When was the last time you read the label on your toothpaste tube and the warning: DO NOT SWALLOW. Do you know why?

Fluoride is a toxic chemical! If swallowed in large amounts at one time, you should go to the emergency room immediately. Unfortunately, small amounts of fluoride swallowed over a long period of time is also just as dangerous. Once fluoride gets into your body, it is very difficult to get out so it accumulates in your body over time. Did you know fluoride makes your bones brittle and damages your joints? Look up Skeletal Fluorosis and find out for yourself.

So small amounts of fluoride swallowed over a long period of time is just as dangerous as swallowing a large amount at one time. What is really happening when our water has fluoride added to it? It means in addition to brushing your teeth with fluoridated toothpaste, you are also getting a steady intake of fluoride with the water used to make my coffee, food cooked in water, the eight glasses of water recommended per day and all the other ways in which water from the tap is consumed.

I find no good reason to add fluoride to our city’s drinking water because you can get fluoride in your toothpaste, fluoride treatments can be done at a dental office or with a prescription for treatments at home. For those of us who do not want a toxic chemical in our drinking water, we are being subjected to a medical/dental treatment without our consent!

For those reasons and many more, I encourage you to consider the dangers of fluoride and support the removal of fluoride from Alpena’s drinking water.

NONIE MULLER,

Alpena