USA - Kids to get more brain-damaging fluoride thanks to Dow's lobbyists

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Farm Bill that the House passed today and the Senate will vote on contains a provision that overrides a ruling by EPA that the toxic fumigant sulfuryl fluoride leaves unsafe levels of fluoride on food, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).

The aggregate dose that children receive from these residues along with the fluoride from other sources, including fluoridated water and dental products, exceeds EPA's safe reference dose for fluoride – especially in the case of infants and children - and thus the new source is not permitted under the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA). With this Farm Bill provision, EPA will no longer be allowed to assess the total risk from fluoride exposure.

In 2011, after eight years of deliberation, EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs upheld objections by the Environmental Working Group, Beyond Pesticides and FAN about the use of sulfuryl fluoride on food and announced a phase-out of its use.

Now, Dow lobbyists working with a compliant Congress have slipped a provision into the Farm Bill that excludes non-pesticide sources in the aggregate calculations for sulfuryl fluoride. This not only undermines the credibility of the EPA Pesticide division but also delivers a critical blow to the FQPA, which among other things was designed to provide stronger protections for infants and children from pesticides.

"Only the U.S. and Australia apply this fumigant directly to food. The rest of the world has shown that sulfuryl fluoride is not necessary for the safe storage and handling of our food supply, given the availability of other methods - including temperature manipulation (heating and cooling), atmospheric controls (low oxygen and fumigation with carbon dioxide), biological controls (pheromones), and less toxic chemical controls (diatomaceous earth), all successfully used in organic production," said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides.

Before 2004 the allowed tolerances for fluoride on certain foodstuffs was set at 7 ppm. The tolerances that will come into play if the EPA ruling to phase out sulfuryl fluoride is bypassed will allow a massive increase. This would include 70 ppm fluoride in more than 99% of all processed foods, 125 ppm in wheat flour (which goes into cookies, cakes, bread and pizza) and a staggering 900 ppm in powdered eggs. 900 ppm is just a tad below the level found in toothpaste (1000 ppm), which comes with an FDA-mandated poison warning that instructs users not to swallow. One third of the eggs sold in the U.S. come in powdered form.........