The proposed Levy Nuclear Plant has been cancelled [1] but Duke is still proceeding with the Combined Operating License from the NRC. They need a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) to destroy the wetlands and we’ve filed numerous, extensive comments with the ACE against the wetland-destruction permit. Our fight there is on hiatus.
The Ecology Party has considered various projects and decided to work on ending drinking water fluoridation. We believe that the heinous practice of forcing people and other animals to drink and contact water contaminated by hazardous waste will have an incredibly profound effect on environmental protection here in Florida. As you may know, the Ecology Party is not a large, national political party so we focus our efforts on one goal at a time.
The best single resource we know for comprehensive background and information about the very serious effects of fluoridation is the Fluoride Action Network. Another interesting history of fluoridation and its connection to the nuclear industry can be found here.
The source of fluoride used for fluoridation of most municipal water supplies is Hydrofluosilicic Acid, a hazardous byproduct of the environmentally devastating phosphate fertilizer industry. [2]In mining phosphate, this industry is destroying our aquifers, springs, surface waters and wetlands, irrevocably damaging hundreds of thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive lands by stealing water. When fertilizer products are applied, they seep into aquifers and enter surface waters causing nitrification that results in habitat destruction via often-toxic algal blooms.
A key fact not many people know is that the fluoride added to drinking water is usually not pharmaceutical grade fluoride, but rather, is a cocktail mainly of Hydrofluosilicic acid with other contaminants including arsenic, lead, and radionuclides.
The manufacture of phosphate fertilizers entails using “scrubbers” to capture these contaminants and separate them from what will be the fertilizer. The contaminants, including the fluoride, are considered hazardous waste until they’re sold to municipalities and dumped into municipal drinking water. These contaminants remain in the municipal wastewater that is discharged into waters of the U.S. and in municipal sewage sludge that is applied to agricultural lands and in “composted” sludge distributed to the public, increasing the distribution of these contaminants.
Effectively, the phosphate industry, with the collusion of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), American Dental Association (ADA), Center for Disease Control (CDC) and elected officials, uses humans, other animals, and the environment as hazardous waste receptacles. This is an informative article by a Florida resident and environmental journalist on hydrofluosilic acid and the phosphate industry.
If we can stop the phosphate mining industry from enriching itself by selling fluoride-containing mining waste to be dumped into our drinking water, that industry will be forced to be responsible for its own hazardous waste (that the EPA does not permit the phosphate industry to disposed of in bodies of water, just bodies of living beings). Such a change will at least reduce the profits from the environmental destruction wreaked by phosphate mining.
We urge our members to get involved in the fight against fluoridation [3] by exerting political pressure on your elected officials to stop fluoridation.
A good start is to contact your municipal water department and ask for the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on the fluoride product used. This will tell you if you’re drinking hazardous waste.
Samples of letters the Ecology Party Chair has sent to an elected official and received from county staff are provided in MS Word here; you’re welcome to copy and or modify them to suit your circumstances. Please add to the rising outcry against fluoridation and encourage your community to opt out from the 77% of Florida’s public water supplies deliberately contaminated with hazardous fluoride. Please send us copies of your letters!
If you’re interested in running for office on an environment-centric platform to stop fluoridation, please contact us!
[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/02/utilities-duke-levy-idUSL1N0G227O20130802
[2] Perhaps you believe, as a result of ubiquitous propaganda (from the EPA, ADA, CDC and WHO) that fluoride in water is desirable for reducing cavities. Ingesting fluoride does not reduce cavities and in fact produces other very undesirable effects including, but not limited to, reducing intelligence in children, destroying thyroid function, contributing to osteoporosis and compromising immune systems. More information on health effects can be found here at the site of wholistic health advocate, Dr. Mercola – http://fluoride.mercola.com/
[3] Most of Europe does not add hazardous fluoride to drinking water with no increase in cavities and Israel will stop the destructive practice this year.