-9.

50. Berk, et aL, "Aluminum: Profile...," op. cit., p.l48.

51. Joel Griffiths, " 83 Transcripts Show Fluoride Disagreements," Medical Tribune, April '0. 1989, p. 1.

52. Joel Griffiths, "Fluoride Report Softened," Medical Tribune, April 27, 989.

53. Daniel Grossman, "Fluoride's Revenge," The Progressive December 990 p. 31.

54. Ibid.

55. Griffiths 'Fluoride...," Op. cit., p. 11.

56. Ibid.

57. Griffiths, "83 Transcripts...," Op. Ott.

58. Cooper, et al., Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 266 Julv24, 1991, pp.513-14. See also Sowers, et al,"A Prospective Study of Bone Mineral Content and Fractures in Communities with Different Fluoride Exposure," American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 133, No. 7, pp. t's49-60. For a summary of the most recent studies and a review of the scientific debate, see "Summary of Workshop on Drinking Water Fluoride Influence on Hip Fracture and Bone Health," Osteoporosis international, Vol. 2, 1992, pp. 109-17.

59. Christa Danielson. et al.. "Hip Fractures and Fluoridation in Utah's Elderly Population," JAMA Vol 268, August 12, 1992, p. 746-4S.

60. Author's 1992 interview with Sharon Ramirez, statistician, National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Hyattsville, Md.

61. U.S. National Research Council, Diet and Health (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1989). p. 121.

62. JAMA, "Hip...." op. cit.

63. Not just anything causes cancer in the government tests. The majority of substances tested, all suspected carcinogens, prove negative, according to the National Cancer Institute. And there's good reason to worry about the few, like asbestos and DES. that do prove positive, says the NCI brochure March 1990.

64. U.S. National Research Council. Drinking Water and Health, (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1977), pp.3S8-S9.

65. John Yiamouyiannis and Dean Berk, "Fluoridation of Public Water Systems and Cancer Death Rates in Humans," presented at the 67th annual meeting of the American Society of Biological Chemists, and published in Fluoride, Volume 10, Number 3; 1977, pp. 102-23. Follow-up studies were conducted here and abroad which claimed to refute this paper and it remains controversial .

66. U.S. Public Health Service, Review of Fluoride Benefits and Risks (Washington D.C.: Department of Health and Human Services, February l991), p. iii.

57. Ibid., p. F-2.

6S. Ibid., p. F-3.

69. Ibid., pp. 84-so.

70. HHS press release, February 19,1991.

71. Mark Lowey, "Scientists Question Health Risks of Fluoride," Calgary Herald (Canada), February 28,1992.

72. Author's interview 1992*

73. Author's interview 1992.

74. Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory, Standing Committee on Social Policy, "Inquiry into Water Fluoridation in the Act [sicl," January 1991, pp. 183-84.

75. John Colquhoun, Community Health Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3, 1990, p. 288.

76. Mark Lowey, "Doctor Warns Fluoride Risky," Calgary Herald, January

77. Richard G. Foulkes, Letter to Thomas Perrv, Minister of Advanced Education, Victoria, British Columbia, March 3, 199'.

78. Tom Hawthorne "MD Who Pushed Fluoridation Now Opposes Idea," The Province (Vancouver), January 26, 1992.