Monday, January 13, 2003

FLUORIDES AND THE A-BOMB

JANUARY 13. In 1997, Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson, two respected mainstream journalists, peered into an abyss. They found a story about fluorides that was so chilling it had to be avoided. But they didn’t avoid it.

Their ensuing article, FLUORIDE, TEETH, AND THE ATOMIC BOMB, has been posted on websites, sometimes with distortions, deletions, or additions. I spoke with Griffiths recently, and he told me to be careful I was using a correct copy of his piece.

Griffiths also told me that researchers who study the effects of fluorides by homing in on communities with fluoridated drinking water versus communities with unfluoridated water miss a major point: Fluorides are EVERYWHERE---they are used throughout the pharmaceutical industry in the manufacture of drugs and also in many other industries (e.g., aluminum, pesticide)---because fluorine is very active and binds with all sorts of other substances. Therefore, there is an extremely wide public exposure to fluorides.

I want to go over some of the major points of the Griffiths-Bryson article.

As of 1997, two thirds of public drinking water in the US was fluoridated.

US public health officials maintain that fluorides at low doses are safe and prevent cavities.

Griffiths discovered hundreds of documents from the World War 2 era. These included papers from the Manhattan Project, which was launched to build the first A-bomb.

Griffiths/Bryson write: “Fluoride was the key chemical in atomic bomb production…millions of tons…were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War.”

The documents reveal that fluoride was the most significant health hazard in the US A-bomb program, for workers and for communities around the manufacturing facilities.

Griffiths/Bryson: “Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for humans in low doses was generated by A-bomb program scientists, who had been secretly ordered to provide ‘evidence useful in litigation’ against defense contractors for fluoride injury to citizens. The first lawsuits against the US A-bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage, the [government] documents show.”

So A-bomb scientists were told they had to do studies which would conclude that fluorides were safe.

The most wide-reaching study done was carried out in Newburgh, New York, between 1945 and 1956. This was a secret OP called “Program H.” The researchers obtained blood and tissue samples from people who lived in Newburgh, through the good offices of the NY State Health Department.

Griffiths/Bryson found the original and secret version of this study. Comparing it to a different sanitized version, the reporters saw that evidence of adverse effects from fluorides had been suppressed by the US Atomic Energy Commission.

Other studies during the same period were conducted at the University of Rochester. Unwitting hospital patients were given fluorides to test out the results.

Enter Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, the former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston. In the 1990s, Mullenix did a series of animal studies which showed that, as Griffiths/Bryson write: “…fluoride was a powerful central nervous system (CNS) toxin…”

Mullenix applied for further grant monies from the National Institutes of Health. She was turned down. She was also told that fluorides do not have an effect on the CNS.

But Griffiths/Bryson have uncovered a 1944 Manhattan Project memo which states: “Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect…it seems most likely that the F [fluoride] component rather than the T [uranium] is the causative factor.”

The memo was sent to the head of the Manhattan Project Medical Section, Colonel Stafford Warren Warren was being asked to give his okay to animal studies on fluorides’ effects on the CNS. He immediately did give his approval.

But any records of the results of this approved project are missing. Most likely classified.

In 1944, it was considered essential to move ahead with this work, but in the 1990s, Phyllis Mullenix was turned down cold.

Who was the man who made that 1944 proposal for a rush-program to study the CNS effects of fluorides? Dr. Harold Hodge, who worked at the Manhattan Project.

Who was brought in to advise Mullenix about 50 years later at the Forsytth Dental Center in Boston, as she studied the CNS effects of fluorides? Dr. Harold Hodge.

Who never told Mullenix of his work on fluoride toxicity for the Manhattan Project? Dr. Harold Hodge. Was Hodge brought in to look over Mullenix’s shoulder and report on her discoveries?

Getting the idea here?. Build an A-bomb. Forget the toxic consequences. Bury the fluoride studies. Twist the studies It’s all about national security. Lie, cheat, injure people---it’s for the best.

AND THE COVER-UP CONTINUES AS WE SPEAK, AS MORE PEOPLE ARE BEING INJURED BY THE TOXICITY OF FLUORIDES.

More on Hodge. In 1944, “a severe pollution incident” occurred in New Jersey, near the Du Pont plant in Deepwater where the company was trying to build the first A-bomb. A fluoride incident. Farmers’ peach and tomato crops were being destroyed. Horses and cows became crippled. Some cows had to graze on their bellies.

The people of the Manhattan Project were terrified. Of lawsuits. And possible revelations about the toxic nature of their work. A heads-up memo was written on the subject. Its author? Harold Hodge. Among other issues, he reported on the huge fluoride content in vegetables growing in the polluted area.

Also the high fluoride levels in human blood.

The farmers began to bring lawsuits. Big PR problem. Secrets could be exposed. The A-bomb program could be derailed if people found out how toxic the fluoride component was.

The lawsuits were settled quietly, for pittances.

Harold Hodge wrote another memo. Get this quote: “Would there be any use in making attempts to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents…through lectures on F [fluoride] toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of F in tooth health?”

Griffiths/Bryson write: “Such lectures were indeed given, not only to New Jersey citizens but to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War.”

Perhaps you remember the film, Dr. Strangelove. The scene in which the mad Army man rails about the destruction the fluorides are wreaking on the “pure blood of pure Americans.” Of course, this character is portrayed as some kind of “far right-wing fanatic.” How ironic that he and all other military crazies in the movie are, in fact, ready and willing to start a nuclear war. Ironic because, unknown to the Strangelove script writer, fluorides were VERY toxic AND were an integral part of the very program that created atomic bombs.

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