Hi Brian,

In Canada: I am one of the people who got fluoridation ended in Niagara Region in Canada. That's the peninsula between the Great Lakes Erie and Ontario, home to Niagara Falls. We also got fluoridation ended in parts of Alberta, Quebec City, and a whole bunch of smaller towns in Ontario. I am in Toronto.

 

We do it by telling the truth, with documentation, again and again, as calmly as possible. We repeat the message from as many angles as we can. We engage environmental and social justice groups. Most recently this resulted in the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment releasing a powerful policy statement against water fluoridation. Our actions made Health Canada change its recommended level from .8-1.0 ppm to .7 ppm. Now we are preparing ethics complaints and charging them with Contempt of Parliament.

 

I watch the Fluoride Action Network news site where they publish announcements of any public meetings on fluoridation. If there is a public meeting anywhere within two hours of my home I round up as many people from our local network of activists as possible and get there. I lose a day's pay each time but have a supportive boss. We rehearse our facts, we carry hard references like copies of the National Research Council 2006 book, and we present a calm and rational appearance. We get delegate status at committees, council meetings and so on. We each take a section and slam them with referenced information in small bites. We FOLLOW UP with thank you letters and more individual meetings. It is slow, it is like molasses, there are setbacks and so on. But the plodding and never giving up is exactly how the Berlin Wall came down, Apartheid was ended, midwifery got legalized and funded here (I helped do that too).

 

When we can't be there in person we send short letters to the editor, to the heads of committees, mayors, councillors, elected provincial officials and ministry of environment and health appointees and civil servants. When we can work one on one we meet with health or water works committee members, councillors, aldermen etc. and spend twenty minutes to an hour showing them the most current research and the international consensus against fluoridation. Often they are shocked and in turmoil - huge cognitive dissonance. Often they feel helpless as to what to do. So our research into the local bylaws and the divisions of responsibility between municipality and province and federal regulations is essential. When we can show them that it is perfectly legal and safe for them to shut off the fluoride, they often do it. There is nothing the furious dental lobby can do about it legally. Of course they are not above dirty politics and that happens too... but we have thick skins and we support each other.

 

Go to www.waterloowatch.com for more.

 

In the US, there are two people who have achieved a lot: Jeff Green in California and Bill Osmunson, a dentist in Oregon (or maybe it's Washington).

Aliss Terpstra