Notice is hereby given of the intention of the persons whose names appear hereon to circulate an initiative petition within the City of Fort Collins for the purpose of placing an amendment to the Fort Collins Municipal Code before the registered voters (at the city election of April 2005) that, if enacted will halt the current practice of artificially fluoridating the public water supplies. Our reasons for this proposal follow:

Whereas Fort Collins fluoridates its water with a toxic waste collected from the pollution scrubbers of the phosphate fertilizer industry, hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFS), which contains contaminants such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury, and is legally regulated as toxic waste and prohibited from direct dispersal into the environment; and

Whereas hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFS) has never been approved as safe or effective by the U.S. FDA; no regulatory agency has tested it for safety in drinking water; and

Whereas fluorides added to our drinking water constitute ‘medication’ without personal or individual consent and are without regard for dosage, of especial concern for persons with medical conditions such as thyroid, kidney, and cancer; and

Whereas more than 80 (as of August of 2004) health care professionals in Fort Collins have signed a statement calling for the city to stop fluoridating its water; and

Whereas the Fort Collins Water Board has recommended in 2001 and again in 2003 after lengthy research and consideration of public opinion that we stop fluoridating our city water due to its concern for the source of fluoride being used to fluoridate (hazardous waste rather than reagent quality); concern for the employees handling this waste product; acknowledgement that less than 1% of treated water is ingested, but rather goes down toilets and onto lawns making questionable the costs of $500,000 every 10 years and operating costs of $50-100,000/yr; acknowledgement also that there are plenty of other sources of fluoride available to City residents; and their position that it is not appropriate to deliver medicine through the water; and

Whereas the city of Fort Collins would save up to $1 million over 10 years in costs of chemicals and improvements to the Water Treatment Plant; and

Whereas the U.S. EPA Union of Scientists and Professionals has called for a moratorium on water fluoridation due to its carcinogenicity (cancer-causing effects) and other adverse health effects, joining 14 Nobel Prize winning scientists and most of the countries in Europe; Belgium in 2002 became the first country to ban all fluoride supplements from the market; and

Whereas the U.S. EPA Union of Scientists and Professionals has stated that political and industrial interests have too often compromised the integrity of studies regarding fluoridation’s health effects; and

Whereas large subsets of the population, including the elderly, children, and pregnant women, may be unusually susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride, as reported in the U.S. Public Health Service ATSDR 1993 report; and

Whereas babies up to 6 months of age are not recommended to receive/ingest any supplement of fluoride ( including drops, tablets, vitamins) even in unfluoridated communities, and up to 3 years of age no more than .25 mg (1/4 the amount in fluoridated water), according to revised guidelines from the American Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, which means that even without other exposure, our babies can be overdosed if their formula/juice/food is made with tap water; and

Whereas there are no labeling requirements for fluoride content in foods or beverages that would allow a discerning individual, or especially a parent of young children, to readily determine total fluoride exposure; and

Whereas commonly available sodas, fruit juices, teas, processed foods, cereals, and produce such as lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, raisins, and citrus fruits contain significant amounts of fluoride; and

Whereas scientific literature reports that the incidence of permanent scarring of children’s teeth in the form of dental fluorosis due to fluoride exposures has increased even in non-fluoridated communities (due to other non-water sources such as those listed here), and is occurring in more than 60% of children on at least one tooth in fluoridated communities; and

Whereas the Fort Collins Fluoride Technical Study Group (FTSG) document of 2003 included in it’s Executive Summary the comments that “there are gaps in the knowledge and uncertainties are inherent in the ability to fully understand what may be subtle, yet important, health effects that are yet to be detected” and cites “areas where additional research is needed to better understand the true benefits and risks” of water fluoridation, invoking the Precautionary Principle (‘when in doubt, leave it out’); and

Whereas only one of the studies considered by the FTSG actually used hydrofluorosilicic acid in its study (rather than sodium fluoride) and that study (of 400,000 children in MA) showed increased blood lead levels in children living in fluoridated cities; and

Whereas contrary to assertions that the health effects of fluoride ingestion already have been scientifically proven to be safe and that there is no credible scientific concern, over the last fifteen years the ingestion of fluoride has been linked in scientific peer-reviewed literature to neurotoxicity, bone pathology, reproductive effects, interference with the pineal gland, gene mutations, thyroid pathology, and the increasing incidence and severity of dental fluorosis, causing professionals who once championed the uses of fluoride in preventing tooth decay, to reverse their position and call for a halt to further exposures; and

Whereas the U.S. EPA’s Office of Water acknowledges that when setting (safety) standards for fluoride levels in water they did not consider all cumulative sources of fluorides and the full range of actual consumption by all ages; in setting standards for all other drinking water contaminants, except barium, EPA has considered exposure from many different sources, not just water; and

Whereas the largest epidemiological study ever done in the U.S,. shows no statistical difference in tooth decay between fluoridated vs. non-fluoridated cities, and no difference in tooth decay as children age between fluoridated and non-fluoridated cities; indeed, cities such as Boston which have been fluoridated for 30 years are reporting alarming increases in caries (cavities); and

Whereas some recent studies indicate that rates of hip fracture are greater in fluoridated cities; and

Whereas, studies from China show decreases of 5-10 points in the I.Q. of children aged 8-13 years old correlating with higher levels of fluoride exposure, studies which are not even being done in the U.S.; and

Whereas the cover story of the July 2000 Journal of the American Dental Association has clarified that any benefit of fluoride in reducing tooth decay, even from fluoridated water, is a result of topical application/exposure to the surface of the tooth, rather than systemic ingestion (swallowing), which new CDC literature reports; and

Whereas the free-fluoride ion is smaller than the water molecule and is not removed by filtration devices, eliminating unwanted fluoride from tap water requires more expensive distillation or reverse osmosis systems that are not generally economically available to all segments of the population; and

Whereas fluorides are persistent and are accumulating in our environment aggressively; the EPA Union of Scientists and Professionals states its concern about the scarcity of environmental impact studies; even organic gardens cannot be fully organic if using fluoridated water; the Environmental Working Group has released a report of its findings of substantial levels of fluoride residue on organic baby lettuces; and

Whereas new information uncovered in the declassified documents of the Manhattan Project and recently released in the book ‘The Fluoride Deception,’ by Christopher Bryson exposes the suppression of major medical studies demonstrating serious fluoride toxicity, the silencing of scientists who try to expose fluoride’s toxic effects, and recent studies showing clear neurotoxicity and chronic systemic effects from constant exposures to fluorides throughout our environment today; therefore

Be it enacted by the voters of the City of Fort Collins:

In order to ensure that the public water of Fort Collins is safe for all citizens to drink, be it ordained that Sec. 26-50 of the Fort Collins City Code shall be repealed in its entirety; and it shall be unlawful and a public nuisance for any person, agent, or any public or private water system, to add any fluoride or fluorine-containing product, substance, or chemical to the public water supply which is intended to cure, mitigate, treat or prevent any disease in man above the general purposes of making the water more potable.

All laws, regulations, resolutions, or ordinances of the City of Fort Collins to the contrary are hereby repealed.