> 98% Of Western Europe Has Rejected Water Fluoridation. This includes
> Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg,
> Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. The predominant reason for Europe's
> rejection is the belief that public drinking water is NOT the appropriate
> vehicle with which to deliver medication to a population.
>
> Fluoride Is Not An Essential Nutrient, which means that no human disease
> (including dental decay) has ever been linked to a fluoride deficiency. (1)
>
> The fluoride used to fluoridate water is an industrial waste product from
> the phosphate fertilizer industry. It is an unprocessed hazardous waste,
> contaminated with a number of toxins, particularly arsenic.
>
> Fluoridation adds between 0.1 and 1.6 parts per billion (ppb) Arsenic to
> drinking water, and therefore violates the EPA's Maximum Contaminant Level
> Goal for arsenic - which is 0 ppb. (2)
>
> Hydrofluosilicic acid & sodium silicofluoride, which are the chemicals used
> to fluoridate 91% of fluoridated water in the US, have Never Been Tested for
> safety and effectiveness.
>
> According to a November 16, 2000 letter from the EPA, "to answer your
> question on whether we have in our possession empirical scientific data on
> the effects of fluosilicic acid or sodium silicofluoride on health and
> behavior, the answer is no."
>
> Most dental authorities are now conceding that there is little, if any,
> benefit from swallowing fluoride, and that fluoride's benefits (whatever
> they are) come from topical application.
>
> When water fluoridation began 50 years ago, it was believed that fluoride
> needed to be ingested in order to be effective. This is NO longer the view
> of the dental establishment, which now generally concedes that fluoride's
> benefits are derived primarily from topical application. (3)
>
> According, for instance, to the US Centers for Disease Control, "Laboratory
> and epidemiologic research suggests that fluoride prevents dental caries
> predominately after eruption of the tooth into the mouth, and its actions
> primarily are topical for both adults and children."
>
> All fluoride products designed to be ingested (e.g. fluoride supplements)
> are available by prescription only. No fluoride products designed for
> ingestion have ever been approved as safe or effective by the US Food & Drug
> Administration. (4)
>
> By Logical Extension Fluoridated Water Can Appropriately Be Classified As An
> Unapproved Prescription Drug.
>
> The dental community concedes that fluoride is ineffective at preventing the
> most common type of dental decay - pit & fissures. Pit & fissure decay -
> which is the decay found in the crevices of the chewing surfaces - accounts
> for upwards of 85% of dental decay now experienced in the US. (5)
>
> New evidence suggests that fluoridation is either unnecessary or doesn't
> work. Cavities have declined at similarly impressive rates throughout the
> entire western, industrialized world over the past half century.
>
> This decline has occurred irrespective of a country's fluoridation status.
> Western Europe, which is 98% unfluoridated, has experienced the SAME decline
> in cavities as the heavily fluoridated US, and today enjoys the SAME low
> level of tooth decay. (6)
>
> The largest dental survey ever conducted in the US found virtually no
> difference in dental decay between children living in fluoridated vs.
> unfluoridated areas.
>
> The study, which was conducted by the National Institute Of Dental Research
> (NIDR), found that the average difference in tooth decay (0.6 tooth
> surfaces) between children living in fluoridated vs unfluoridated areas
> amounted to LESS than 0.5% of the 128 total tooth surfaces in a child's
> mouth. (7)
>
> Five peer-reviewed studies published in the last 2 years have found that
> dental decay DOES NOT increase when communities stop fluoridation. (8)
>
> The rhetoric supporting fluoridation is increasingly centered around the
> notion that fluoridation benefits the neediest in society the most. This
> claim flies in the face of the experience of most US inner cities over the
> past 50 years.
>
> Despite the fact that nearly all large US cities have been fluoridated for
> decades, dental decay is currently rampant in virtually all poor urban
> areas.
>
> One of the major dental health problems experienced in poor communities is a
> debilitating condition known as "baby bottle tooth decay" which is also
> referred to as "early childhood caries."
>
> This condition, which results from excessive consumption of sweetened
> liquids at a young age, is not prevented by water fluoridation. (9)
> According to a study in Pediatric Nursing "Data from Head Start surveys show
> the prevalence of baby bottle tooth decay is about three times the national
> average among poor urban children, even in communities with a fluoridated
> water supply."
>
> Fluoride Is A Very Toxic Substance, which is why it is the active ingredient
> in a number of pesticides. Just 2 grams of fluoride is enough to kill an
> adult, and just 500 mg is enough to kill a child. (11) In the US, people
> have died, and many have become sick, when faltering fluoridation equipment
> has pumped excess fluoride into the water.
> Poor nutrition exacerbates the toxic effects of fluoride exposure, which is
> a further reason why it's wrong to target poor communities with fluoridation
> (as poor nutrition is more prevalent in low income communities).
>
> According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, "Existing
> data indicate that subsets of the population may be unusually susceptible to
> the toxic effects of fluoride and its compounds. These populations include
> the elderly, people with deficiencies of calcium, magnesium and/or vitamin
> C, and people with cardiovascular and kidney problems." (12)
>
> Contaminated Food Chain - Many of the processed beverages and foods sold in
> the US contain elevated levels of fluoride due to the use of fluoridated
> water during manufacturing, and the presence of fluoride pesticides.
>
> Total fluoride exposure has increased substantially since the early days of
> fluoridation. (13) When fluoridation first began, exposure to fluoride from
> sources other than fluoridated water, was minimal.
>
> Today that is not the case.
>
> People now receive fluoride from a whole host of sources, including
> pesticide residues, fluoridated dental products, mechanically deboned meat,
> fluoride air pollution, and processed foods & beverages prepared with
> fluoridated water (e.g. soda, juice, beer, cereal, etc).
>
> It has now reached the point where most people receive the "optimal" 1
> mg/day of fluoride (which fluoridated water was designed to deliver) without
> ever drinking a glass of fluoridated water.
>
> Despite the increase in total fluoride exposure, the concentration of
> fluoride added to drinking water (0.7-1.2 mg/L) as prescribed by the US
> Government, is still the same as it was back in the 1940s.
>
> Due to the increase in total fluoride exposure, there has been a major
> increase in the rate of dental fluorosis found among American children.
> According to the US Government, approximately 1 in 3 children living in
> fluoridated areas have dental fluorosis on at least 2 teeth. (14)
>
> Dental fluorosis is the first visible sign that fluoride has poisoned
> enzymes in the body.
>
> Approximately half of the fluoride we ingest each day accumulates in our
> bodies, primarily in the bones, but also in soft tissues. (15)
>
> High levels of naturally occurring fluoride causes a crippling bone disease
> known as skeletal fluorosis. According to UNICEF, skeletal fluorosis is
> endemic "in at least 25 countries across the globe" (16) with the problem
> particularly acute in India, China and other developing countries.
>
> Skeletal fluorosis comes in varying degrees of severity depending on the
> level of exposure. The earliest symptoms are characterized by joint pain
> that is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish from arthritis.
>
> According to a review on fluoridation by Chemical & Engineering News:
> "Because some of the clinical symptoms mimic arthritis, the first two
> clinical phases of skeletal fluorosis could be easily misdiagnosed [as
> arthritis]." The World Health Organization states that "early cases [of
> skeletal fluorosis] may be misdiagnosed as rheumatoid or osteoarthritis."
> (17)
>
> It is estimated that approximately 40 million Americans suffer from
> arthritis, the most common type being osteoarthritis.
>
> Fluoride stimulates abnormal bone development. Clinical trials published in
> the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Bone and Mineral Research
> (18) report that high dose fluoride treatment increases bone mass but that
> the newly formed bone is "structurally unsound" (19). Thus, instead of
> reducing hip fracture, the studies found that high doses of fluoride
> increase hip fracture.
>
> There is concern that "low" doses of fluoride, taken over long periods of
> time (e.g. fluoridated water), may also increase the rate of hip fracture.
> Approximately 20 recent studies have investigated the relationship between
> fluoridated water and hip fracture, with approximately half of the studies
> finding an association. (20)
>
> A 1995 study in the journal Neurtoxicology and Teratology, found that
> fluoride accumulated in the brain of rats and produced age-specific
> behavioral deficits typical of most neurotoxic agents. (21)
>
> In the study, fluoride induced damage to the hippocampal region of the
> brain. Damage to the hippocampal region has been linked to hyperactivity and
> cognitive deficits. Based on the results, the lead author of the study, Dr.
> Phyllis Mullenix, has come out and advised against water fluoridation.
>
> Five recent peer reviewed studies from China have found an association
> between elevated fluoride exposure and decreased IQs in children - an effect
> that would be expected based on Mullenix's research. (22)
>
> In the late 1990s, a British scientist discovered that fluoride accumulates
> to very high levels (avg = 9000 ppm) in the crystallized tissue of the human
> pineal gland.
>
> A subsequent animal study found that fluoride interferes with the pineal
> gland's production of melatonin, a hormone which helps regulate the onset of
> PUBERTY. In the study, animals dosed with fluoride had reduced levels of
> melatonin metabolites in their urine and had earlier onsets of puberty than
> the controls. (23)
>
> Up until the 1950s, European doctors used fluoride to reduce the activity of
> the thyroid gland for people suffering from overactive thyroid
> (hyperthyroidism). (24) The daily dose of fluoride which people are now
> receiving in fluoridated communities (1.6 to 6.6 mg/day) (25) actually
> exceeds the dose of fluoride which was found to depress the thyroid gland
> (2.3 to 4.5 mg/day). (26)
>
> Hypothyroidism (under-active thyroid) is currently one of the most common
> medical problems in the United States. Synthroid, the drug doctors prescribe
> to treat hypothyroidism, was the fourth most prescribed drug in the US in
> the year 2000. Symptoms of hypothyroidism include depression, fatigue,
> weight gain, muscle and joint pains, increased cholesterol levels, and heart
> disease.
>
> A recent study published in the journal Brain Research found that 1 PPM
> fluoride in water facilitated the uptake of aluminum into the brain of rats,
> producing the type of brain tangles (amyloid deposits) that are associated
> with Alzheimers disease and other types of dementia. (27)
>
> An epidemiological study published in the December 2000 issue of the journal
> Neurotoxicology, found that fluoridated water was associated with elevated
> levels of lead in children's blood. (28)
>
> The study's findings parallel the findings of an earlier study published in
> the September 1999 issue of the International Journal of Environmental
> Studies. (29) Lead in the blood is associated with a variety of neurological
> problems, including reduced intelligence, aggression and hyperactivity.
>
> Dozens of laboratory studies have found that fluoride is a mutagen - a
> classification which frequently indicates that a substance is carcinogenic
> (i.e. that it causes cancer). (30) A cancer bioassay conducted by the
> National Toxicology Program found that rats dosed with fluoride had a
> statistically significant increase in bone tumors (osteosarcomas), which
> were not found among the controls.
>
> The initial review of the study also reported that the fluoride-dosed rats
> had tumors of the thyroid, oral cavity and rare tumors of the liver; however
> these tumors were later downgraded under conspicuous and controversial
> circumstances. According to Dr. William Marcus, the Chief Toxicologist at
> the EPA's Office of Drinking Water, the downgrading of the tumors was
> politically motivated and not scientifically defensible. (31)
>
> A recent epidemiological study conducted by a scientist from the US Public
> Health Service found that female infertility was associated with elevated
> levels of fluoride ( >3ppm) in drinking water. The study concluded that more
> emphasis needs to be given to the effects on health from total fluoride
> exposure - not just exposure to fluoridated drinking water. (32)
>
> In light of the recent research indicating health risks from low level
> fluoride exposure, the Union of Scientists and professionals at EPA
> headquarters has voted to oppose fluoridation (33) and has called upon
> Congress to issue a "national moratorium" on the fifty year old policy.
> According to the Vice President of the Union, Dr. J. William Hirzy,
>
> "In summary, we hold that fluoridation is an unreasonable risk. That is, the
> toxicity of fluoride is so great and the purported benefits associated with
> it are so small - if there are any at all - that requiring every man, woman
> and child in America to ingest it borders on criminal behavior on the part
> of governments."
>
> After years of overlooking the problems with fluoride & fluoridation, the
> environmental community is finally beginning to address the issue. In
> September of 2001, the Sierra Club announced that:
>
> There are now valid concerns regarding the potential adverse impact of
> fluoridation on the environment, wildlife, and human health. The Sierra Club
> therefore supports giving communities the option of rejecting mandatory
> fluoridation of their water supplies.
>
> To protect sensitive populations, and because safer strategies and methods
> for preventing tooth decay are now available, we recommend that these safer
> alternatives be made available and promoted."
>
> Fluoride Action Network January 2002
>
> References
>
>
>
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