Highlights and updates
- Attend the hearing scheduled for September 18, 2024: Hearing to receive comments on the draft revision to Title 179 Chapter 1 revising the fluoride treatment level. Support the elimination of fluoride treatment. Records request provided by DHHS Public Health: records provided to support the draft Title 179 Chapter 1 revision. Click here for hearing details.
- IAOMT Fluoride Facts and IABDM Resources
- After 8 years, and an unprecedented number of peer reviews and attempts to suppress its release, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released its 300+ page report concerning fluoride exposure, neurodevelopment, and cognition. Of the 72 studies assessed, NTP authors report that of the 19 studies deemed high quality, “18 reported an inverse association between estimated fluoride exposure and IQ in children.”
- February 15, 2024 LB1387 HHS Committee Hearing Transcript
Why an investigation into fluoride?
Prior to 2020, I knew of the fluoride controversy but had little concern or awareness about the health effects. Researching 9/11 beginning in late 2018, and the City/County response to the Covid event, led me to larger questions about government, scientific inquiry, and my responsibility. My questions in early 2023 were, “How can Nebraska DHHS and the Lancaster County Health Department do this? How is staff handling all of the new duties of Covid surveillance and tracking, including the new HIT Board, while keeping current on other statutory requirements?” So with a new perspective about the history and the harms of fluoridation, I asked another question, “What is the status of drinking water fluoridation in Lincoln?”
Following a year long investigation, posted here, here, and here, many public records requests, and a May petition to DHHS CEO Dr. Steve Corsi, with copy to Governor Pillen, to correct the fluoride treatment level in Lincoln, the Director of Public Health, Charity Menefee, signed my petition on May 30. A draft revision to Nebraska’s 1983 fluoride regulation, Title 179 NAC 1, is now posted to the Secretary of State’s regulation docket with a hearing scheduled for September 18. The correction will align the treatment level with a 2015 Centers for Disease Control recommendation.
Public Hearing: Wednesday, September 18, 10:00 a.m.
- Nebraska State Office Building
- Centennial Mall South at M St., Lincoln, NE
- Lower Level, Meadowlark Conference Room
All Nebraskans advocating to stop fluoride treatment are encouraged to show their support by simply attending the hearing. Additionally, the hearing gives an opportunity for verbal and/or written comments. See below for public hearing and comment details.
Look for the appropriate opportunity to tell your fluoride story whenever, and wherever, you can. As Clint Griess explains in his book, Something in the Water, have your short, personal message about why removing fluoride is important to you ready to share with a quality fact to back it up. And, it’s good to remember you are speaking to everyone in earshot.
The draft will lower the target water treatment level to 0.7 mg/L and within an operational range of plus or minus 0.2 mg/L. This means that Lincoln’s treatment level can be reduced to the level Omaha has been reporting potentially just 0.1 mg/L above the naturally occurring level of 0.4 mg/L.
Questions about the DHHS hearing to revise the fluoride treatment regulation – contact is Marge Bauerly, 402-471-8417. Comments can be emailed to DHHS.Regulations@Nebraska.gov
Interested persons may attend the hearing and provide verbal and/or written comments, or mail, fax, or email written comments, no later than the day of the hearing to: DHHS Legal Services, PO Box 95026, Lincoln, NE, 68509-5026, (402) 742-2382 (fax), or dhhs.regulations@nebraska.gov
Responses from DHHS Public Health
The list below, received from DHHS Public Health on 8/30/24, is a response to a request for records: the five most significant documents used to support the decision to change the fluoridation level in the revised draft regulation. “Significant” meaning that the document represents the current state of standard professional practice as it applies to such areas as knowledge of benefits and harms, application, operation, disease prevention/causation, hazard notification, or other applicable areas of public water fluoridation and fluoride toxicity.
- 1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), Vol 72, No. 22: Community Water Fluoridation Levels to Promote Effectiveness and Safety in Oral Health – United States, 2016 – 2021. Note to DHHS Public Records Request – the first article in this volume is relevant to fluoride levels in drinking water. The other articles in this volume have to do with other public health matters.
- 2. Public Health Rep 2015 Jul-Aug; 130(4): 318-331: U.S. Public Health Service Recommendation for Fluoride Concentration in Drinking Water for the Prevention of Dental Caries.
- 3. American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) – January 2015: Community Water Fluoridation and Intelligence: Prospective Study in New Zealand, Section 7 Fluoride in Drinking Water.
- Note to DHHS Public Records Request – there is a fee to access the article. A similar article may be found through the National Library of Medicine search, but I couldn’t get the entire article to display, only the abstract.
- 4. CDC Community Water Fluoridation has multiple links to information on community water fluoridation.
- 5. American Water Works Association M4 Manual, Water Fluoridation Principles and Practices Sixth Edition. Specifically, Chapter 6, “Operations and Maintenance,” pg. 51, offers the following: “Routine sampling, analysis, and adjustment of the dosage will ensure that the recommended level is consistently maintained. Experience and studies have shown that +/- 0.2 mg/L is an achievable operating range if the operator is aiming to meet 0.7 mg/L.”
- Note to DHHS Public Records Request – this is a copyrighted publication. Anybody wishing to obtain a copy of the manual can order one at this address.
- 6. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Questions and Answers on Fluoride
A response from DHHS on the specifics of hearing comments are below: written and oral comments will be accepted. The hearing is scheduled for two hours and no timeframe is currently set for individuals to speak.
“Yes, you may provide both written and oral comments if you wish. If you choose to provide written comments, you may bring them to the hearing or you may submit them via email. If you submit written comments via email, you may submit them any time, up until midnight on the night of the hearing.
Members of the regulations team will be conducting the hearing. The hearing will be recorded so that the hearing, including all written and oral comments, can be provided to program staff to review. The program staff will complete a hearing summary which will summarize each comment (written and oral) and provide a response.
As far as time range, there is not a designated timeframe for each individual to speak. We will open the hearing and then individuals can come up and provide testimony. There is not a time limit for each person’s testimony. The hearing is scheduled for two hours and we typically can receive all comment during that time frame. Once all people who are present and wish to testify (you can just come and not testify), have testified, we close the hearing. So if the hearing may not go for the full two hours.”
See the draft revisions by scrolling down on the docket at: https://rules.nebraska.gov/docket
Comments on this post are welcome to the email admin@lincolnsopensource.com