2001 Letter to Dr. Howard Pollick, California Fluoridation Task Force

June 8, 2001

Dr. Pollick, Co-chairman,
California Fluoridation Task Force
c/o Dental Health Foundation
520 Third Street, No. 205
Oakland, CA 94607
Dear Dr. Pollick

Re: Your 6/4/2001 News Release, “California Fluoridation Task Force Takes
Anti-fluoride Group to Task Over Alleged Mischaracterization of Canadian
Fluoridation Study”(2)

Your above-referenced news release was brought to our attention. We value your
right to disagree with us. But you have put out serious misinformation that
wrongly denigrates the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. This
needs to be retracted. Perhaps you didn’t fact-check what your hired public
relations firm got wrong. However, in the interest of truth and accuracy, you
should want to correct your mistakes.

These are your errors:

1) Our release (dated 4/23/2001) was entitled “Canadian Government Report
Questions Value of Fluoridation” (1) not “Canadian study: Stop fluoridation
in water” as your news release stated.

2) Our lead read “Fluoridation probably does more damage than good, says a
Canadian government report.” You said it was “Big news out of Canada: a new
report from the Canadian government claims that fluoridation in water probably
does more harm than good.”

3) Your claim that Locker (author of the Canadian fluoridation study) didn’t
suggest water fluoridation cease is disputed on Page 42 of Locker’s own
report which states, "Clearly, the simplest way of reducing the prevalence of
fluorosis in child populations is to cease to fluoridate community water
supplies. Whether or not this is an acceptable option depends on the balance of
benefits and risks with respect to dental caries and fluorosis. This balance is
difficult to assess when the discussion takes place at the level of disease.
The ultimate concern here should be to maximize quality of life outcomes.
However, data on the effects on health and well-being of the relatively small
decreases in caries rates in children and adolescents currently achieved by
water fluoridation is non-existent. Similarly, data on the negative health
consequences of current levels of fluorosis in child and adolescent populations
is scant. Such data are urgently needed in order to facilitate decisions about
the benefits and risks for dental health of changing exposures to various
sources of fluoride. Without such data the ‘value’ to individuals and
communities of decreases in the prevalence and severity of dental decay and
increases in the prevalence and severity of fluorosis cannot be determined."
We merely quoted Dr. Locker’s written words from his own report.

4) This report was only made public in January 2001 (6) so it would have been
impossible for us to report on it in 1999 as your release suggests. We became
aware of it from a Canadian newspaper (The Ottawa Citizen, “Report questions
value, risk of water fluoridation,” (4)) This was their lead on January 17,
2001, “Cities should think twice about putting fluoride in their water
because the practice has minimal benefits and some risk, suggests a newly
released government report.” If you believe we misled the public via the
internet, please be aware that this news article in a legitimate newspaper
alerted us to read the study. Have you written to them, also? Did the Ottawa
Citizen mislead the public? Please put this information into your corrected
news release and disseminate it to all recipients of your 6/4/2001 news
release.

We think your time and money would have been better spent telling young parents
not to use fluoridated water when preparing infant formulas like dental
research shows.

Beech-Nut sells a fluoride-added spring water (9) that instructs parents,
wrongly, to use their product reconstituting formula from the day a child is
born. The top-selling bottled water in United States health-food stores,
Trinity Springs, contains 3.6 mg/L fluoride (10) yet there is no warning on the
label that young children, especially, shouldn’t consume it. Instead of
directing news releases towards us, we suggest you take the responsible
approach, and educate people about the benefits AND RISKS of fluoride use.

Or maybe you should inform the public that drinking soda increases decay
regardless of fluoride use, as the Academy of General Dentistry recently did
(13). Ironically, as you know, many sodas have fluoride content up to
“optimal” doses as reported in the Journal of the American Dental
Association (12).

It cost our organization $157.50 (500 words) and volunteered time to produce
our accurate news release. In contrast the Dental Health Foundation, with a
paid director making $70,832, according to tax forms filed in January 2000 (8),
appears to have hired an outside firm to use over 1,000 words to produce your
incorrect news release. However, we thank you for proving our point - that you
can get reliable fluoridation information on the internet, and that the
consumer doesn’t always get accuracy from organized dental groups and
individual dentists.

News organizations who fact-check both of our news releases (yours of 6/4/01
and ours of 4/23/01) will see who comes up short.

We didn’t check to see if your quoted material is accurate. Our efforts are
spent fact-checking our own releases. You accused us of deceiving the public;
but, it appears that, the mistakes are yours and not ours.

Additionally, we have learned that this is not the first time you have reported
inaccurately, according to a report in the journal, Fluoride(7).

Please distribute your corrected news release as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Paul S. Beeber, Esq.
President,
New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
PO Box 263
Old Bethpage, NY 11804
nys...@aol.com

Copy to:
Public Health Dentistry listserv
sci.med.dentistry
Delta Dental Plan of California
The California Endowment
U.S. Public Health Service
California Dental Association
California Department of Health Services
California Public Health Association-North
Southern California Public Health Association
California Dental Hygienists’ Association
Ottawa-Citizen
internet news outlets

References:

1) New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation News Release, “Canadian
Government Report Questions Value of Fluoridation”
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010423/nym003_2.html

2) California Fluoridation Task Force News Release “California Fluoridation
Task Force Takes Anti-fluoride Group to Task Over Alleged Mischaracterization
of Canadian Fluoridation Study” http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010604/0454.html

3) “Fluoridation and Censorship,” NYS State Coalition Opposed to
Fluoridation news release warning parents not to overdose their children on
fluoride that a public health dentist caused to be unpublished via a news
service. http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof/_pgg10.php3

4) Ottawa Citizen, January 17, 2001, “Report questions value, risk of water
fluoridation” http://www.nofluoride.com/ottawa_gov_report.htm

5) Benefits and Risks of Water Fluoridation Executive Summary:
http://www.gov.on.ca/MOH/english/pub/ministry/fluoridation/fluoridation.html
Full Report:
http://www.gov.on.ca/MOH/english/pub/ministry/fluoridation/fluor.pdf

6) A search on the ontario government site produces evidence that the
“Canadian Fluoridation Report” was posted on January 8, 2001
http://www.search.gov.on.ca/compass?scope=fluoridation&ui=sr&x=16&y=13

7) Pollick has a history of presenting misinformation.
See: http://www.fluoride-journal.com/98-31-2/312127.htm published in the
journal Fluoride “RESPONSE TO CRITIQUE OF HOWARD POLLICK,” by
John Colquhoun

8) Form 990 Tax Emempt From for California Fluoridation Task Force (Dental
Health Foundation) Search “flouridation” at:
http://www.guidestar.org/search

9) Beech-Nut Spring Water with Fluoride
http://www.beech-nut.com/food4thought/importance_bot.htm

10) Trinity Springs Bottled Water
http://www.trinitysprings.com/science-wateranalysis.htm

11) List of bottled waters fluoride content available world-wide have
shockingly high fluoride content
http://www.pmgeiser.ch/cgi-bin/mineral?sort=f

12) Journal of the American Dental Association, “Assessing fluoride levels of
carbonated soft drinks,” Heilman et al., Nov 1999
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_
uids=10573939&dopt=Abstract

13) “Carbonated Cash. Are kids' oral-health needs up for sale?” Academy of
General Dentistry June 7, 2001
http://www.agd.org/publications/linkedarticles/june01.carbcash.html