Fluoride was a teeth damaging natural water pollutant way before it was
a cavity-fighting water supply additive. New research questions the
safety and efficacy of fluoride and fluoridation.
Dentists wondered why, in the early 1900's, in pockets of the Southwest
black, some just had white blotches, some were crumbling. They called it
"
fluoride in drinking water, from 2 - 13 parts per million (ppm), which
also irrigated crops the locals ate.
These ugly, sometimes deformed, teeth were unusually cavity-free. Since
fluoride stained teeth, dentists assumed fluoride also prevented decay.
"Colorado Brown Stain" became known by the more scientific term, dental
fluorosis. Unfortunately, dentists overlooked what's obvious today, even
to a layperson. They failed to factor in the calcium, magnesium and
other teeth strengthening minerals also in the water supply.
During an era when doubting government was anti-American, when public
health heroes of the day were idealists who believed they were saviors
of their people, fluoridation began in the late 1940's. One part per
million fluoride added to "fluoride deficient" water supplies, reduced
decay by 70% without unwanted fluorosis public health officials
promised. Holding the paternalist values of their time, they believed
mothers couldn't be trusted to give their children their daily fluoride
dose in pill form so they prescribed it into the drinking water.
Children up to nine years old would benefit, they told us. Fluoride
incorporated into their developing teeth to erupt with a shield against
decay as long as they consumed 1 milligram fluoride daily via
approximately one quart of 1 ppm fluoridated water.
Children, who didn't live in fluoridated communities, were (and still
are) prescribed fluoride supplements - a drug marketed before safety
testing was required by the Food and Drug Administration.
At its inception, fluoridation, or these supplements, was virtually
children's only fluoride source. Now over 62% of US water supplies are
fluoridated and so are the foods and beverages grown, bottled and
manufactured with that water. There's a glut of fluoridated dental
products on the market, both over-the-counter and by prescription.
Fluoridated pesticide residues remain on foods, medicines contain
fluoride, and air is polluted by fluoride from industry.
Instead of bringing tooth decay rates down to that enjoyed by early
Southwesterners who ate produce from their own gardens, children's
dental fluorosis rates have steeply increased. Yet, tooth decay is still
a major problem for malnourished or poorly nourished Americans.
New research proves old-time dentists' premise was wrong. Fluoride's
possible benefits, if any, are topical. So there's no good reason to
swallow fluoride or put it into the water supply.
The old dogma is beginning to unravel. British researchers report in the
British Medical Journal that fluoridation studies are flawed. A Canadian
Government report found fluoridation does more harm than good. A US
National Institutes of Health Panel found most tooth decay studies,
including hundreds on fluoride, scientifically invalid. Even UNICEF, the
organization that protects children, reports, "more and more scientists
are now seriously questioning the benefits of fluoride, even in small
amounts."
What's more unbelievable is that the chemicals most used to fluoridate
drinking water are silicofluorides, contaminated waste product of
industry, that were never safety tested on humans or animals. Meanwhile
we are conducting a massive toxicological experiment. Our children are
the test subjects
Silicofluorides are linked with children's increased lead absorption.
Studies link fluoride chemicals to bone fractures, lowered IQ, thyroid
dysfunction, cancer, allergies and more.