Fluoride: We shouldn't need 40 years to learn lesson

Vic Hummert, The Advertiser
Mar. 10, 2010

Kathleen Hughes was a Maryknoll nun and dietician working in Hong Kong. It was in 1970 that Kathleen told me of Dr. Ignatz Semmelweis (1818-65), a Hungarian doctor serving in Vienna.

Semmelweis discovered mothers who were attended to in childbirth by doctors were dying more frequently than those who gave birth with a midwife present. Semmelweis was certain that practicing doctors did not wash their hands after caring for sick patients and therefore carried diseases to healthy mothers giving birth.

When Semmelweis began insisting upon continual cleansing of hands, the other doctors reacted in anger and rejected his unproven theory.

On Feb. 23 we watched a Louisiana PBS program on the history of surgery. PBS brought home the treachery of "intelligent" doctors who schemed with the wife of Semmelweis to plan a return trip to Vienna where other physicians "captured" the crusading doctor and placed him in a padded cell.

It took 40 years before other doctors finally accepted the teaching of Ignatz Semmelweis.

How many years did we need before concluding cigarettes are killing us? How many years did we need before removing lead from gasoline?

Paul Connett has been telling us for decades fluoride is a toxic waste coming from major industries and phosphate fertilizer companies. The known neurotoxin is too dangerous for ocean or river dumping, but is acceptable for our drinking water. Warnings on toothpaste tubes urge consulting a Poison Control Center if too much is swallowed accidentally. There are no warnings on water bills.

With the scientific support of Dr. Connett, the Lafayette City-Parish Council voted 8-1 in April 2009 to reject a law requiring every city of more than 5,000 residents to add fluoride to Louisiana drinking water. The struggle is over "truth decay," not tooth decay.

Will it take 40 years for our state and the entire country to prohibit adding more poison to our water? Please check out www.fluoridealert.org for more information.

Vic Hummert is a Lafayette resident with a longtime interest in the environment.