NIDAN - Water Fluoridation

Transcription:

Fluoride, the ionic form of the element fluorine, has been added to community drinking water supplies since the 1940s to help prevent tooth decay. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, about 184 million Americans, nearly 70 percent of the U.S. population, drink fluoridated water.

Fluoride is a potent chemical that on contact kills microbes on the teeth, reducing the incidence of cavities. But a substantial and growing body of peer-reviewed science strongly suggests that ingesting fluoride in tap water does not provide the same dental benefits, and may present serious health risks.

There are two basic types of fluoride. Calcium fluoride appears naturally in underground water sources and even seawater. Enough of it can cause skeletal or dental fluorosis, which weakens bone and dental matter. But it is not nearly as toxic, nor does it negatively affect so many other health issues as sodium fluoride, which is added to many water supplies.

Sodium Fluoride is an extremely toxic substance, and a synthetic waste product of the nuclear, aluminum, and phosphate fertilizer industries. This fluoride has an amazing capacity to combine and increase the potency of other toxic materials. The sodium fluoride obtained from industrial waste and added to water supplies is also already contaminated with lead, aluminum, and cadmium.

It damages the liver and kidneys, weakens the immune system, possibly leading to cancer, creates symptoms that mimic fibromyalgia, and carries aluminum across the blood brain barrier. The latter is recognized as a source of the lower IQ's and Alzheimer's effects of fluoride.

To the extent fluoride works to reduce tooth decay, it works from the outside of the tooth, not from inside the body. It makes no sense to drink it, and expose the rest of the body to the long term risks of fluoride ingestion. The industrial grade waste products used to fluoridate America's drinking water supplies have never received FDA approval for human ingestion. It is no longer acceptable to simply rely on endorsements from agencies that continue to ignore the large body of scientific evidence on this matter.

Fluoride is a cumulative poison. On average, only 50% of the fluoride we ingest each day is excreted through the kidneys. The remainder accumulates in our bones, pineal gland, and other tissues.

Children are now being overdosed with fluoride, even in non-fluoridated areas, from water, swallowed toothpaste, foods and beverages processed with fluoridated water, and other sources. In 2007, research teams from Brazil, China, India, Italy, Mexico, and the United States conducted important new analyses, investigating fluoride's impact on childhood IQ.

According to the authors:

"We found that exposure to fluoride in urine was associated with reduced Performance, Verbal, and Full IQ scores before and after adjusting for confounders. The same pattern was observed for models with fluoride in water as the exposure variable. The individual effect of fluoride in urine indicated that for each milligram increase of fluoride in urine, a decrease of 1.7 points in Full IQ might be expected.

It is urgent that public health measures to reduce exposure levels be implemented. Millions of people around the world are exposed to these pollutants, and are therefore potentially at risk for negative impact on intelligence. The risk is particularly acute for children, whose brains are particularly sensitive to environmental toxins."

Rats fed for one year, with 1 ppm fluoride in their water, using either sodium fluoride or aluminum fluoride, had morphological changes to their kidneys and brains, an increased uptake of aluminum in the brain, and the formation of beta amyloid deposits, which are characteristic of Alzheimers disease. Rats dosed before birth demonstrated hyperactive behavior. Those dosed after birth, demonstrated under activity, or, so called "couch potato syndrome".

Fluoride administered to animals at high doses, damages the male reproductive system. It damages sperm, and increases the rate of infertility in a number of different species. While studies conducted at the FDA have failed to find reproductive effects in rats, an epidemiological study from the US, has found increased rates of infertility, among couples living in areas with 3 or more ppm fluoride in the water, and 2 studies have found a reduced level of circulating testosterone, in males living in high fluoride areas.

Fluoride is very biologically active even at low concentrations. It interferes with hydrogen bonding and inhibits numerous enzymes. Fluoride has been shown to be mutagenic, cause chromosome damage and interfere with the enzymes involved with DNA repair in a variety of cell and tissue studies.

Many scientists, doctors and dentists who have spoken out publicly on this issue have been subjected to censorship and intimidation. Most recently, Dr. Phyllis Mullenix was fired from her position as Chair of Toxicology at Forsythe Dental Center for publishing her findings on fluoride and the brain. Dr. William Marcus was fired from the EPA for questioning the government's handling of the NTP's fluoride-cancer study.

Tactics like this would not be necessary if those promoting fluoridation were on secure scientific ground.Unfortunately, because government officials have put so much of their credibility on the line defending fluoridation, and because of the huge liabilities waiting for them, it will be very difficult for them to speak honestly and openly about the issue. But they must, not only to protect millions of people from unnecessary harm, but to protect the notion that, at its core, public health policy must be based on sound science, not political self-interest.