From the January 2003 Idaho Observer:

Safe Water Coaltion sues Pierce County, WA, over fluoride dispute

SPOKANE -- Six water utilities on the Washington coast, the city of Bonney Lake and Citizens Opposing Fluoridation in Pierce County have filed a lawsuit against the Tacoma-Pierce County Health District for trying to mandate fluoridation in Pierce County.

According to, “Water Fluoridation: A Manual for Engineers and Technicians,” a document published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one of three basic fluoride compounds is used to fluoridate public drinking water: Sodium fluoride (which has been used as a rat poison); hydrofluorosilic acid (toxic by-product of phosphate fertilizer manufacture) or; sodium silicofluoride (which contains heavy metals and other contaminants.

“When Seattle and Tacoma inhabitants turn on their faucets for a glass of water, they are swallowing much more than H2O. They are drinking hydrofluorosilic acid which contains lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium,” the coalition claimed in its Dec. 31, 2002 press release announcing the lawsuit.

The Safe Water Coalition is networked with anti-fluoridation activists all over the country who are in various stages of removing fluoride from their water or preventing the known toxin from being added to it.

Regardless that science, experience and now public sentiment runs contrary to water fluoridation being a sound public health policy, government insists upon systemically exposing citizens to the poison in parts per million.

The coalition's eastern Washington coordinator can be contacted at (509) 328-6704.