Dear editor,
This is an open letter to Governor Peter Shumlin.
We request that you (Shumlin) request the immediate resignation of Commissioner of Vermont Department of Health, Dr. Harry Chen, for his attempt to influence voter decision on fluoridation by sharing misinformation in a Rutland Herald commentary dated Saturday, Feb. 20 on the issue of fluoridation in Rutland City and Proctor.
Vermont Commissioner of Health Dr. Harry Chen said: “Fluoride is not a drug.”
Correction: the FDA reports fluoride to be a drug.
Dr. Chen says: “Fluoride is not a byproduct of the fertilizer industry as some opponents claim.”
Correction: fluorosilicic acid used in Rutland to fluoridate our water is gleaned from the smokestacks of the phosphate fertilizer company named Mosaic and shipped directly by tank truck to Rutland (Jeff Wennberg can confirm this). The bill of lading obtained from town shows the product we are adding to our water also contains arsenic.
Dr. Chen should know better than to compare fluoridation to nutrients added to products, so people have a choice whether to purchase them or not. There is no nutritional requirement by the human body for fluorosilicic acid, a toxic waste added to the water supply to medicate people, some of whom cannot tolerate its toxicity.
People deserve pure water as a basic right. All of us have the right to know and approve any medication we take into our body. We should have the right to choose and not be forced by our government to drink a water contaminant that the EPA reports as a neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor.
Government officials like Dr. Harry Chen pushing fluoridation on our community with misinformation, when this policy is supposed to be a voluntary decision, leads me to believe he does not support or believe in the precautionary principle of public health, where we err on the side of safety if we are going to add water contaminants to our drinking water.
Governor Shumlin, the question to be raised is this: When the history of fluoridation in this country corrects itself, which side will you as our governor fall on, given this unique opportunity by which the entire state of Vermont is now engaged in this discussion? Medicating a population through its water system without the individual’s consent is morally wrong.
“In no case should a collective community agreement or the consent of a community leader or other authority substitute for an individual’s informed consent.” UNESCO, on bioethics, medical intervention and informed consent (2010). We now know better.
Thank you,
Kathleen Krevetski, R.N., M.A., Rutland Vt.
