From: https://tinyurl.com/yg86hv8c (epochtimes.com)

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Chinese Fluoride in Tap Water Worries Michigan Community

"We are dependent on China for too many things" says Village President Ray
Mach of Port Sanilac
By Steven Kovac
August 24, 2021 Updated: August 24, 2021

LEXINGTON, Mich.-The discovery that a Michigan town's drinking water
treatment plant has been adding Chinese-made fluoride to its water supply
for years has some of its residents upset.

"It's absurd," said Steve Stencel, a long-time restaurant owner in
Lexington, Michigan. "It's not good at all, buying our drinking water
treatment chemicals from a communist nation that is our enemy. I am
surprised that any municipality would buy fluoride for its drinking water
from China. Our country needs to know this is happening."

Lexington Village Utilities Director Chris Heiden said the water plant has
used Chinese fluoride for years without any problems.

Fluoride is a chemical added to drinking water to help reduce tooth decay.

The Lexington water plant supplies drinking water to village residents and
several neighboring communities. It has just under 3,000 customers.

A downtown apparel shop owner in Lexington said he had no idea
Chinese-made fluoride was being added to the water supply.

When he learned of it, he said it gave him cause for concern.

"It's scary. I can't help but think of the `What if?'" he told The Epoch
Times.

One former water plant employee told The Epoch Times, "While I was working
there, I saw the Chinese fluoride in 50-pound plastic bags stacked on the
floor. I was surprised and appalled."

Doug Varty, a residential real estate developer whose new subdivision is
serviced by Lexington water, said: "It's wrong. I'm not comfortable with
Chinese-made fluoride. Surely we have American products they can use.
Buying American is the way to solve the problem. If they have an
alternative, they should buy it."

Village President Ray Mach of Port Sanilac, Michigan, whose community
plans to buy its drinking water from Lexington, told The Epoch Times that
the use of Chinese-made fluoride makes him uneasy.

"Look at COVID-19. Remember a few years ago, how baby formula was
supplemented with melamine in China itself," Mach said. "We are dependent
on China for too many things. We can't even buy a surgical mask made here
anymore."

In 2008, Chinese-made baby formula products were found to have been
purposefully tainted with melamine. The additive boosted the nitrogen
content of diluted milk, making it appear to have a higher protein
content. Out of 294,000 victims, 59,000 were hospitalized and six babies
died of kidney stones and kidney damage.

Walt Badgerow, the supervisor of nearby Worth Township, which buys its
drinking water from Lexington, recently passed a resolution banning the
township government from purchasing Chinese products if an alternative is
available.

"From the moment I learned of the use of Chinese-made fluoride by the
Lexington water plant I was appalled," he said. "In light of the CCP's
[Chinese Communist Party] track record of foisting tainted pet food on our
country and selling us toys colored with lead-based paint, I am very wary
of their quality control. I won't drink water with Chinese chemicals in
it."

Badgerow was referring to the 2007 Chinese pet food scandal, during which
melamine-tainted pet food sickened and killed cats and dogs in the United
States. Lead-tainted Chinese-made toys made their way into the United
States as recently as 2018, despite protective measures put in place by
Congress.

Stencel said that in a previous career, he had direct experience with
Chinese quality control. He once demonstrated a strength-testing machine
to a Detroit-area truck equipment supplier.

"The supposedly inspected and certified Chinese-made grappling hooks we
tested failed before they reached half of the stress load they were
certified for. That could kill someone. I can't trust what's coming from
China," he said.

Utilities Director Heiden said he relies on a couple of independent
international inspection organizations that subject chemicals such as the
sodium fluoride Lexington uses to stringent testing as part of the
exporting process.

"It may be possible for us to buy American-made granular fluoride. I don't
know," Heiden said. "Wherever we buy it, it must be NSF approved."

The two largest independent testing organizations are the National
Sanitation Foundation (NSF), and Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL).

Liquid fluoride is readily available from U.S. manufacturers, but
Lexington and nearby Port Huron use two different dry versions of the
chemical, which are more likely to be imported. Lexington uses a granular
form and Port Huron uses a powder form of fluoride.

A worker from the Port Huron water plant told The Epoch Times that they
had been using Chinese-made powdered fluoride until the supply chain
became so undependable that they switched to a Belgian manufacturer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of
2010, powdered and granulated sodium fluoride such as the one used in
Lexington made up 15 percent of the water fluoridation products used in
the United States. Sodium fluorosilicate, another powdered fluoridation
product, made up 10 percent of the products. Fluorosilicic acid, a liquid
water fluoridation product, was used in 75 percent of the country's water
systems.

The largest producers of fluorosilicic acid are located in the
Asia-Pacific region, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com. Some of those
producers are Solvay America, Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Napco
Chemical Company, American Elements, and IXOM.

According to Michele McRae, a commodity specialist at the National
Minerals Information Center, a handful of plants in the United States
produce fluorosilicic acid: J.R. Simplot Co. in Wyoming, Nutrien in North
Carolina, and Mosaic Co. in Florida and Louisiana.

With the exception of bottled water used as a consumer beverage, the
United States Food and Drug Administration doesn't have jurisdiction over
community drinking (tap) water. Such regulation is left to state agencies.

"People across Michigan and across America need to be aware of our
increasing dependence upon China in some of our most basic and vital
functions like our drinking water systems. We can't trust the CCP. We need
to know what our own water plants are using," Badgerow said.

PVS Nolwood, the Detroit-based chemical company that supplies the
Lexington water plant with Chinese-made fluoride, didn't respond to
repeated requests for comment.

PVS Nolwood was recently stripped of its National Sanitation Foundation
certification for delivering four drums of sulfuric acid mistakenly
labeled as liquid fluoride to the New Baltimore, Michigan, water plant
earlier this year. The error was discovered by a workman before the
substance was added to the city's water supply, but a fluoride storage
tank and a pump were damaged by the acid. No one was injured.

Mike Bolf of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and
Energy told The Epoch Times that PVS Nolwood is currently operating under
its certification from Underwriters Laboratories, which Bolf said was
"still current and valid," thus enabling the firm to continue doing
business.

"Underwriters has assured us that they have increased their surveillance
over the company and are monitoring its corrective action plan," Bolf
said.

New Baltimore ceased doing business with PVS Nolwood right after the
incident.

According to Heiden, Lexington suspended doing business with the firm and
is using an interim supplier.

"We need to find out what corrective measures they (PVS Nolwood) are
taking to get back in compliance with NSF," he said.

According to the CDC, 6.6 million Michigan residents are receiving
fluoride through their municipal drinking water. The vast majority of the
fluoride is in liquid form and likely produced in the United States.

More than 207 million Americans had access to fluoridated water as of
2018, according to the CDC.

Adding China-manufactured fluoride to U.S. drinking water is "of course" a
potential "attack vector" for the communist regime, according to Jeff
Nyquist, author and expert on Chinese Communist Party subversion tactics
and unrestricted warfare.

"If the Chinese government says, `Oh, you make fluoride there for the
water for the Americans? Hey, we've got an extra little secret sauce for
your American fluoride.' I mean, that is certainly possible," he told The
Epoch Times.

One of the things stopping the regime from doing so is the risk of getting
caught, Nyquist said.

"It would be an act of war."

Is your community's water system using Chinese-made water fluoridation
products? The Epoch Times would like to know about it. Contact us at
steven.kovac@epochtimes.us.

Cara Ding, Ivan Pentchoukov, and Petr Svab contributed to this report.
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