“We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” — Edward Bernays, the “father of public relations” (Propaganda, 1928, ch.1)
If there’s no problem with fluoride, then why is the warning label on you tube of toothpaste? Unless you use fluoride-free toothpaste, you are supposed to call your doctor or poison control if you, or your child, swallow more than a pea-sized amount. The reason: fluoride is a poison.
The accepted level of daily fluoride intake was established by federal government agencies nearly a half-century ago at .7-to-1.2 parts per million (that’s about a milligram in 33 ounces of water). Meantime, the Maximum Contaminant Level is four parts per million (EPA, April 2010).
That means if you drink four liters of water or drinks made with fluoridated water (not to mention the many foods and medicines containing fluoride) you will have reached the MCL and quadrupled the daily intake.
And the daily intake level is the same for a 50-pound little girl and a 250-pound man? That’s right, according to our “leaders” at the CDC, EPA and the American Dental Association.
Just last Friday, for the first time in nearly a half-century, an agency of the federal government (EPA) recommended reducing the daily intake of fluoride to the pre-established minimum of .7 ppm/day. That decision only took about 50 years.
Below are just a few of the problems with the fluoride compounds in drinking water and fluorine in general:
• The U.S. is one of only 30 countries in the world that use any fluoridation and one of only eight where more than 50 percent of the population is fluoridated (Connett, et al, 2010). And while CDC and ADA say fluoridation has reduced the rate of tooth decay, the research says different, indicating that tooth decay is decreasing over time in fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries and with the most dramatic decreases coming in countries that do not fluoridate (Nature 322:125-129; World Health Organization, 2004 at www.fluoridealert.org/health/teeth/caries/who-dmft.html; Clinical Oral Investigations 11(3):189-93, etc.).
• Fluorine is highly toxic and it’s the most reactive element found in nature. As such, it chemically binds with endless other elements to form new compounds that have delighted industry and consumers for decades (like Scotchguard, Stainmaster and Teflon).
• The fluoride compound added to your water is a drug, according to the FDA (www.fluoridealert.org/re/fda.letter.to.calvert.dec.2000.pdf). This drug, which has never been subjected to random clinical trials, is one for which you cannot give informed consent. Yet for decades the “leading authorities” have supported and promoted fluoridation in defiance of medical ethics.
• Due to its chemical nature, about 50 percent of the fluoride that enters your body stays there (bioaccumulates) and builds up in bone, bone marrow, the thyroid gland, the pineal gland in your brain and likely in other organs and brain centers (Murphy, 2008).
“Recent information on the role of the pineal gland in humans suggests that any agent that affects pineal function could affect human health in a variety of ways, including effects on sexual maturation, calcium metabolism, parathyroid function, post menopausal osteoporosis, cancer and psychiatric disease.” (National Research Council, 2006).
• There are concerns that fluoride is linked to some cancers, including bone cancer in young males (Bassin, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 2001).
• CDC in 1999 acknowledged that fluoride’s predominant mechanism of action is “topical,” not “systemic.” Hence, it may work on the surface of teeth but not from inside the body (Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Review 48, no. 41, Oct. 22, 1999).
Yet, CDC and ADA continue to support adding fluoride to our waters supplies even though such a route bypasses our teeth (topically) and goes straight into our bodies (systemically) where it can be absorbed into our bones, thyroid gland, brain and other areas.
• CDC says 40 percent of American children have dental fluorosis (an excess of fluoride).
• And perhaps as potentially devastating as any of the above are the studies suggesting a link to lowered IQ (brain damage) in children. There have been a number of studies in this area. One of the most recent “indicated that fluoride in drinking water was highly correlated with serum fluoride, and higher fluoride exposure may affect intelligence among children” (Environmental Health Perspectives, Dec. 2010 and Zhang, et al, 2010).
Among the heavily documented resources for those who are interested in the fluoride topic are “The Case Against Fluoride” (2010 — comprehensive and easy to read), “The Fluoride Deception” (2004 — documents the government/industrial interests in fluoridation), “The Devil’s Poison” (2006 — written by Illinois orthodontist Dean Murphy and, though heavy into biochemistry, it’s easily the most disturbing book I’ve ever read).
Other resources include the exhaustive website Fluoride Action Network (www.fluoridealert.org), Daniel Stockin’s website (http://spotsonmyteeth.com) and the Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children at www.poisonfluoride.com/pfpc/ that includes symptoms of fluoride poisoning and the contents of fluoride in foods and medications.
So why was fluoride introduced, who benefitted and why do powerful groups like CDC and ADA continue to support it? The answer involves not conspiracy, but business and the benefits to industry and profits, not to workers and citizens.
“Up until about 1940, fluorine’s effect on life was always deemed poisonous. It was determined to be altering enzymes used by a living organism to carry out a multitude of tasks. Around World War II, sporadic then increasingly more common articles were appearing that fluorine ‘might’ be good for teeth and even bones. The change in direction is profound and a researcher cannot miss the abrupt about-face.” (Murphy, p.8)
Decades ago, fluorine was a toxic byproduct of the aluminum industry (with lawsuits piling up beginning in the 1930s), then it was used to enrich uranium in the nuclear industry and now it’s a waste byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry. And from there, as before, it goes straight to public drinking water.
Bryson in “The Fluoride Deception” (p. 148) notes the work of the Paley Commission, set up by President Truman in 1950 (William Paley was head of CBS television.). Fluoride had been declared a strategic and critical material. The commission called fluoride “an essential component of enormously vital industries. Without this little known mineral … little or no aluminum could be produced; steel production would be reduced substantially; the output and quality of important chemical products such as refrigerants, propellants for insecticides and plastics would be significantly reduced.”
And finally, there was (Forsyth Dental Center-Harvard University) toxicology researcher Phyllis Mullenix, the developer of the Computer Pattern Recognition System. She was the scientific sweetheart of giants like 3M, Exxon, Colgate-Palmolive, DuPont, NutraSweet and Procter & Gamble until she discovered the truth about fluorine’s effects on the central nervous system.
“I thought how odd,” Mullenix said of her presentation at the National Institutes of Health, one of her last acts before being dropped by academia and industry. “It’s 1990 and they’re talking about the miracle of fluoride, and now I’m going to tell them that their fluoride is causing neurotoxicity that’s worse than that induced by some cases of amphetamines or radiation.”
What is coming is Fluoridegate and it will likely make the deleterious health issues involving tobacco, lead and asbestos combined pale in comparison. Those of you who have bothered to research these issues know what I’m talking about.
And for those of you who have not, you can laugh or you can mock, but just make sure you remember where you heard it.
(The expanded version of the Emergence of Fluoridegate can be found in the Government & Corporate Accountability section at http://questionsunanswered.com.)
[Staff reporter Ben Nelms may be reached via email at bnelms@TheCitizen.com.]
