The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is a consumer protection and organic agriculture advocacy group based in Finland, Minnesota. It was formed in 1998 in the wake of the mass backlash by organic consumers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s controversial proposed regulations for organic food. The OCA is an online non-profit public interest organization that has over 850,000 members in its database. The members include subscribers, volunteers, supporters, and 3,000 cooperating retail co-ops, such as in the natural foods and organic marketplace. The OCA is one of the only organizations in the U.S focused on promoting the interests of the nation’s estimated 50 million organic consumers. In this letter, written in March of 2013, OCA called on Portland voters to reject fluoridation — which voters resoundingly did on May 21, 2013.

Organic Consumers Association Recommends
Voting NO on Water Fluoridation

Water fluoridation will put Portland’s children at risk and will not address the actual problems that cause cavities.

Organic Consumers Association is a grassroots and online non-profit organization representing a network of more than one million organic consumers, farmers and retailers. Our mission is to promote health, justice and sustainability. We place a special importance on protecting children’s health. Fluoridation would add hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFSA), a toxic chemical byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing to Portland’s water

The claim that fluoridation would add a “natural mineral” to the drinking water is grossly misleading. The Portland Water Bureau has admitted that fluoridation would mean adding 1.1 million pounds a year of the chemical HFSA to Portland’s water.

Before voting to add this chemical to your water, through fluoridation, you should know that HSFA:

• Is a toxic industrial byproduct from phosphate fertilizer manufacturing;
• Contains lead, arsenic, copper and other toxic byproducts of fertilizer production that would be added along with fluoride compounds

Before believing that fluoride chemicals are safe to swallow read the back of your toothpaste tube. For years, scientists have warned about the risks of consuming fluoride. Their studies are why you toothpaste tube says “do not swallow.”

We now know, however, that fluoride works topically, not by being swallowed, so there is not even a meaningful benefit from drinking fluoridated water. Recent scientific evidence points to even greater harm from consuming fluoride than previously thought. In fact, in 2011 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called for a 40% reduction in maximum fluoridation concentrations based on the recent evidence of fluoridation risks.

Instead of increasing water rates to pay for fluoridation chemicals and a costly new fluoridation plant, OCAsupports solutions that address the root causes of dentalhealth problems, such as poor diets and poor access topreventative dental care.

Vote No to adding risky chemicals to our water.

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