Only one water district in Arkansas serving more than 5,000 customers has refused to add fluoride to its water system as required by a state mandate, the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority (OMRPWA), which serves parts of Boone, Newton and Searcy counties. As a result, the water authority has been fined $500 per week by the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).
Board Chair Andy Anderson said on Sept. 30 that he had just opened the latest bill from ADH. The fines now add up to $113,000.
Despite that financial pressure, the OMRPWA is standing firm against fluoridation.
“The board is adamant,” Anderson said. “We are not going to put it in the water. The customers we sell wholesale water to adamantly opposed the mandate and remain opposed to it. We’ve got several smaller systems that had fluoride levels above the contaminant levels allowed, and the ADH said they had to do something. So, we banded together to create the OMRPWA in 2009. Then the Arkansas Legislature came along in 2011 and said we would have to start adding fluoride.”
Every customer said they would refuse to pay their bills if fluoride was added. Anderson said they have some very knowledgeable customers who understand fluoride is harmful to humans, other animals and the environment.
“We are in the Buffalo River Watershed,” Anderson said. “Some environmental people didn’t want wastewater contaminated with fluoride going into the Buffalo River. About 99 percent of water used by consumers is not for drinking, but is used for washing clothes, bathing, watering the lawn, etc. In Arkansas, the only chemicals put into water are supposed to be those to treat the water. Fluoride is added in the water to supposedly treat the people. That is medication without consent.
“In Arkansas, the people did not get to vote on Act 197; it is a mandate from the legislature. From the time that bill was introduced and signed into law was only 11 days. Common people who don’t live in Little Rock didn’t know to even go up there to speak in opposition to the proposed legislation. The legislators, influenced by the hired lobbyist, just rushed it through. If it had gone to a vote of the people, I am 99 percent sure it would have not passed. The lobbyists control the legislature. They tell legislators, ‘Scratch my back and I will give donations to your campaign.’ I am close to a former lobbyist who said that if he was given enough money, he could get any bill passed, good or bad.”
Anderson said the chemical added as fluoride to drinking water is a hazardous waste byproduct of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industries. If those industries had to dispose of it otherwise, it would cost them a lot of money.
“But they can repackage it, sell it to water systems, make money off of it and use the people to dispose of hazardous waste,” Anderson said. “It comes from being scrubbed from smokestacks. You can’t put this hazardous waste into streams or into the air. But miraculously, you can put it in the human body, and it is no longer a hazardous waste.”
Anderson said their water authority was heartened by a recent federal court ruling that EPA must regulate fluoride as a neurotoxin. He is disappointed that dentists continue to push water fluoridation.
“Dentists don’t have any expertise on the impact of fluoridated water on the brain health of children,” Anderson said. “Dentists can see you in their office if you want to put fluoride treatment on your teeth. That is okay. But to put it in the water and make it one-size-fits-all is unethical. Act 197 required medication without consent. ACT 197 is unjust because the people directly affected did not get to vote on it. Now the National Toxicology Program (NTP), whose findings were used in the lawsuit, has concluded there is no safe level of fluoride in drinking water.”
Anderson said most of the world does not fluoridate the water. If you think you need fluoride, you can get it with dental office treatments, and in mouthwash, toothpaste and drops. But it should not be forced on people who either don’t want it or are unaware of the risks.
Some people consume bottled water thinking that it is safer. But Anderson said that, in most cases, that is just repackaged municipal water with fluoride additives. He also is concerned about the microplastics that shed off that bottle.
“Fluoride is one of those forever chemicals,” Anderson said. “Once it is put anywhere, it never goes away. Even the healthiest kidneys are only able to eliminate 50 percent of fluoride consumed. The biggest thing out of the lawsuit is that it is a neurotoxin and has been proven to reduce IQ in children. This lawsuit went on for seven years. There was very good evidence. The judge said the EPA can’t ignore it anymore. They have to regulate it as a neurotoxin.”
Many water operators are opposed to fluoridation. All the water operators of the Carroll Boone Water District voted to oppose fluoridation prior to the district implementing fluoridation. Photos of the fluoridation product bags have a skull and bones on it indicating it is highly toxic. Water operators need to wear hazardous material suits to inject it into the water supply.
“Your trained water operator knows more about fluoride than your dentist,” Anderson said. “Water operators do not get the credit they deserve.”
ADHD and autism have exploded in the past 30 to 40 years. Is there a connection to water fluoridation? Some studies have concluded there is a connection. Do an internet search on fluoride, ADHD and autism and several scientific studies will come up.
“There is no valid reason to put it in the water,” Anderson said. “But there is big, big money from these industries to sell their waste products and make a profit off it instead of having to dispose of it properly. After the NTP report, EPA and health departments can no longer ignore that fluoride is harmful, especially for children.”
Anderson said fluoridation is also likely associated with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.