Phosphate Fluorides Toxic Torts

Drinking water is "fluoridated" with Fluorosilicic Acid which never occurs naturally in nature and is about 85 more times more toxic than natural occurring calcium fluoride (40 mg equals 3400 mg/kg calcium fluoride). This leads to different safety levels (See "Comparative Toxicity of Fluorine Compounds). Calcium is a well-known antidote for fluoride poisoning. Lucier Chemical, Jacksonville FL, buys much of its fluoride from phosphate fertilizer plants such as Mosaic, PCS Phosphate - White Springs, and CF Industries of Florida. Without fluoridation, manufacturers would have to pay to dispose of their fluoride waste; Fluorosilicic Acid is a toxic industrial byproduct which is used for water fluoridation. It has a rating of 3 under the NFPA 704 Hazard Rating System because it's highly to extremely toxic (deadly). It has a Class 8 Corrosive Materials rating (49 CFR 173.136) which means that it has a severe corrosion rate to steel (See MSDS LCI, Ltd Fluorosilicic Acid). The production of fluorosilicic acid (FSA) starts with washing down the air pollution scrubbers at phosphate fertilizer plants. Wash water comes recycled water full of sulfuric acid and industrial toxic sludge. Fluorosilicic acid is composed of tetrafluorosiliciate gas and other species of fluorine gases captured in pollution scrubbers and concentrated into scrubber liquor during wet process phosphate fertilizer manufacture which is easily soluble in water and also inexpensive to produce. See "Fluoride Manufacturing Process, Figures 1 and 2" for a diagram. The author asserts that fluorosilicic acid only comprises of 23% of the toxic sludge, while the other 77% is comprised of chlorides, amines, sulfides, arsenic, lead, aluminum, water etc. That all the people who say that this product is safe have no concept on how it is produced. Each batch will be a unique mixture of toxins. One batch is certified by NSF/ANSI 60 Section 3.2.1 yearly. The "NCF Reference Library" containing testing results is by invitation only because it contains Proprietary information. The NSF denies liability for use of fluorides and does not "publicly" disclose all safety or effectiveness data for its use as a water additive. Sodium Fluoride is an industrial waste byproduct from aluminum manufacturing and NSF international could potentially certify cheap Sodium Fluoride bags in China before they are imported from Shanghai Mintchem to be added into the water along with Fluorosilicic Acid upon demand from a city water district. All information is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

TOXIC TORTS is very informative, simply put, and downright scary. It gives all the basics of what fluoride made from toxic wastes can do to people - seen first hand from those who worked with it. The author appears well informed and knowledgable. The book makes the reader ask questions like, "Is it in my drinking water?" "How does it affect me and my children?" and, "What can I do about it?" Definitely worth the read, and checking into.

Gary Pittman is a legend! A mans , man ! Must read!

The book was well written. I purchased it to see how one fellow fought regulatory agencies and a giant corporation. Phosphate company skirted regulations and ignored bringing harm to its workers...a good lesson in the value of the worker...which is nada...self regulation does not work...assuming that a mega corporation is concerned for it workers is living in lala land.....Thank you, Mr. Pittman for sharing your experiences...

Thank you Gary and all of your helpers for an eye opening look at the beginnings of the chemical cocktail that they put in our water supply. My heart goes out to you and all workers who have had to work in these conditions. The aerial footage that I saw of the mine brought me to tears, what has happened to us?

Scary and sad. Enjoyed the personal account.

Very good book. Just one more example of corporate greed at the expense of human lives. Shameful and I doubt much has changed.

Gary Pittman gave up his life for his job.That wasn't Gary's plan when he started working at Occidental Chemical Corporation's phosphate plants. He just wanted to make a decent living and provide for his family. Occidental offered the best pay and best benefits for a high school graduate.Gary was exposed to 100's of toxic chemicals with only a hard hat and safety glasses for "protection." So it's no surprise that he and many of his co-workers developed debilitating chemical-induced diseases. Most workers were uneducated. Some could barely read and write, Gary says. They were no match for Occidental's highly-paid corporate lawyers. But Gary refused to back down and pursued a personal injury lawsuit (toxic tort litigation) against Occidental with several co-workers.Gary paints a bleak picture of what's inside the plants - the noise, the smell, the darkness, the boot-eating acids. It's what you would imagine that Hell would look like, Gary says.Occidental may have protected themselves legally. But ethically, it stinks as badly as the sulfuric acid stench permeating the plants. However, the one deadly chemical all employees were exposed to didn't have a smell - fluoride - yes, the stuff they put on your teeth and into your drinking water in a failed effort to reduce tooth decay. Fluoride, in the form of fluorosilicates or silicon tetrafluoride, is a toxic contaminant of the phosphate rock which must be removed to make safe fertilizer and animal feed products.Gary says, when researchers fed raw powdered fluoride-containing phosphate rock to farm animals, cows' milk dried up and had high rates of calf stillbirths. Pigs quit eating and breeding. Chickens died almost instantly. And to avoid killing animals and plants surrounding the factory, fluorosilicates must be captured or scrubbed out of air emissions.Gary writes, "When we had to clean the pollution scrubbers, most of us went home with acid burns and coughing up blood.""Once inside those vessels and scrubbers, we had no respirators, and had to breathe that stale, moist acidic air all shift. Sometimes, workers would fall ill with flu-like symptoms, the older workers called it `chemical pneumonia,'" writes Gary."I remember one time when they assigned me the task of cleaning the filter hood on the pollution scrubber. Powdery fluorosilicate dust was everywhere. As we were cleaning, the dust covered us. It was very hot - 100 to 120 degrees - and we were sweating profusely. When the fluorosilicate dust mixed with the perspiration, it formed acid on the skin and blistered us if we didn't wash it off in time. We were breathing those dusts, too. They didn't give us respirators," Gary writes. The pollution scrubbers' fluorosilicates contain heavy metals such as lead and mercury and radionuclides including radium-226, radon-222 and uranium-238.An autopsy of a man who died from several minutes exposure to concentrated fumes at a phosphate fertilizer plant revealed a coating of silica on his lungs. The cause of death, however, was fluorine poisoning, reports Gary. These fluorosilicates are the chemicals sold as water fluoridation chemicals. They are never purified before injection into public drinking water supplies. A dentist speaking at a San Diego City Council meeting, when asked where fluoride comes from, answered "from a rock." He wasn't lying. He just didn't tell the whole truth. Some fluoridation promoters soften fluorosilicates image by calling them "co-products" as if the phosphate fertilizer industry made the stuff on purpose. Whatever it's called, fluorosilicates have never been safety tested in animals or humans. Yet, its dumped unpurified into about 70% of US public drinking water supplies. Gary's story reveals the horror of working in an industry that provides the chemicals of modern living and how poorly the workers were treated by their employer whose main concern was money. Most of us have no idea how we indirectly put lives in peril. Maybe Gary's book will get people thinking about it - especially those who endorse, promote or legislate fluorosilicates into our public water supplies. Maybe the US phosphate fertilizer industry has improved worker conditions. But now, unbelievably, China, Mexico, Japan and Belgium are selling us their phosphate fertilizer waste fluorosilicates.China has a history of selling products to the US with unwanted and/or toxic ingredients. Chinese fluorosilicates have already clogged up water systems in the US. Organized dentistry, both inside government and out, and the officials they influence have a moral, ethical and maybe legal responsibility to know what toxins are in every delivery of fluoridation chemicals, where they come from and whose lives were endangered by handling them. They all need to read this book.

Great book arrived on time.

bit heavy on the process of law in America