On Dec 22, Mayor Jerry Saunders and the council of San Diego are preparing to give the worst Christmas present to their citizens (1.4 million people). They are going to fluoridate their water supply. Although many of you who receive this bulletin live many miles away from San Diego we are asking you to support this last minute effort to stop or postpone this and send in the online message below which you can access with this link.

The message reads:

Dear Mayor Saunders and San Diego Council members,

I am shocked that you are preparing to fluoridate San Diego's water on Dec 22. This is a terrible Christmas present to give to your citizens.

Around North America and in the handful of other countries that fluoridate their water a growing number of communities are doing their best to get fluoride out of their water as they learn more and more about this foolish practice. For example on October 25, citizens voted fluoridation out of the Waterloo region in Ontario, Canada and just this week the public works committee of Burlington, Vermont passed along a recommendation to the city council to halt the practice.

On the web site of the Fluoride Action Network you can find a list of towns that have stopped or rejected fluoridation.

What have these towns found out that you haven't?

Have you done your homework on this issue or are you simply taking the endorsements of pro-fluoridation entities like the CDC and the American Dental Association at face value, and ignoring the fact that they are partisans on this issue?

Have you read the 507-page report from the National Research Council of the National Academies? This panel identified several health effects for which there is an inadequate margin of safety to protect everyone drinking fluoridated water at 1 ppm.

Have you watched the 28-minute DVD "Professional Perspectives on Water Fluoridation"?  I believe a hard copy of this DVD has been given to each of you.

Have you read the recently published book, "The Case Against Fluoride" by Paul Connett, James Beck and Spedding Micklem? I believe that copies of this book have been supplied to you. Did you know that one of the authors of this book came to San Diego in October and gave several talks on this issue? Did you, or any of your staff members, make any effort to meet with him?

Were you aware that Californians were notified on May 29, 2009, that "fluoride and its salts" was ranked "high" priority, along with 8 out of 38 chemicals, for consideration for a Prop 65 carcinogenicity review.

Can you honestly say that each of you have exercised due diligence on this serious matter?

I am told that citizens of San Diego have twice voted against fluoridation. As their representatives, why are you not fighting for them?

I am also told that you are claiming that state law forces you to do this but that same state law also requires this program to be financed by private money not by public funds, yet you are proposing to use tobacco tax money to do this. Are you not then breaking the very law that you claim ties your hands?

Even at this late date I urge you to give your citizens a better Christmas present by fighting to keep their water safe. At the very least delay your decision until you have given yourselves and your citizens several months to ponder more carefully the pros and cons of what you are doing and that you have worked out in advance how you are going to warn parents not to use fluoridated tap water to reconstitute baby formula.

Please sign and send this message off and get as many friends to do likewise. This is one Christmas present you can send which won't cost you more than a few minutes of your time. If you know anyone who lives in San Diego please ask them to contact local organizer Patty Brooks (editor of the Presidio Sentinel).  She needs all the help she can get, and is specifically looking for a pro bono lawyer who can put in an injunction to stop or delay this.