Fluoride - Friend or Foe?

Recently a neighboring city, Deland, Florida (FL), decided to stop fluoridation of the water supply only to be lobbied hard by the Dental Association to reverse the decision. And so they did reverse it! I've heard arguments on both sides of why it should and why it should not be added but this particular story gave a few more straight forward facts. Those are the statements that of course can be backed up with something to prove they are true, not just something some person heard from another and was passed down from someone else. So here's some facts of interest that I pulled out from all the comments left on this article. Of course the Deland Beacon Newspaper decided to write an advertisement (disguised as an article) for the American Dental Association but many residents did leave more balanced comments - thankfully.

The things I've listed here are but a small subset of information that is out there. Don't take my word for it - check it out for yourself. The more you look into it, the more you'll see and the more you'll know. Each paragraph has an underlined link to it where I obtained the information so feel free to read all of this or Google search fluoride for the complete story.

1. According to the CDC, fluoridation in low social-economic communities is beneficial. It is the most cost effective way of delivering fluoride to the mass population. Instead of embracing the views of their opponents, the CDC basically writes off these concerns. Their view is that it prevents dental carries inside the mouth through a constant environment of additional fluoride through drinking water.
2. Alcoa in the 1930's was doing research on the waste they discharged into the water supplies noting that Fluorine was present in most water supplies so it could not necessarily be proved that it was coming from their factories. However they felt the practice of dumping waste containing fluoride into the water supplies should be abolished. Alcoa then began to look for ways to sell the byproduct - (the waste being sodium fluoride) of making aluminum.
3. Dean - By the 1920's, industrial waste was one of the biggest problems in the US. H. Trendley Dean was commissioned to study water sources in 345 Texas communities. Dean was a former dental surgeon for the US Public Health and his mentor had been US Treasury Secretary and major stockholder of Alcoa - Andrew Mellon. Dean remembered McKay/Black's claims that fluorosis victims mottled, discolored teeth were resistant to decay and came up with the magic threshold of 1 ppm Fluoride would prevent tooth decay while not damaging bones or teeth. The news was exceptionally good for Alcoa. Dean became the father of public water fluoridation. After an independent study of his results, it was found that Dean had engaged in selective use of data using data from only 21 of the cities that confirmed his findings and ignoring 272 that did not. In a hearing conducted by the AMA in 1957, he was forced to admit that dental flourosis, the first sign of fluoride overdose could be caused by water fluoridated at 1.0 ppm. The admissions were not widely publicized and never acknowledged by the US Public Health, ADA (American Dental Association) or other governmental bodies responsible for shoving fluoride on the public.
4. Other countries have rejected fluoridation. France rejected fluoridation in 1980 because of doubts about whether it harms human health. Denmark recommended in 1977 that fluoridation not be allowed primarily because no adequate studies had been carried out on its long term effects. In 1978, the West German Association of Gas & Water Experts rejected fluoridation for legal reasons and felt long term damage was to be expected.
5. Fluoride is used as an insecticide/roach killer. As little as 1/10 of an ounce of fluoride will cause death. It is more poisonous than lead and slightly less poisonous than arsenic. Fluoride weakens the immune system. It causes birth defects/genetic damage and is likely to aggravate kidney disease, diabetes and hypothyroidism. It also causes the breakdown of collagen. There are direct links that Fluoride causes cancer according to studies in the 1950's and 1960's. It affects the DNA repair mechanism.
   
6. Administered through drinking water, tooth paste, mouth washes, pills or drops. Fluoridated toothpaste contains 1,000 ppm fluoride which is enough to kill small children if ingested. At these levels, it causes gum damage.
   

While I could continue to list information from various sources, this gives you a good idea of just how bad fluoride really is. I was brought up to believe that fluoride was the savior of mankind and it has taken me some time to begin changing my brainwashed thoughts from childhood. As I dug into the information on it, I really got my eyes opened.

Here's a video that gives another perspective of it that I found on YouTube.




A medical doctor from Orange City, Florida wrote in a comment to the article posted in the Deland Beacon Newspaper which I thought was well written. I'm including it with his permission. His name is Dr. Travis Herring.

It’s déjà vu all over again! Once again, dentists and taxpayer-paid officials swarm out to maintain or introduce mass medication of a very hazardous and toxic substance to your water supply. Whoever made the decision to stop fluoridation of the DeLand water supply made the right decision and saved money to boot. Orange City has saved close to a million dollars since the 1997 decision not to fluoridate the Orange City water supply when the issue came up in Orange City (using the figures quoted in the May 7-10 Beacon).

These dentists represent the same trade group that for 150 years has told the world that mercury in our mouths is good for us (even though it becomes a hazardous substance when removed). The world at large now knows that mercury is toxic in an ever more toxic environment and is to be avoided. The dental profession still hasn’t admitted the obvious.

Since the 1940’s dentists have told us that fluoridated water is good for us because of its effect in preventing and controlling tooth decay. That’s the dance of the one-trick pony. The human being is more than teeth. We do know that the abundant element fluoride is very low in mother’s milk. What happens when we upset the balance of nature and give infants 100 times as much fluoride in formula from our water supply? We simply don’t really know. What happens when an entire population is deliberately mass-medicated with a substance even more toxic than lead? Again, we don’t really know. In a chaotically contaminated chemical environment, it is difficult, if not currently impossible, to separate out the confounding factors in any of the studies for or against fluoride. We do know that fluoride is not a nutrient. We do know that dental caries are decreasing in countries that do not practice fluoridation. We do have reasonable suspicion that fluoride may be associated with increased incidence of cancer (e.g., osteosarcoma), premature aging, genetic changes, and nervous system problems including lowered IQ. We do know that life is tenacious and will adapt, persist, and respond to, and in spite of, noxious influences.

And we do know that fluoridation costs money, someone gets paid that money, and we get stuck with the bill. But Environmental Protection Agency employees (not management!) in a July 2, 1997 press release devoted to fluoride concluded “As professionals who are charged with assessing the safety of drinking water, we conclude that the health and welfare of the public is not served by the addition of this substance to the public water supply.” For those who in the back of their minds, think that fluoride, somehow, purifies water and makes it safer, let it be known that fluoride makes water less pure and less safe.

As a physician, I would not dream of indiscriminately administering such a drug without consideration of need and without consent. I would consider it malpractice. I have no serious quarrel with physicians and patients who, with informed consent, elect fluoride treatment. I do have a problem with taxpayers being forced to swallow their medicine whether or not they want it. For those who, somehow, still support fluoridation, do you really want to impose fluoride on others, knowing that today’s dogma is tomorrow’s myth? Authorities and their opinions come and go.

There is an alternative to fluoride for those who believe it’s helpful. It’s called toothpaste and it’s more than enough. But even swallowed fluoride toothpaste is harmful to young children. Read the label. Children, infants with lots of cavities? - stop the soda, sweets, and juices at every opportunity. May cut down on obesity, too. A two-for-one benefit.

Finally, I quote the Beacon: “They showed a horrifying photo of a young woman’s mouth full of caries and threatened that people can die from poor dental health. They said DeLand had showed leadership and was making dental-health progress, but was in danger of backsliding if fluoridation wasn’t restored.” That was a cheap trick and unworthy of their cause. I can imagine that at least some of the public health professionals there, still capable of thought, must have been inwardly cringing at such tactics.

In the end, money started this fluoridation misadventure in DeLand and money ended it. But it behooves us to be alert to that still, small voice that tells us, somehow, it’s not smart to poison our well.

For Further Information:

• Fluoride Action Network
• Consumer Health Organization Of Canada
• CDC on Fluoridation Of Drinking Water
• Fluoride Fatigue/Poisoning
• Infant Formula Should Not Be Mixed with Fluoridated Water (Video)
• Tooth Decay Trends in Fluoridated and Non-Fluoridated Countries
  
• Fluoridation - People Watching Out For the Community
• Study Links Fluoride to Bone Cancer
• Fluoride News Blogspot
• Natural Moms Talk Radio: Bill Osmunson