An accidental stretching

To the editor,

Thanks for featuring Velorution Cycles in your bikepacking article (“Tripping Out,” July 7). As enjoyable as the article was, I’ve gotta set the record straight. I was quoted, shall we say, with varying levels of accuracy. Most of the quotes at least got the general point across – but I’m compelled to correct one in particular. Velorution is by no means the “first bike shop in the world that is focused on bikepacking gear and touring” – although we are one of a very few shops globally that do focus on such things. We are the first business that combines this specialty with manufacturing of bikepacking gear on premises, to our knowledge. Perhaps a small distinction to some, but I’ve never been a fan of stretching the truth, even by accident.

Anyway – thanks again, keep up the excellent work and happy trails!

– Joey Ernst, co-owner, Velorution Cycles / Bedrock Bags

Flagging a bad fashion choice

To the editor,

As a retired Marine and disabled combat veteran, I was appalled at the disgraceful display of the flag of our country by J. Paul Brown in the 4th of July parade. Our flag is not a shirt! Too be displayed in such a way as to attract attention to one’s self is not only not patriotic, it is in fact unpatriotic. Take pride in the meaning of our flag before one’s personal political goals, Mr. Brown.

– Mr. Lynn Witt, USMC Ret., Durango

Asbestos, lead, Vioxx ... fluoride

To the editor,

In response to the City of Durango’s decision to continue to add fluoride to its water supply (Telegraph, June 30), I have copied a letter from the Pagosa Springs Sun, written by Cathy Justus. After losing eight horses and four dogs to “chronic fluoride poisoning” from drinking Pagosa’s fluoridated water – as was scientifically proven by the world’s authority on fluoride poisoning in animals at Cornell University, Dr. Lennart Krook – she won the battle to have Pagosa cease supplementing the communities water with fluoride.

Dear editor:

Recently the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Associated Press, Chicago Sun Times, MSNBC and many others announced that Harvard professor Chester Douglas and Harvard University are being investigated for suppression of research documented in Elise Bassin’s doctoral theses.

The research study showed a marked increased risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) for boys who drank fluoridated water. Some of this data was taken from her professor, Chester Douglas’ 1992 study funded by a $1.3 million federal grant.

Douglas is Harvard’s chair of the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology. He said in a report to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that there was no relationship between fluoride and bone cancer.

In fact his own study stated, “Among males, exposure to fluoride at or above the target level was associated with an increased risk of developing osteosarcoma in their lifetime.” Douglas is the editor of a newsletter called the “Colgate Oral Care Report,” funded by Colgate-Palmolive, which is a major promoter of fluoride products. Experts call it a clear-cut conflict of interest.

Bassin’s thesis is considered the most rigorous human study to date on a connection between fluoridation and osteosarcoma, a lethal form of cancer that affects males nearly twice as often as females and increased more than 40 percent since the early ’70s.

A 1991 National Toxicology Program study found “equivocal evidence” of a link between fluoridated water and cancer, including osteosarcoma. The National Cancer Institute had the same results.

In a letter from a majority (11) of the EPA’s employee unions, who are the scientists, to the administrator of the EPA, they requested the director of the Office of Water issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking setting the maximum contaminant level for fluoride at zero, in accordance with agency policy for all likely or known human carcinogens.

It states, “Our request is based on the overall weight of the evidence supporting the classification of fluoride as a human carcinogen, including new information from Harvard on the link between fluoride in drinking water and osteocarcinoma in boys. The eyes of the nation are on the federal science establishment because of a host of scientific integrity issues. Former EPA assistant administrator Lynn Golman and Roni Neff have just published a paper in the American Journal of Public Health on the cost of the government’s failure to act on sound scientific evidence. We at EPA can be ahead of the curve on this important issue, or behind it. We do not think the latter choice is in the best interest of the public, the Civil Service or the EPA, and we fervently and respectfully hope you will agree with us.”

Remember asbestos, leaded gas, Phen Fen, HRT and Vioxx? First they were good and then research revealed the opposite. How many other studies have not reached the general public because of money paid out to keep damning info quiet, ensuring that industries producing harmful products can continue to send us to our graves carrying it in our bodies? After over 60,000 worldwide independent studies proving how harming and deadly fluoride is, how many of them have you seen?

Pagosa Springs is on the forefront of a coming revolution by stopping fluoridation. Don’t we look smart?

– Thank you, Cathy Justus

If Pagosa Springs looks smart for stopping fluoridation, what does Durango look like? 

To me it looks like Durango doesn’t know that between 2003-06 the EPA commissioned the National Research Council, the highest scientific group in the U.S., to review the recent science on fluoride. There were 12 scientists from around the world on this distinguished panel, The amount of damning science this panel found against fluoride was unbelievable, including 23 recent studies showing fluoride consumption reduces I.Q. This review has been published into a 507 page book called Fluoride in Drinking Water, A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards, available through The National Academy Press www.nap.edu in Washington, D.C.

– Holly Pratt, Durango