From: Richard Montoya [rjm300@earthlink.net]
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 9:39 PM
To: Dockets, FDA
Subject: Docket Number 2006N-0352

August 31, 2006 

Dear President Bok, 



        

The notion that the common practice of fluoridating our water could be contributing to cancer in this country has been a long and controversial one and far from resolved. 

One of the cancers implicated to be caused by fluoride, for which there has been considerable speculation, and growing evidence since the beginning of fluoridation, has been osteosarcoma, particularly in young boys and men (Caffey, 1955; NAS, 1977; NTP, 1990; Hoover, 1991; 

Cohn, 1992). Thus, when Dr. Elise Bassin found a robust relationship between osteosarcoma and exposure to fluoridated water in their 6th, 7th and 8th years, this was a finding of monumental importance.  While her study does not resolve the issue completely, her methodology has 

showed the way forward. 

For Professor Chester Douglass to have concealed this finding from the public, his peers and the governmental agencies which support this practice, for four years, is reprehensible in my view. 

I, and I suspect many other scientists, am (are) baffled by Harvard's exoneration of Professor Douglass's recent actions in this regard. 



With due respect, you owe it to both Harvard's distinguished reputation, besides every parent of every young boy in this country, a full and watertight explanation of this extraordinary action. If you cannot do so, I urge you to open a new, and this time, totally independent inquiry into this affair. 

Meanwhile, I hope you will also urge Professor Douglass to release all his data so that independent scientists may review it in its entirety. 



Please add my comments to: Docket Number 2006N-0352. 



Sincerely, 



Richard James Montoya