There are situations in life when not knowing is perhaps, not better, but certainly more tranquil, as in, ignorance is bliss. Then bam!

You are shown the truth and there is no going back. We lost a very wise soul recently, Dr. Maya Angelou. She has many, many famous quotes but the one that resonates with me is “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”

I didn’t hear of her passing from the television news, but rather in a post on my Facebook feed.

Facebook has its drawbacks but also many virtues such as connecting with family and friends who live far, far away or down the street but are just so busy you may not see them enough to know their relationship status or hair color has changed. For myself, I rarely watch the news, somehow I do know what is going on in the world by seeing headlines via connecting to my email accounts and word of mouth but I just as soon not absorb the depressing stories of tragedy. I, for the most part, see mostly uplifting or informative posts on Facebook. As with all information, it shouldn’t be taken at face value but actually researched beyond the sound bytes. So when a post came up on hydroflourosilicic acid and its toxicity, I felt my bliss draining away like water from a leaky pail.

I knew we are a community that fluoridates our water. I was not happy with the fact, as I know by reading my tube of toothpaste, if swallowed I need to get emergency help as I have just been poisoned, so how can it be good that I am drinking fluoride? I did not realize however what is put into community water supplies is not the fluoride found in toothpaste or other topically applied methods, it is a toxic by-product produced by the phosphate industries that needs to have an outlet for getting rid of in a cost effective manner. Somehow, these chemical industries convinced the public, particularly the dental industry, this is a good thing. In 2000, Dr. William Hirzy, the senior vice president of EPA’s Headquarters Union of Scientists and Professionals said, “If this stuff gets out into the air, it’s a pollutant; if it gets into the river, it’s a pollutant; if it gets into the lake it’s a pollutant; but if it goes right into your drinking water system, it’s not a pollutant. There’s got to be a better way to manage this stuff.”

To be specific, hydroflourosilicic acid is a toxic waste. Most all hydrofluorosilicic acid used in North America originates in the State of Florida and some comes from China. Phosphate containing rock is strip-mined. This rock is broken up, placed in huge vats, sulfuric acid is added along with heat to cook off whatever phosphate plus contaminants are in the rock. As the phosphate is extracted, the contaminants used to just be released into the atmosphere, polluting the environment, harming or killing plant and animal life. Due to environmental regulations, ‘wet scrubber’ chimney pollution control devices are now required to capture contaminants such as silicofluoride, lead, arsenic, and mercury from being emitted during chemical phosphate fertilizer production. This water-based ‘wet scrubber’ hydrofluorosilicic acid, containing the contaminants, is then taken out of the chimneys and stored in open-air cooling lakes, further exposed to airborne contaminants. Industry produces millions of gallons of this liquid hazardous waste. It costs thousands of dollars per ton to properly neutralize and dispose of hydrofluorosilicic acid; therefore, industry would rather just sell it to you as ‘product.’ Because uranium is co-produced with phosphate production, radioactive cross-contamination of hydrofluorosilicic acid occurs. It also occurs in the open air-cooling lakes from local airborne uranium dust. Hydrofluorosilicic acid is drawn from open-air cooling lakes, as is. It is containerized in tankers, and shipped to your municipal drinking water supply. Hydrofluorosilicic acid remains contaminated with trace amounts of lead, arsenic, mercury and radioactive materials. It is delivered unrefined, and in none-pharmaceutical grade, to be used as water fluoridation ‘product’.

Hydrofluorosilicic acid is dribbled into your drinking water supply without first testing its contents. This is standard practice. Only after it is added, is the drinking water tested for a handful of maximum allowable contaminants as the last step before you receive this water. There is no requirement to test how much arsenic, lead, and mercury was just added, only that the amounts in your water remain at or below prescribed standards.

So, ‘topping up’ water contaminants takes place. No testing is done for the radioactive material. No testing is done for silicofluoride either, based upon assumption that all the silicofluoride completely separates out into fluoride ions and silica; the premise for continuing the use of a cheap toxic silicofluoride instead of expensive but much less toxic calcium fluoride. Then we serve it all up to our family and ourselves. However, the hydrofluorosilicic acid reaction in the water is also known to leach more lead from lead pipes, lead-based solders, and lead-based brass fittings; still found in today’s water distribution systems. Silicofluoride is also known to help facilitate lead uptake into our body. Those with tiny body mass, small liver, small kidneys, and a developing brain are affected the most by silicofluoride, fluoride ion, lead, arsenic, mercury and radioactive material.

Since hydrofluorosilicic acid’s inorganic silicofluoride, lead, arsenic, mercury and radionuclides pose a threat when diluted in the environment, how do they not pose a threat when diluted in our drinking water?
Next time someone tries to tell you hydrofluorosilicic acid simply disappears when added to drinking water, ask them why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency believes hydrofluorosilicic acid’s inorganic silicofluoride, lead, arsenic, mercury and radionuclides pose environmental harm to living things when diluted into the atmosphere and into natural waterways.

Is this really the best we can do for our community, for our children? I say, “No!” There is no scientific evidence it reduces cavities, as studies actually show fluoride works topically not systemically. Further, there has been a marked increase in dental fluorosis, causing mottled and stained tooth enamel from too much fluoride. The emperor has no clothes, but he is drinking water harmful to his health! You can find more information on the Internet and this site has listed factual resources you can check to verify for yourself at www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/fluoride-worse-than-we-thought.

As for me, now that I know better. I must ask those putting this in our water supply to help me “do better.”

 

CeeCee Wilson is the organizer of Cass Can, Inc. and owner of Last Tagine in Paris, LLC. Find them on Facebook.