The Perils of Fluoridation
The Perils of Fluoridation
Take a look at the small print on your
toothpaste tube. "Warning: Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of
age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional
help or contact a Poison Control Center immediately." Poison?
"Contrary to its public image as a benign
substance used solely to reduce tooth decay, fluoride is extremely corrosive,
more toxic than lead and just slightly less toxic than arsenic," says
Jeff Green, director of Citizens For Safe Drinking Water. Sodium fluoride, the
active ingredient in most brands, was originally sold as a rat poison. If your
three-year-old suddenly took it into his head to eat half a tube of the
toothpaste casually left out on the sink, it could kill him.
But don't assume that if your child is healthy and well nourished, he or she is
not at risk. Go back to that toothpaste and read the directions -"Children 2 to
6 years: To minimize swallowing, use a pea-sized amount and supervise brushing
and rinsing until good habits are established." Tempted by bubble-gum flavors
and artificial sweeteners, a child can easily ingest more than the recommended
amount. Studies show that children under four inadvertently swallow between 50%
and 100% of the toothpaste they put in their mouths, simply because they lack a
fully developed gag reflex.
With an average of 1500 ppm in a tube, fluoride certainly kills bacteria in your
mouth that cause tooth decay, but according to Green, "It's really overkill.
You could gargle with salt water or baking soda and get the same effect. I
wouldn't buy any toothpaste that has fluoride on the label. The free
fluoride ion seeks out calcium-rich tissue and, no matter what the source, still
has the ability to do harm. Fortunately, we get some antidotes through
dietary calcium, magnesium and vitamin C."
Meanwhile, we're swallowing more fluoride each day with every glass of water.
Since 1945, when fluoride was first put into the municipal water system in
Newburgh, New York, more than 60% of the United States water supply has been
fluoridated and the government is pushing for 75% by 2000. But now it
turns out that the whole premise behind the fluoridation crusade may be wrong.
After World War II, the rise in the standard of living meant better nutrition,
which resulted in a universal decline in tooth decay.
Rates have dropped in Western Europe, which is 98%
unfluoridated, just as much as in the United States.
Other countries are taking a good, long look at fluoride.
Sweden abandoned fluoridation on the recommendation of a
special Fluoride Commission. Denmark, Holland, Finland, France, Germany and
Japan have also rejected it, citing public health concerns. Plans to make
fluoridation mandatory in Britain were suspended in 1998 after the British Home
Secretary intervened and urged the Health Secretary to review the negative
evidence.
The benefits of fluoridation may have been exaggerated. Data collected in the
largest survey to date--of over 39,000 U.S. school children ages 5 to 17 in 84
communities, sponsored in 1986 by the U.S. Public Health Service-had to be
dragged into the pubic domain through the Freedom of Information Act because it
did not support the official mandate. Instead, it showed that children living in
fluoridated areas had tooth decay rates nearly identical with those who live in
fluoridated areas.
But there is one significant difference, as a comparison study of children
living in fluoridated Newburgh and unfluoridated Kingston, N.Y. illustrated.
The Newburgh children had about twice the incidence of
dental fluorosis - an irreversible condition where the teeth are mottled with
white spots that typically turn brown. As Dr. David Kennedy, dentist
and past president of the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology,
explains, "The cells that produce the collagen matrix, which forms enamel, are
poisoned to the point that they can no longer produce opalescent pearl-like
enamel. Fluorotic enamel is irregular in texture porous, chalky white to brown
in color, and brittle. In severe cases, the enamel forms incompletely and
corners easily break off the teeth."
Even proponents of fluoridation acknowledge that fluorosis increases with the
level of fluoride in the water. Currently, an estimated 22% of American
children, exhibit the symptoms. "This is not just a cosmetic flaw," says Green.
"It's proof of the fact that the body has been overdosed with fluoride and has
not been able to handle it." Kennedy continues, "Let's be clear about what
children will be adversely affected. Bottle-fed babies [whose formula is made
with fluoridated water] are most likely to develop dental fluorosis. Mother's
milk has virtually no fluoride present. Those children who are deficient in
intake of protein, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and vitamin C are especially
vulnerable to fluoride poisoning. The accumulation of fluoride is greatly
increased if the person has impaired kidney function. In short, the weakest
members of our society, the undernourished, the underfed, the very children that
fluoridation was to allegedly benefit. In some poorer
communities, as much as 80% of the children have fluorosis."
Dental fluorosis is just the first, visible evidence of much more serious
changes in the body. When fluoride accumulates at high concentrations in the
bones, they become weak and brittle. Victims of this debilitating condition,
called skeletal fluorosis can only hobble forward, stiff and hunched.
The osteoarthritis that afflicts many people in this
country may actually be a misdiagnosed stage of skeletal fluorosis.
Recent studies have linked fluoride to increased incidence of
hip fractures, damage to the central nervous system,
and cancer. In China, researchers correlated dental fluorosis with a
10-point reduction in I.Q. Low levels of
fluoride in the drinking water of test animals produced pathological changes in
the brain similar to those in humans with Alzheimer's
disease. Another study demonstrated how
fluoride interferes with the brain's pineal gland and inhibits its production of
melatonin, which helps regulate the body's internal dock. In test
animals, this provoked an earlier onset of puberty
- an effect the Newburgh/Kingston study reported in humans as well.
Scientists who have spoken out against fluoride risk censure by the medical
establishment and can forfeit their careers. In 1995 when Dr. Phyllis Mullenix,
lecturer in radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School and head of the
toxicology department at the Forsyth [Dental] Research Institute, published a
paper showing that fluoride accumulated in certain areas of the brain and
affected animal behavior, creating what in humans we would call hyperactivity or
attention deficit disorder, she was fired
from her job. In 1990, Dr. William Marcus, chief toxicologist for the EPA's
Office of Drinking Water, was disturbed to find data from a study reporting
specific fluoride-related cancers altered or omitted in the final National
Toxicology Program report. When he demanded an independent review of the raw
data, he was fired. Later, an investigation by the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee corroborated his charges and produced evidence that government
scientists had been pressured to portray fluoride more positively.
Like most laymen, I had no idea what fluoride actually is. It turns out the term
is used to cover a whole range of substances containing the element fluorine.
Because fluorine is the most negatively charged and interactive element of all,
it bonds with practically everything and does not exist separately in nature,
despite its rank as the 13th most abundant element in the earth's crust. But
most of it stays buried there, unless it is mined and brought to the surface, or
created as a by-product of various manufacturing processes.
"It's kind of a bully," says Green, explaining the actions of the free fluoride
ion that constitutes fluorine. "It aggressively seeks out other electrons and is
prized for its ability to disrupt and reconfigure other molecular bonds. One
reason people have been reluctant to expose the problems of fluoride is that it
cuts across so many industries. In its various forms,
fluoride is used to etch glass, ceramics and computer chips;' refine petroleum
products; separate out heavy metal; and power rockets. Our air is
contaminated by fluoride emissions from the production of iron, steel, copper,
aluminum and plastics. Fluoride is one of the
world's most widely used pesticides. If you walk past a house tented
for termites, they're probably spraying sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane) to kill the
bugs.
Fluoride is also very important to the pharmaceutical industry.
It inhibits enzyme activity. It's the
primary ingredient in Prozac. If you go in
for surgery, you'll usually be given a fluoride-based
anesthetic, because fluoride is virulent enough to throw you into an immediate
coma. Hydrogen fluoride is the only toxic element in the nerve gas Sarin
(rated 1500 times more poisonous than cyanide) used by terrorists in the
Japanese subway attack."
So how in the world did this dangerous substance get into our water? Fluoride is
not an essential nutrient, as even the report of the committee on Dietary
Reference Intakes-convened under the auspices of the Institute of Health at the
National Academy of Sciences-admits, but then it goes on to recommend specific
daily allowances "because of its valuable effects on dental health." This claim
that fluoride reduces tooth decay is how the government justifies fluoridating
the water supply, but don't assume that the fluoride added to our drinking water
is somehow pharmaceutical or food-grade. In fact, the
first fluoride compound purposely put in the public water was sodium fluoride, a
toxic by-product of the aluminum industry.
During World War II, as Alcoa accelerated production to meet the need for more
warplanes, they produced more of this pollutant and faced mounting damage
claims. Eager to put a positive spin on fluoride, the U.S. Public Health
Service-then under the command of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, a founder
and major stockholder of Alcoa-sent a dentist in its employ out West to
investigate certain towns where fluoride occurs naturally in the water. (Water
running over fluorspar rocks produces calcium fluoride, which is hailed as
"natural" even though it has the same harmful effects as any other fluoride.)
This dentist observed that the inhabitants had fewer cavities than
average-although they also had stained and eroded teeth.
In 1939, a scientist funded by Alcoa solved the
disposal problem when he proposed adding fluoride to drinking water to reduce
tooth decay.
Then in the 1940s the unimpeded production of fluoride became a matter of
national security-fluoride was the key substance used to separate the uranium
isotope to build the atomic bomb. Millions of tons of fluoride were
required. In 1944, according to declassified documents, an accident at a
DuPont plant in New Jersey producing fluoride for the Manhattan Project released
large quantities into the atmosphere. Crops were poisoned, animals were
crippled, people were sickened. The fluoride even etched windows in the
local school. Scientists scrambled to gloss over the adverse effects
in the interests of the war effort. Defense contractors and the government
needed to create public support for fluoride and protect themselves from
liability as well. How can you pinpoint where
your exposure to a toxic chemical occurred if it is also in the water you drink?
The theory that fluoride reduces tooth decay was heaven-sent.
When the fluoridation campaign began, it was determined that the optimal dose
was 1 milligram per day, which translates to 1 part per million (ppm) in the
water supply (assuming an individual drinks 1 liter of water a day). Officials
concurred that concentrations of 2 ppm would not be acceptable because that
would produce too many cases of dental fluorosis. But over the decades the
maximum allowable contaminant level (fluoride is classified as a contaminant by
the EPA), inched up to 2.4 ppm. Then in 1985 when the EPA increased the
allowance to 4 ppm, something unprecedented occurred. The union representing
employees at EPA headquarters in Washington D.C.-some 1500 scientists, engineers
and other professionals-revolted against their own management and filed an
amicus curiae brief in court to support a lawsuit brought by the National
Resources Defense Council against the EPA. As the brief stated, in their
professional opinion, allowable fluoride levels should have been reduced rather
than, raised. Instead, they alleged that evidence of adverse effects was
manipulated or ignored in order to arrive at a preordained political conclusion.
Corporations have a lot invested in fluoridation which allows them to dispose of
industrial pollution via dilution. "Today, the most common product used for
fluoridation is hydrofluosilicic acid, which is not a natural substance but a
waste product coming straight from the scrubbers of the phosphate fertilizer
industry," says Green. "When phosphate is mined, they have to get rid of the
attached fluorine or it would kill the plants. So they put the phosphate through
a sulfuric acid wash to separate the fluorine out into what is called a
hazardous waste liquor. The fluorine is captured by a scrubber system since they
can't let it go out into the air because it would kill all the plants and
animals around. If they had to dispose of this liquor
as hazardous industrial waste, it would cost them $1.40 a gallon or more
to neutralize it--depending on how much cadmium, lead, uranium, and arsenic are
also present. They don't want to pay that, so instead they call it a product and
we pay them approximately 3 cents a gallon to dump in our water."
It seems contemptible, but corporations are only taking advantage of the
delusion that this is good for us. Remember, back in the 1950's, chemicals were
going to save the world and you could put your foot under a fluoroscope at the
shoe store and get irradiated. "When I re-examined the classic fluoridation
studies, which had been presented to me in the text books during my training, I
found, as others had before me, that they also contained serious flaws," says
Dr. John Colquhoun, former chief dental officer for Auckland, New Zealand, who
did an about-face on fluoride. "I do not believe that the selection and bias
that apparently occurred were necessarily deliberate. Enthusiasts for a theory
can fool themselves and others that their activities are genuinely scientific."
So now we have fluoride in our water, which means we're
mass-medicating the population although we can't control the dose, because
everyone drinks varying amounts. Back when safety levels were
set at 1 ppm, there was basically no other source. Since then, fluoride
has been added to toothpaste, mouth rinses, and dental floss. Dentists treat the
teeth topically with fluoride and doctors prescribe fluoride supplements.
And of course, if fluoride is in the water it's in the food chain. Food is
irrigated with fluoridated water, washed with fluoridated water, and processed
with fluoridated water, so we're consuming much more fluoride than we think.
Independent lab reports show high levels in common
products: .98 to 1.2 ppm in Coca-Cola, 1 ppm in Minute Maid orange
juice, 2.1 ppm in Fruit Loops, 10 ppm in Wheaties, 6.8 ppm in Gerber's white
grape juice which is often used as a sweetener in baby foods. (Grapes are
commonly sprayed with an insecticide that contains fluoride, and a 1996 study
published in the journal of the American Dental Association warned parents to
limit their children's intake of juices due to excessive fluoride content.)
In fact, according to a 1993 government survey,
children in non-fluoridated communities are already receiving at least 3 times
the amount of fluoride recommended for total consumption, while children in
fluoridated communities are receiving 4.6 to 7 times the recommended amount.
What will happen when the first generation of fluoride-fed children turns 70,
after accumulating this poison over a lifetime in their bones?
Cavities are not life-threatening. Fluoridation comes with real risks and
negligible benefits. Even if you believe in the
value of fluoride, I don't think you should be allowed to use our drinking water
as a delivery system. A lot of people consider Vitamin C
beneficial, but so far it doesn't pour out of the tap.
Water is our most precious
resource and we have no business adding anything to it, other than what's
necessary to make it safe to drink. It is our
responsibility to maintain this gift, as pure and
pristine as possible, for each and every person to enjoy.