Introduction

To understand in a comprehensive manner what transpired in the video above one has to first fully understand the background and context of my effort as an individual to end the practice of fluoridating our public water supplies in Durham, North Carolina.

If you have been following this blog you may already be aware of my journeys as a turd through the bowels of Durham’s city government so if you want to skip to the culminating event, Click Here.

In order to put the culminating event in the proper context what follows is a chronologically succinct account of my efforts which all lead up to the rather climactic events from this past Thursday evening.

My Awakening

In December 2011 I was getting dental work done on my back molars when I was inspired to ask the question,

“Is there Fluoride in the drinking water?”

The dentist replied,

“Yes of course!”

I had always heard fluoride was in the drinking water but never quite understood how drinking it would do any good for just my teeth but not affect other parts of my body – so I asked

“Why is it in the drinking water again?”

The simple yet oft repeated response came without surprise,

“It’s good for your dental enamel.”

The problem with this statement is that it is never accompanied by anything more than anecdotal evidence and in my case, the anecdotal evidence was not so supportive of drinking fluoride. You see, I was diagnosed early on with having a defect known as “Dental Fluorosis” which is the literal degradation and deterioration of dental enamel.

This condition is partly responsible for my needing such dramatic dental work done in the first place but more than anything is indicative of fluoride overexposure from the inside out. This means every other organ in my body is also overexposed which bothers me greatly.

Naturally, such a contradiction of circumstances caused me to question the official rhetoric on this topic and lead me to do a great deal of research which is where the real story begins…

My First Appearance

What I uncovered in my research was so startling I began to wonder who I should tell. At first I was simply alarmed at the idea that something in our drinking water would be so dangerous, but at the time was not mentally prepared for the bureaucracy and cognitive dissonance I would later experience when trying to bring this information to everyone’s attention.

In an almost automated emotional reaction to the research I uncovered about public water fluoridation, I appeared for the first time before the Durham City Council on December 20th, 2011. With little forethought I showed up to bluntly present the damning evidence that Fluoride has been shown to reduce IQ, cause skeletal fragility and bone density issues, as well as cause the condition I suffer from – Fluorosis.

The response to my petition came promptly from Mayor Bill Bell which will not surprise anyone who has any experience with corporate government,

Obviously, the suggestion [to remove fluoride] would be a dramatic change from the way we presently operate, I’m sure the manager and his staff will take it under advisement and come back with a recommendation.”

The “manager and his staff” eventually did take it under advisement and came back with the following recommendation:

In response to my statement on December 25, 2011 the following article was published by Ray Gronberg and the local Herald Sun newspaper which broadly dismissed my miniscule effort to raise awareness. The publication of this article only thickened the plot however because in it certain governmental authorities were prompted to respond to my allegations. Their response which inherently must be deceptive became motivation for me to continue exposing their lies. Kevin Buchholtz, a NC Dept. of Health and Human Services stooge who later plays a role in this saga replied to my petition by saying,

From the State’s perspective trying to respond to every allegation regarding fluoride is challenging and counterproductive.”

My Next Move

Having been totally dissatisfied with the City’s response to my petition, I decided to make things a lot more challenging from the ‘state’s perspective’ and created this website in January 2012. Since then DurhamAgainstFluoride.com has served as a media platform to document my effort and spread the word locally and abroad.

The initial publication about my December appearance at city council combined with the creation of this website was enough to grab the attention of some other fluoride activists who reached out and began coaching me on how to be more effective with my efforts. One such activist was Jeff Green, National Director for Citizens for Safe Drinking water who taught me how to tangle with the government on their terms. The result of my discussions with him manifested in My Next Move, which was a formal request for documentation made on March 22, 2012.

According to the strategy the best way to expose the lack of scientific evidence which supports community water fluoridation is to ask for it! Jeff emphasized that since the evidence is on our side, asking for toxicological studies and other documentation will put The Powers That Be on defense, shifting the burden of proof to the city who then must convince us that fluoridation is such a critical public health benefit. The reasoning was that if no documentation existed, the inability to produce it would cause even the most ignorant in government to begin asking questions internally.

So in January-February 2012 I began making phone calls to the water management department in order to procure the documents I knew did not exist. What transpired was a series of dead ends which eventually produced the following, stunning information:

The City of Durham purchases Hydrofluorosilicic acid from Pencco, a chemicals supplier who re-sells wholesale toxic waste from MOSAIC, a division of POTASH corporation who sells the leftover wasteproducts from fertilizer/phosphate production to the City of Durham who Systematically bleeds the cocktail of pollutants @ .7 parts per/million into our drinking water as a way of disposing the waste

Even more stunning still was the only formal document ever tendered by the water authority which testifies to the safety of Hydrofluorosilicic Acid. This chemical, which has a HAZMAT rating of 8 Corrosive, is admitted in the city’s OWN literature to cause fluorosis and bone density issues as well as having 0 toxicological studies:

Dissatisfied with this as evidence of fluoride’s crucial public health benefit, I appeared on March 22, 2012 to make the city council aware of this absence of information and to formally request they produce the necessary toxicological documentation to the citizens. What happened next immediately told me that I was up against forces with far more motivation to continue this policy than I had ever originally anticipated.

In a premeditated nature The Powers That Be deployed NC Department of Health and Human Services goon Kevin Bucholtz who is the West Region Supervisor for the Oral Health Division. He appeared subsequent my formal request for information to rebut a position I did not even argue. I gotta hand it to Kevin – he really impressed me with such a whirlwind of hypocritical dribble. The most amazing thing is that he came with prepared statements and yet, for 4+ minutes, Kevin rambles on about how the NC Department of Health does not agree with the conclusion drawn by millions of citizens around the world that drinking fluoride is of no public benefit. In the next breath Kevin bluntly admits that hydrofluorosilicic acid can leech lead from the plumbing system and is directly responsible for his own daughter suffering from Fluorosis.

Just so we’re clear:

I attend city council to ask for toxicology studies on fluoride The state sends their best rep – Kevin – who says in one breath Fluoride is a poison And in the next, it’s good for you and he’s proud of it

How do you argue with that?

This has to be heard to be believed:

Note: This same appearance was later cited on the Durham Water Management Website in Direct Response to my request for information:

As seen on DurhamNC.gov:

Connecting the Dots

After witnessing first hand the inaction of Durham’s City government I began to firmly understand how crippled the humble minds of our “authorities” really were on this subject and all faith in their willingness to reasonably address this issue was lost.

Since The Powers That Be had acted in such a preemptive and precise manner, I was able to discern intuitively that I should simply try in whatever way possible to raise awareness on this issue and to ignore for a little while the illusion that my appearances at city council affected any great change. So I began exploring other avenues and became more committed to educating by any means necessary.

I began to realize at this point that this is a war of consciousness, spanning time and dimensions so I relied increasingly on pure inspiration and intuition to fuel this effort. I felt increasingly that the effort was past-time fun which lead me to take great joy in the further development of this website, printing flyers, meditating, lucid dreaming and speaking about Fluoride whenever appropriate in conversation. These tiny efforts approached as just a part of regular every day life over time are what I credit with sowing the seeds of later success.

On July 12, 2012 I published this report which cites a 1991 study done in Durham where scientists and the water authority collaborated to study the effects of ending water fluoridation. One of the central pillars holding up the Pro-Fluoridationist argument is the fear tactic that if we stop fluoridating, we will see an explosion in dental cavities. The conclusion of the Durham study makes it an incredibly significant one in that it supports the debunking of this very claim.

Later in this report you will hear a precise example of this from our civil servants who state that children will miss more school if we turn fluoride off, due to the rise in dentist visits from the ensuing tooth decay!

It’s this same crazed fear-tactic which has kept fluoridation ongoing for so long and therefore makes the discovery of this study and it’s implications so worth mentioning in isolation.

The most ironic thing is that I was a likely participant of this study, since it was conducted in Durham during my elementary years with children from the public school I attended. Although any evidence is surely lost in time, it is a distinct possibility which I had to consider and therefore motivated me to send my report to hundreds of government/media/academic professionals in the area.

The study itself measured the incisors of over 1800 gradeschool children in Durham and over the course of an 11 month period, the study concluded no rise in Cavities but a decrease in the level of Fluorosis among participants. For convenience I have posted the video from that report below:

Durham guinea pig reports; Duke University study links city water fluoridation with dental damage

During my research I discovered that the Durham City Council takes their policy directives on public health issues from a separate committee – the Durham County Public Health Board. This meant I had attended the “wrong” body of our government originally which at the time seemed to explain my lack of success. Of course, the government will never point you in the right direction so it only took some months and a lot of personal time to uncover this. This phenomenon where council after committee after working group relegate authority to each other is the leitmotif of our government which is constructed like the layers of an onion for the express purpose that you will hopefully go away.

Nevertheless I was informed that the Public Health Board is instrumental in changing Durham’s fluoridation policy since the city council would vote largely based on the recommendations from this board, who is composed of citizen “experts” from different disciplines. From this point on I made it my goal to educate the Durham Public Health Board, and hopefully get through to enough people to at least bring it to a citizen vote.

During this same time I contacted and began working closely with Steve Daniels & ABC news affiliate WTVD Channel 11, who followed me for a few months while they were producing an investigative report on community water fluoridation.

After some conversations with WTVD it was decided that my next formal step was to appear before the Durham Public Health Board and present the same information I had previously brought to the City Council’s attention.

On September 13th I made my first official appeal to the Durham County Health board after my initial report:

Thanks to my appearance on September 13 and the presence of local media, the Public Health Board began a formal inquiry into the subject and agreed to look further into the evidence. Despite my reservations that this was just another hoop to jump through, I was quick to accept this as a partial victory since at least the subject was being discussed. When you accept this is a battle for awareness discussion no matter how contrived can only be measured as success.

Jump Point

Then, on November 15, 2012 Durham Against Fluoride had it’s first major breakthrough thanks to the completion of WTVD’s 7.5 minute investigative report:

The reaction was overwhelming for me as well as the WTVD crew. I watched Steve Daniel’s facebook receive thousands of likes, hundreds of comments and I was told personally by the Senior Producer that they had never in her time at WTVD experienced such a passionate response to a story they aired. Anchorman Steve Daniels likewise sent me the following e-mail which pointed to a total success:

Corey – I have been overwhelmed by the response to the story. You get all the credit for getting the ball rolling on our end. I appreciate your persistence in pushing us toward revisiting the issue. We are working on another angle for February. Let’s stay in touch about your efforts. -Steve

In response to this negative media attention, the Water Management Department immediately created a job posting for a “Senior Public Affairs Specialist” who would be paid more than $65,000/year to actively combat my efforts to expose these basic truths about public water fluoridation.

Is Durham Water Management Division Preparing Pro-Fluoride Propaganda?

With the help of WTVD’s report I was immediately put in touch with fluoride activists from around the world. More importantly I was able to network with local activists who also have a passion for this issue. Thus began my cooperation and more formal collaboration with individuals from Wake County & Chapel Hill, resulting in the following reports and the creation of RaleighAgainstFluoride.com:

Building on the momentum almost one month after the publication of WTVD’s report, I appeared again at the Durham Public Health Board to encourage them to stand on the side of social justice in unison against community water fluoridation. This was moments before they adjourned to have a closed-door meeting where they finalized the board’s next steps to address the citizen concerns on public water fluoridation.

Durham County Health Board: “We are reviewing the evidence”



The Hearing



On March 14, 2013 Approximately 16 months after my initial appearance at the Durham City Council I found myself before the Durham County Public Health Board a third time in what can only be described as the culminating event. It is my sincere belief that this will serve as a secondary jump point for this effort towards a new, expanded level of awareness for the general public.

Due to the preceding 16 months of work exposing the fluoride deception in my area I was able to force the county health board to formally acknowledge and review this subject which they begrudgingly did in a contrived & organized fashion to simply perpetuate the status quo.

Keeping with the leitmotif of all corporate governments, the Durham county health board relegated their own logical/rational thinking capabilities to another committee of people in the form of an “expert panel.”

To my total lack of surprise, I found that the panel was cherry picked by the City to achieve a self-described “balanced” perspective on this issue. In other words, the 5-person panel were with only one exception uniformly government-paid employees offering only their personal opinion and not any scientific facts whatsoever. Later In this report you may even hear Department of Health Dental Chief Rebecca King actually cite one of her credentials as having been “a supporter of fluoridation.” Can that be put on a resume?

Before the proceedings began I was given 3 minutes to speak and unfortunately was not able to capture video of this. I was unprepared to speak since the health board would not return my phone calls to find out who would be participating on the “expert panel,” so I simply responded in a reactionary way when my time came.

The following is a basic recall of what I stated to the board & the panel who was present:

Hi everyone, my name is Corey Sturmer. For those of you who don’t know me I have been speaking about public water fluoridation here in Durham for a little more than a year now. During that year I have learned a lot about how government works and I hope to continue that today, as I understand we are having a hearing on this important subject known as community water fluoridation.

So to help make this a successful hearing I would like to urge you the board to ask the expert panel the most appropriate questions possible. So I will just go down the list – Vicki Westbrook – She is the assistant director of the water management department. You should ask her WHERE the water department purchases the fluoride that is added to our water. If she is honest she will have to tell you that Williams Water Treatment Plant buys hydrofluorosilic acid from a fertilizer manufacturer named MOSAIC. Hydrofluorosilicic acid is the byproduct of phosphate manufacturing and the city helps them dispose of it by bleeding it into our water. So this is an important thing to ask Vicki and I am sure she will tell you this.

Then we have Mr. Tim Wright & Rebecca King who are licensed Dentists. When you are asking them questions be sure to ask if it is in their professional opinion because as a licensed dentist he is not permitted to answer questions about INGESTING fluoride – otherwise he would need to be an internal medicine doctor. Anything else is just his personal opinion and remember, it is not JUST about the teeth since we are drinking the chemical and therefore exposing all of our cells to the effects of it. I also see on the agenda several public health officials, and I know that the tendency of all city governments is to follow guidance from the public health department. I think it’s important to remember that as much as they may mean well, it is not up to the public health department to decide what goes in our water – that is a decision for ALL of us – You, me and the rest of the citizens. Do not be intimidated by the public health department either because there are dozens and dozens of examples where cities have ignored their state health department to cease fluoridation. So if one thing could come out of this meeting it should be that we put this to a vote – and let the CITIZENS decide what goes into the public drinking water. It is all of our decision, as health board members, public health officials or citizens living in durham – so we should let the citizens debate the facts and give them the chance to make an informed decision. Thank you.

Setting the Stage for The Big Lie

In order to effectively brainwash the public health board, The Powers That Be carefully selected 5 individuals (4 present) who collectively paint a broad and deceptive enough brush stroke over the subject of water fluoridation so as to tranquilize any inquisitive mind that may see through their ragged arguments.

As if my 3 minute public comment did not ever happen, the chair of the Public Health Board James Miller can be heard below stating that “Anyone who interrupts will be forced to leave” with The Sheriff Deputy waiting patiently in the corner, clearly requested prior to the meeting in case the known antagonist (myself) were to make any public demonstrations of their deception.

This was an obvious way for the city to keep the panel’s opinion sterile, only to be taken in isolation of all external factors – like factual information from me.

As if insulated from the glaring truths of this issue, the self-concocted pro fluoride cheer-squad began their dreadful & irrelevant rambling on the efficacy of public water fluoridation. Using tired old scripts from the Center for Disease Control, Public Health Department, and American Dental Association which have long been debunked on this site and others, these so-called “experts” offered nothing more than anecdotal evidence and circumlocution of the real core issues to do with the illegal medication of our public water supply.

Vicki Westbrook

vicki.westbrook@durhamnc.gov

First up was Vicki Westbrook who was mentioned previously in my speech and is one of the first persons I confronted on this journey. She offered a mostly inert presentation essentially reiterating the very basic facts of what the Water Management Department does.

The Water Management Department is simply complicit with whatever the City Council says, who further take their mandates from other bureaucratic institutions like the Department of Public Health and the City’s own health board. As such, Vicki’s position is more administrative than anything so I would not ever expect her to rock the boat. I did find it interesting however when she states that the City of Durham began fluoridating due to a “Postcard vote in 1957,” which should give everyone pause.

Amy Keyworth

Next was Amy Keyworth who seems like a bright person but was obviously recruited for dubious reasons beyond her narrow perspective. Amy is a hydrogeologist for the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which means she is an expert on the groundwater of North Carolina. As you can see in the video she presents some comprehensive data on natural fluoride concentration levels in North Carolina’s ground water, but does not draw any conclusions herself. Her data taken as a solitary perspective is presented to the board without any elucidation as to how this relates to the issue I am raising – namely – the medication of our public drinking water with hydrofluorosilicic acid! This should demonstrate either the corruption of the board or complete ignorance of those who picked the panel since groundwater has absolutely nothing to do with the mandated distribution of purchased chemicals.

The reason her presentation was totally irrelevant is exposed later in the hearing right before I am escorted out of the building by the sheriff. The key point which my higher self forced me to explain is that it is NOT naturally occurring fluoride that is added to our water supply and therefore groundwater has nothing to do with this issue.

Amazingly this is not even HIDDEN on the Water Management Website yet it was obscured in the very hearing which I worked more than 1 year to produce!

As seen on DurhamNC.gov

Rebecca King

(919) 707-5480

Rebecca.King@dhhs.nc.gov

Rebecca King is a Dental Advisor for the NC Department of Health and Human Services (Oral Health Division). If you remember from earlier in this saga it was her colleague Kevin Buchholtz from the same division who originally attempted to rebut me during my March 22, 2012 appearance. I wonder if Kevin was not available for this hearing or he was somewhat intimidated by the e-mail I sent him before my first appearance at the Durham Public Health meeting. The following e-mail went unanswered and I never saw Kevin again, not even once:

To: Kevin.Buchholtz@dhhs.nc.gov Date: Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 9:39 AM Subject: We Are Coming For You. Kevin, Your duplicitous endorsement of Fluoride is going to get you in trouble someday. I hope to see you again soon, https://durhamagainstfluoride.com/2012/09/13/special-event-thursday-september-13-at-durham-county-health-building/ Sincerely, Corey

To Rebecca’s credit she may have one-uped Kevin with her defense of fluoridation so will be hearing from me likewise very soon. I must admit this was a tall order when it was Kevin Buchholtz who, in his own argument, made a tacit admission that FSA leeches lead from pipe systems and gave his own daughter fluorosis.

Rebecca King’s defense of fluoridation will no doubt be one for the books:

“We drink fluoridated water and the trace levels of fluoride return to the mouth in the saliva where it provides topical protection as teeth are continuously bathed by fluoride-rich saliva.”

Tim Wright

919-537-3955

wrightt@DENTISTRY.UNC.EDU

In a wide-ranging 7.5 minute stream of complete bullshit, local pediatric dentist Tim Wright makes short work debunking hundreds of scientific studies without providing a solitary shred of evidence other than his own highly fluoridated opinion. His three main factors, “Safety, Effectiveness, & Cost” blatantly ignore the self evident ethical and legal problems with mass medication of the population which I point out in this article pursuant existing Federal Drug Administration Laws. As I expected Tim Wright did not offer his professional opinion, only his personal one, since he is licensed as a dentist and not qualified to answer questions about how drinking Hydrofluorosilicic Acid affects the human body.

I expected very little from Timothy the moment I recognized him on the panel.

First – I always take offense when someone as FAT as Tim Wright lectures me about why I should be forced to drink fluoride when he is clearly so reckless with his own body.

Secondly – It immediately occurred to me that he was the one lone doofus defending fluoride in my WTVD report!

According to my sources most people turned down the opportunity to appear on TV in support of Fluoride but Tim Wright volunteered himself. This leads me to believe he is either monetarily invested in the perpetuation of fluoridation or he has constructed such an identity with fluoride through his misguided academic work that he is willing to defend it in a public forum rather than admit the bitter truth.

Before the meeting began I heard Tim Wright whisper to a colleague, “Are you ready to do battle?” as if he is on some kind of team. Timothy – if you really want to do battle and seem to be so wrapped up in pushing fluoride then you should debate me in a public forum on Water Fluoridation. I don’t even need the pretense of being a dentist in order to deconstruct your silly arguments.

Using sweeping generalizations and vague dictums Tim Wright in a most blanket manner discredits ALLscientific criticisms of fluoride ingestion but later admits that “we know fluoride is hazardous in high levels.”

Well Tim, if this fact is known even by the expert panel chosen to defend fluoridation then it is no surprise that the science of DOSAGE is completely lost on your humble mind.

When considering Fluoridation as a preventative medicine via ingestion the key factor which is incredibly lost on these dense people is not whether Fluoride is equitably delivered to the water…The most important factor is the equitable distribution to our human bodies!!

In decades of academic study has it never occurred to this imbecile that we all will naturally drink more or less water than one another?

These most basic facts are either totally lost on Timothy Wright or he is so blinded by his academic brainwashing that he refuses to see how outdated and discredited his perspective has become. Sooner or later the bitter reality will catch up to Dr. Wright and I hope at that point he will offer a public apology to me and everyone else he taught in his ventures as a professor.

I can tell you that I am already waiting for it.

Laura Gerald

The North Carolina State Director of Public Health was apparently too busy on the 14th to attend and defend fluoridation so I will dedicate very little space debating her vapid and empty written statements. One only has to listen to Rebecca King read the redundant words of Laura Gerald to know instantly which agency’s script is being repeated ad nauseam. Laura’s statements share stunning similarity to Rebecca and Kevin Buchholtz’ testimony so can only be taken as more personal opinions from the peanut gallery. When are these people going to wake up and realize that they are just another person born on the planet like you and me?

I will say that there was a hilarious though pathetic effort made by Director of the Health Board Gayle Harris to use Laura’s African ethnicity as a way to legitimize or somehow overpower past statements made by me in September 2012.

My statements which were referenced previously in this report alluded to civil rights activists Bernice & Alveda King MLK Jr’s Relatives) who condemned community water fluoridation in numerous public statements. If you actually listen to what I say the statements were clearly meant as encouragement to the board to stand on the side of civil rights and social justice, not necessarily because those people were black. By this metric it’s ironically Gayle Harris who is using the race card, whilst reflecting that inner truth on to me by insinuating I made some kind of “assertion” about black people.

Listen below as Health Board Chair Gayle Harris states with pride that Laura is “African American” which somehow must grant her magical powers that make fluoridation a healthy proposition:

The Culminating Event

I did not last very long in the question and answer period. I began to notice some legitimate questions being asked but no legitimate answers being offered in return. I could easily see the deception playing out before me which framed this substance FSA as an inert & natural substance.

The first such question was posed by James Miller, who asked Amy Keyworth if groundwater fluoride was the same substance that is added to Durham’s drinking water.

Her response was that Fluoride is an ion – so therefore it uniformly exists wherever it is found naturally. This might be true in her area of expertise but her lack of contextual information on the policy of water fluoridation is exposed instantly when she and the other experts nods her head “yes” to the question.

The bitter truth which the council hates me repeating is that our city forces each citizen to pay for a Class 8 Corrosive Substance, the waste product filtered off the smoke stacks of phosphate manufacturing, bled at a consistent rate of 1 ppm directly into your drinking water for over 60 years. When one calculates the actual damage done by this practice, it can only be considered a crime against humanity.

The Aftermath

Since I was forced to leave the building and not return, I only had my girlfriend as a mole in the now private health board meeting to capture the event. Unfortunately at the time I was using her phone to record the sheriff escorting me out, so we do not have video or recordings of what ensued after I left. I have decided to dedicate a separate post to recount and detail what happened afterwards according to my girlfriend Charlee’s witness testimony. Stay tuned!