75th Anniversary of the Donora, PA Fluoride Air Disaster
The East Palestine disaster was not the first time a major catastrophic chemical poisoning event occurred in South West Pennsylvania. October 26th we will mark the 75th anniversary of the Donora, PA fluoride air disaster. Dozens were killed outright and many, many more perished in the days and weeks that followed.
Community Water Fluoridation (CWF) is a federal policy that many of us have long opposed. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania regulates the “local” decision through the DEP. The public has been lulled into complacency about adding a toxin to their water by brushing with fluoride toothpaste every day. People believe that fluoridation is “safe and effective.” A recent report by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) clearly outlines the dangers of CWF to childhood cognitive function.
An event has been planned to bring light to fluoride’s toxicity! On October 31, at the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, fluoridation education is going nuclear! The Donora, PA, air disaster that nobody knows about was caused by fluoride. “A week before Halloween 1948, a severe temperature inversion had settled over the valley. By that Wednesday, visibility was as limited as anyone could remember, plus many people were having difficulty breathing. The effluent from the mill that was typically carried away by prevailing wind currents reached the ceiling of the inversion and fell back to earth in the stagnant atmosphere. The weekend was a nightmare. Thousands were ill, hundreds needed medical attention, and by Monday morning, twenty-one were dead. The Donora Smog Disaster was a wakeup call to years of ignoring the deadly effects of industrial pollution.” Donora Historical Society.
Pennsylvania continues to have industrial pollution. The Shell Polymers Monaca Plant in Butler County has had several pollution violations, and local residents are protesting. The recent chemical spill in East Palestine illustrates the challenges facing residents and neighbors. Are the regulators on the people’s side or industries? Back in 1948, regulators were clearly on the industry’s side, not Donora’s.
Water fluoridation began in 1945 in five cities without animal studies. Is it a coincidence that federal investigators did not want the public to know that victims had lethal levels of fluoride in their blood? Is it a coincidence that the emissions were labeled “smog” and the incident scrubbed from history?
We need members of CHD-PA to contact your state representatives and ask them to join an initiative to end CWF in PA. A new review by the National Toxicology Program states that there is no safe level of fluoride neurodevelopmentally. Prenatal and infancy exposure is lowering IQ. This enivornmental crime has been occurring for way too long, and generations have been exposed to even higher concentrations of fluoride than we have today! We should be furious at the arrogance of policymakers who have harmed billions.
How can we address other issues like EMF’s, geoengineering, war, medical freedom, etc. if we allow PA to continue poisoning our water? Access to pure water is a basic human right.
Alert your state representative and senator and invite them to the Donora 75th Anniversary Fluoride Air Disaster event. A bill to end CWF is being written by a representative, and we need to encourage bipartisan sponsorship. Your action will ask your representative to let you know if they would be willing to consider it.
A small sampling of fluoridation science:
-
“NTP Monograph on the State of the Science Concerning Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects: A Systematic Review,” 52 of 55 studies reported an inverse association between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ. The more fluoride children are exposed to, the lower their IQ. The estimated drop, based on a range of studies, is approximately seven IQ points.
-
Researcher Christine Till was involved in one of the most recent studies on fluoride as part of Health Canada’s Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals research platform. Till stressed that just a five-point decrease in a population’s IQ would increase the number of people classified as intellectually disabled to 9.5 million from 6 million, and the number of people considered gifted would drop to 2.4 million from 6 million.
-
Dr. Dean Burk wrote in his last scientific paper, “It is concluded that artificial fluoridation appears to cause or induce about 20–30 excess cancer deaths for every 100,000 persons exposed per year after about 15-20 years,” citing the Berkeley Essig Museum of Entomology Collections.
-
Prior to Burk’s work, a similar report in the 1955 New England Journal of Medicine showed a 400 percent increase in thyroid cancer in San Francisco during the period that the city had fluoridated drinking water, reported Gladys Caldwell and Dr. Philip Zanfagna in their 1974 book “Fluoridation and Truth Decay.”
-
In 2006, the National Research Council review of neurotoxicity and neurobehavioral effects of fluoride stated that based on “information largely derived from histological, chemical, and molecular studies, it is apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain and the body by direct and indirect means.”
They noted that “fluorides also increase the production of free radicals in the brain through several different biological pathways. These changes have a bearing on the possibility that fluorides act to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.”
- Dental fluorosis, the permanent disfigurement of teeth due to fluoride overexposure before the age of 8, is the most documented damage to CWF. According to the latest national survey by the Centers for Disease Control, 41% of American adolescents now have some form of fluorosis—an increase of over 400% from the rates found 60 years ago. (CDC 2010)
Urge your lawmaker to learn more about CWF damage and help end CWF now. CWF violates Section 127 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. § 27. “Natural resources and the public estate The people have a right to clean air and pure water.” CWF is also a violation of informed consent. Medical treatment for a disease (dental caries) they may not have through their water supplier is a violation of the Nürnberg Code.
Plan on attending the Donora 75th Anniversary Fluoride Air Disaster event on October 31, East Rotunda, Capitol Building, from 10 to 4 p.m.Tell your legislator you want to meet with them that day! Network with like-minded Pennsylvanians.