The EPA scientists, engineers and attorneys who assess the scientific data for Safe Drinking Water Act standards and other EPA regulations have gone on record against the practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water.

On Wednesday, July 2, 1997, National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 2050, which consists of professionals at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., voted unanimously to co-sponsor the California Safe Drinking Water Initiative that would reverse the State Legislature's 1995 law mandating fluoridation.

Both proponents of fluoridation and the sponsors of this initiative consider the result of the fluoridation battle in California to be crucial to the federal governments plan to fluoridate the entire United States by the year 2000.

Citizens for Safe Drinking Water and their sponsors are circulating petitions to gather 500,000 signatures by October to place the initiative prohibiting fluoridation in California on the June 1998 statewide ballot.

In its endorsement of the initiative, the EPA professional's union states, "It is our hope that our co-sponsorship of the Safe Drinking Water Initiative to prohibit fluoridation will have a beneficial effect on the health and welfare of all Californians by helping to keep their water free of a chemical substance for which there is substantial evidence of adverse health effects and, contrary to public perception, virtually no evidence of significant benefits."

The statement from NFFE Local 2050 continues, "Our members' review of the body of evidence over the last eleven years, including animal and human epidemiology studies, indicate a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation and cancer, genetic damaoe, neurological impairment, and bone pathology. Of particular concern are recent epidemiology studies linking fluoride exposure to lowered IQ in children.

"As the professionals who are charged with assessing the safety of drinking water, we conclude that the health and welfare of the public is not served by the addition of this substance to the public water supply."

After numerous attempts to correct EPA management conclusions that were not supported by the available facts, the union attempted to join a lawsuit against their own employer in 1986, citing "fraudulent alterations of data and negligent omission of fact to arrive at predetermined Agency political positions regarding fluoride."

Dr. Wm. L. Marcus, Senior Science Advisor in EPA's Office of Drinking Water, was fired for a 1990 whistle-blowing memo calling for a review of the cover-up of the National Toxicology Program study that shows fluoride is a "probable human carcinogen [cancer causing agent]".

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, that finding alone prohibits the addition of fluoride to the public water supply. Although Dr. Marcus won his whistle-blower lawsuit, with punitive damages, and returned to work at the EPA, the classifications were never reviewed.

Historically, fluoridation is mandated by government and rejected by citizens. Communities all over the U.S. are currently fighting for their right to choose. Japan and nearly all of Europe have rejected fluoridation.

The California Safe Drinking Water Initiative reads:

For more information on the petition drive, contact Citizens for Safe Drinking Water at 1 (888) 704-3833. Or visit: http:// www.sonic.net/~monty/fluoride.htm

Reference June 19, 1997 News Release: FDA Requires New Poison Label for Fluoride Toothpaste and Other Fluoride Products.