Advocacy Project: Fluoride Around You

Purpose
Through this activity, I hope to show why healthy fluoride should be encouraged in our water systems and to prove the need for fluoride in our daily lives.

Instructions
This is a two-part activity.

Part 1: Please read the following:
-Learn about the top ten facts of having fluoride. See why fluoride is a positive additive and why it should be implemented into our lives.

-Check out these fluoride sources. Click on some of the sources to see how much fluoride is in each product listed. Evaluate all of the items on the page to your own life and how many of these items you consume yourself. Think about how healthy your food and beverage choices are especially after you look into the fluoride levels in the items.

-CDC offers a great site to see what is happening fluoride-wise in your own community. This will allow you to see how fluoride affects your own family & community (a localized idea)

• Click on your state, then county, then your town 
• See what fluoride is being used around you and how you're getting your fluoride.
• Look at towns around you to see what you could also be consuming from their fluoride systems.
  

Part 2: Your assignment (two parts): 

• Look into your own life/home and take a photograph of an item(s) that have fluoride in it. Choose something unique and that is a daily necessity for you.

AND

• Please write a short description of this item and why it’s a necessity for you. Include what your life would be like without this item and how you would feel if you found out a deadly chemical was in it (EX: my issue overview was of perfluorbutane sulfonyl fluoride WHICH is a product of a synthetic organic chemical that is used to manufacture protective coatings for apparel and home furnishings, and to manufacture specialty surfactants).

Even if you don’t spend the time checking the labels for fluoride or worry about what you’re consuming or using on a daily basis I hope this activity helps bring the issue down to a personal level. Fluoride is after all around us in our daily lives and without a regulation on what chemicals are added to it, we may all be in grave danger.  We all have a responsibility to keep ourselves, family members, and our communities safe. Please pay attention to local and national updates on fluoride- as we’ve learned through this advocacy project, some of our leaders don’t always know all of the facts on what our issues are about. Please advocate for safer and healthier fluoride additives. Remember after all this fluoride is not only in the water you drink but in almost all of your daily activities. Bathing, eating, drinking, and cleaning!