Paul Connett is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dartmouth College. From 1983 to 2006 he taught chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he specialized in Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology. He retired in May 2006 with the rank of full professor.
In 1985 Dr. Connett became embroiled in a local incinerator battle in St. Lawrence County in Northern NY State. His involvement led to the formation of a coalition of groups fighting incineration in several states. This eventually became Work On Waste, USA for which he was the executive director.
Between 1985 and 1995 Work on Waste, USA helped citizens’ groups defeat over 300 incinerator proposals in North America. Dr. Connett has co-authored six papers on dioxin and co-produced and edited over 40 videotapes on waste management. Since 1985 the waste issue has taken him to 49 states in the US and 63 other countries, where he has given over 2500 pro bono presentations to communities.
Since 1998 Dr. Connett has promoted the Zero Waste strategy as an alternative to incinerators and eventually landfills. In 2012 he gave two invited presentations on Zero Waste before the UN Commission on Sustainability in NYC. He has summarized his work on waste, The Zero Waste Solution: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a Time (Chelsea Green, 2013).
Reluctantly Dr. Connett got involved in the fluoridation debate in 1996, and for 20 years he has researched the literature on fluoride’s toxicity and the dangers of fluoridation program. He helped found the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). He has given presentations on the dangers of fluoridation in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the US. This included an invited presentation in 2003 to the US National Research Council, which published a landmark review of fluoride’s toxicity in 2006.
In 2010, with two other authors he published the book, The Case Against Fluoride (Chelsea Green), which contains 80 pages of citations to the scientific literature. As of August 2016 there has yet to be a scientifically referenced response to this book.
Despite being challenged many times to do so, very few of those championing fluoridation in government agencies and professional bodies, have been prepared to publicly debate Dr. Connett on fluoridation, even while they claim he misrepresents the literature!
