Regarding the article in the Feb. 17 Herald about the Sultan River’s declining steelhead run:
There is overwhelming evidence that fluoride repels and kills anadromous fish such as salmon and steelhead.
Five cities on the Snohomish River, downstream from the Sultan River — Marysville, Everett, Snohomish, Monroe, and Sultan — dump fluoride-rich, treated wastewater into the river. Fluoride concentrations at outfalls are high enough to turn back or kill anadromous fish. The fluoride comes both from drinking water fluoridation at .7 ppm and fluoride toothpaste spit at 1,000 ppm.
In the ocean salmon and steelhead expel salt. In fresh water they absorb and retain salt. Fluoride is a salt. It builds up in bones in teeth and cannot be excreted. To salmon and steelhead, fluoride stinks. It turns them back and kills them. Fluoride in tiny concentrations kills the insects that fry eat.
Another factor overlooked is Roundup, which kills species of bacteria in fish stomachs needed for digestion.
If we are serious about salmon and steelhead recovery, we should quit fluoridating our water, ban fluoride toothpaste, and ban Roundup.
James Robert Deal
Lynnwood
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