Hi all, I have done some investigation into this fluoride debate and I have come to the conclusion that there are enough reputable studies regarding negative effects of fluoride to persuade me that it should not be added to water supplies and should be removed from water supplies where it has been added. It is not required to ensure healthy teeth as demonstrated by the following graphs based on data from the World Health Organization which compare countries which have fluoride in the water to those that do not. As you will see from the graphs in the link provided below all western countries have experienced similar improvements in dental health over time regardless of fluoridation.
h t t p : // w w w . fluorideaction.net/health/teeth/caries/who-dmft . html
The following link contains a video produced by a show called "What's Good For You" in Australia. It shows a balanced review of the fluoride debate and whilst the article concludes that it is up to us to decide, the truth is it is not up to us because fluoride is being put in the water whether you want it or not.
h t t p : / / health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id= 230698
(sorry all, had to stretch the links out to get them past, I havnt made 15 posts or more so am not allowed to post URLs)
The following quotes are provided FYI:
"Water fluoridation is the greatest case of scientific fraud of this century... if not of all time." Dr Robert Carton, former President of the Union of Government Scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
"There is not a single scientific, or laboratory, study from anywhere in the world which proves that fluoridation reduces tooth decay in humans. There are, however, hundreds of published scientific papers which show that water fluoridation is dangerous to human, animal, plant and aquatic life, which is no surprise, since fluoride is more toxic than lead and only marginally less so than arsenic."
National Pure Water Association, UK
In 1997, more than 1,000 members of the union working at the Environmental Protection Agency HQ in Washington DC, who are directly responsible for the implementation of the US Safe Drinking Water Act, voted unanimously to ban water fluoridation.
"Our members' review of the body of evidence over the last eleven years, including animal and human epidemiological studies, indicate a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment and bone pathology. Of particular concern are the recent epidemiological studies linking fluoride exposure to lower I.Q. in children. As professionals 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."
Vice-President of the National Federation of Federal Employees, USA.
"No physician in his right senses would prescribe for someone he has never met, whose medical history he does not know, a substance which is intended to create bodily change, with the advice: 'Take as much as you like, but you will take it for the rest of your life because some people say that it can reduce tooth decay in children."
Dr Peter Mansfield, Director, Templegarth Trust.
References on the scientific case... against fluoride
Fluoride exposure disrupts the synthesis of collagen and leads to the breakdown of collagen in bone, tendon, muscle, skin, cartilage, lungs, kidney and trachea.
A. K. Susheela and Mohan Jha, "Effects of Fluoride on Cortical and Cancellous Bone Composition", IRCS Medical Sciences: Library Compendium, Vol 9, No.11, pp 1021-1022 (1981)
"Fluorides are general protoplasmic poisons, with the capacity to modify the metabolism of cells by inhibiting certain enzymes. Sources of fluoride intoxication include drinking water containing 1 ppm or more of fluorine."
Journal of the American Medical Association, September 18, 1943
Fluoride stimulates granule formation and oxygen consumption in white blood cells, but inhibits these processes when the white blood cell is challenged by a foreign agent in the blood.
Robert A. Clark, "Neutrophil Iodination Reaction Induced by Fluoride: Implications for Degranulation and Metabolic Activation," Blood, Vol 57, pp. 913-921 (1981)
Fluoride depletes the energy reserves and the ability of white blood cells to properly destroy foreign agents by the process of phagocytosis. As little as 0.2-ppm fluoride stimulates superoxide production in resting white blood cells, virtually abolishing phagocytosis. Even micro-molar amounts of fluoride, below 1 ppm, may seriously depress the ability of white blood cells to destroy pathogenic agents.
"Immune Status of Children in Chemically Contaminated Environments", Zdravookhranenie, Issue 3, pp 6-9 (1987)
Fluoride confuses the immune system and causes it to attack the body's own tissues, and increases the tumour growth rate in cancer prone individuals.
Alfred Taylor and Nell C. Taylor, "Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Tumour Growth", Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Vol 119,p 252(1965); Sheila Gibson, "Effects of Fluoride on Immune System Function", Complementary Medical Research, Vol 6, pp 111-113 (1992)
Fluoride inhibits antibody formation in the blood.
S. K. Jain and A.K. Susheela, "Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Antibody Formation in Rabbits", Environmental Research, Vol. 44, pp 117-125 (1987)
Fluoride depresses Thyroid activity.
Viktor Gorlitzer Von Mundy, "Influence of Fluorine and Iodine on the Metabolism, Particularly on the Thyroid Gland," Muenchener Medicische Wochenschrift, Vol 105, pp 182-186 (1963); "Effect of Fluorine on Thyroid Iodine Metabolism and Hyperthyroidism", Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol. 18, pp 1102-1110 (1958)
Fluorides have a disruptive effect on various tissues in the body.
Vilber A.O. Bello and Hillel J. Gitelman, "High Fluoride Exposure in Hemodialysis Patients", American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Vol. 15, pp 320-324 (1990)
Fluoride promotes development of bone cancer.
S.E. Hrudley et al., "Drinking Water Fluoridation and Osteosarcoma" Canadian Journal of Public Health, Vol 81, pp 415-416 (1990); Irwin Herskowitz and Isabel Norton, "Increased Incidence of Melanotic Tumours Following Treatment with Sodium Fluoride", Genetics Vol 48, pp 307-310 (1963)
Fluorides cause premature aging of the human body.
Nicholas Leone, "Medical Aspects of Excessive Fluoride in a Water Supply", Public Health Reports, Vol 69, pp 925-936 (1954); "The Village Where People are Old Before their Time", Stern Magazine, Vol 30, pp 107-108,111-112 (1978)
Fluoride ingestion from mouth rinses and dentifrices in children is extremely hazardous to biological development, life span and general health.
Yngve Ericsson and Britta Forsman, "Fluoride retained from mouth rinses and dentifrices in preschool children", Caries Research, Vol.3, pp 290-299 (1969); W.L. Augenstein, et al., "Fluoride ingestion in children: a review of 87 cases", Paediatrics, Vol 88, pp 907-912, (1991); George Waldbott, "Mass Intoxication from Over-Fluoridation in Drinking Water", Clinical Toxicology, Vol 18, No 5, pp 531-541 (1981)
Fluorides diminish the intelligence capability of the human brain.
Fluoride, Vol 26, No.4, pp 189-192, 1995, "Effect of Fluoride Exposure on Intelligence In Children". Presented to the 20th Conference of the International Society for Fluoride Research, Beijing, China, September 5-9, 1994
Fluoride studies in rats can be indicative of a potential for motor disruption, intelligence deficits and learning disabilities in humans. Humans are exposed to plasma levels of fluoride as high as those in rat studies. Fluoride involves interruption of normal brain development. Fluoride affects the hippocampus in the brain, which integrates inputs from the environment, memory, and motivational stimuli, to produce behavioural decisions and modify memory. Experience with other developmental neurotoxicants prompts expectations that changes in behavioural functions will be comparable across species, especially humans and rats.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol 17, No, 2, p 176, "Neurotoxicity of Sodium F luoride", Muellenix, Denbesten, Schunior, Kernan, 1995
Fluorides accumulate in the brain over time to reach neurologically harmful levels.
Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol 17, No, 2, p 176, "Neurotoxicity of Sodium Fluoride", Muellenix, Denbesten, Schunior, Kernan, 1995
"Drinking water containing as little as 1.2 ppm fluoride will cause developmental disturbances. We cannot run the risk of producing such serious systemic disturbances. The potentialities for harm outweigh those for good."
Journal of the American Dental Association, Editorial, October 1, 1944
The contents of a family-size tube of fluoridated toothpaste is enough to kill a 12.5 kilo child.
In 1991, the Akron (Ohio) Regional Poison Centre reported, "… death has been reported following ingestion of 16 mg/kg of fluoride. Only 1/10 of an ounce of fluoride could kill a 50 kilo adult. According to the Centre, "fluoride toothpaste contains up to 1 mg/gram of fluoride." Even Proctor and Gamble, the makers of Crest, acknowledge that a family-sized tube "theoretically contains enough fluoride to kill a small child." (National Pure Water Association, UK)
"Fluorides have been used to modify behaviour and mood of human beings. It is a little known fact that fluoride compounds were added to the drinking water of prisoners to keep them docile and inhibit questioning of authority, both in Nazi prison camps in World War II and in the Soviet gulags in Siberia."
National Pure Water Association, UK
Fluorides are medically categorized as protoplasmic poisons, which is why they are used to kill rodents.
The Journal of the American Medical Association on September 18, 1943, states, "… fluorides are general protoplasmic poisons, changing the permeability of the cell membrane by inhibiting certain enzymes. The exact mechanisms of such actions are obscure."
Fluoride consumption by human beings increases the general cancer death rate.
In 1975 Dr John Yiamouyiannis published a preliminary survey, which shows that people in fluoridated areas have a higher cancer death rate than those in non-fluoridated areas. The National Cancer Institute attempts to refute the studies. Later in 1975, Yiamouyiannis joins with Dr. Dean Burk, chief chemist of the National Cancer Institute (1939-1974) in performing other studies which are then included in the Congressional Record (USA) by Congressman Delaney, who was the original author of the Delaney Amendment, which prohibited the addition of cancer-causing substances to food used for human consumption.
Both reports confirmed the existence of a link between fluoridation and cancer. (Note: Obviously Dr. Burk felt free to agree with scientific truth only after his tenure at NCI ended, since his job depended on towing the party line)
Fluorides have little or no effect on decay prevention in humans.
In 1990 Dr John Colquhoun is forced into early requirement in New Zealand after he conducts a study on 60,000 school children and finds no difference in tooth decay between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas. He additionally finds that a substantial number of children in fluoridated areas suffered from dental fluorosis. He makes the study public. There is no scientific data that shows that fluoride mouth rinses and tablets are safe for human use.
A 1989 study by Hildebolt, on 6,000 school children contradicts any alleged benefit from the use of sodium fluorides.
In 1990 a study by Dr John Yiamouyiannis on 39,000 school children contradicts any alleged benefits from the use of sodium fluorides.
In 1992 Michael Perrone, a legislative assistant in New Jersey, contacts the FDA requesting all information regarding the safety and effectiveness of fluoride tablets and drops. After 6 months of stalling, the FDA admitted they had no data to show that fluoride tablets or drops were either safe or effective. They informed Perrone that they will "probably have to pull the tablets and drops off the market."
In 1976, Dr D. W. Allman and co-workers from Indiana University School of Medicine (USA) feed animals 1 part-per-million (ppm) fluoride and found that in the presence of aluminium in a concentration as small as 20 parts per billion, (like in a toothpaste tube, using aluminium pans to boil water, or drinking beverages in aluminium cans), fluoride is able to cause an even larger increase in cyclic AMP levels.
Cyclic AMP inhibits the migration rate of white blood cells, as well as the ability of the white blood cell to destroy pathogenic organisms.
Journal of Dental Research, Vol 55, Sup B, p 523, 1976, "Effect of Inorganic Fluoride Salts on Urine and Tissue Cyclic AMP Concentration in Vivo".
"Fluoridation is the greatest case of scientific fraud of this century, if not of all time."
Robert Carlton, Ph.D., former U.S. EPA scientist on "Marketplace" Canadian Broadcast Company Nov 24, 1992
"Regarding fluoridation, the EPA should act immediately to protect the public, not just on the cancer data, but on the evidence of bone fractures, arthritis, mutagenicity and other effects"
William Marcus, Ph.D., senior EPA toxicologist, Covert Action, 1992, p 66
***Most of the above information has been copied from the following website by Selwyn Johnston - h t t p : / / w w w . johnston-independent.com/fluoride_fraud. h t m l #.
That should keep you all busy for a while : )