Fluoridation

1) Non-fluoridated Nassau County has less tooth decay than fluoridated NYS counties –   even though Nassau County’s low-income school districts were over-sampled. (Low-income children always have the most tooth decay and the most health problems)  In fact, NYS Dept of Health statistics show that highly fluoridated NYS counties don’t necessarily have less tooth decay than less fluoridated NYS counties and fluoridation has not leveled out cavities rates  between poor and non-poor. See chart  In fact, many studies and reports show that fluoridation has failed New Yorkers 

2) Fluoridation chemicals are derived from phosphate fertilizer manufacturing and may contain trace amounts of arsenic, according to the Centers for Disease Control.  As you may know, the maximum contaminant level goal for arsenic in water supplies is zero.  The National Sanitation Foundation which regulates fluoridation chemicals allows trace amounts of many toxins to remain in fluoridation chemicals before they are added to water supplies – such as antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, radionuclides, selenium, and thallium. 

3) Fluoridation chemicals are linked to higher blood lead levels, according to several studies, one including NYS children and one by the CDC.  Higher blood lead levels are linked to higher rates of tooth decay which may be contributing to the current tooth decay crises in  U.S. fluoridated cities and states.  

4) Fluoride poses health risks to bones, the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and others and can severely damage children's teeth, according to a March 2006 report produced by the National Research Council of the National Academies which also found cancer and brain damage studies plausible. Twelve experts spent three and a half years reviewing thousands of current fluoride adverse effect studies. Dr Robert Carton’s,  review of the report is here.    Carton is a retired Environmental Protection Agency scientist who worked on risk assessments on high priority toxic chemicals for the EPA.

5) Concentrated infant formula must not be mixed with fluoridated water because it puts babies at high risk of developing dental fluorosis, according to recent American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control. NYS Department of Health has yet to issue this advice, as other health departments have, although they have been asked often. How much would it cost to keep educating new parents and caregivers via brochures, advertising, etc. to avoid using fluoridated tap water?  

 
6) No Long Islander is fluoride deficient. Fluoride is in virtually in all foods as and many dental products. In 1988, NYS Dept of Health created a list
of the fluoride content of NYS-bought food, the USDA website lists current levels. Fluoride is also inhaled from ocean mist.

7) Nationally, American children are fluoride-overdosed. According to a Centers for Disease Control study, from 1/3 to ½ of US school children display fluoride overdosed symptoms – dental fluorosis  – white spotted, yellow or brown stained and sometimes pitted enamel.  

      a) Too much fluoride actually weakens teeth and makes them more apt to decay.

8) The EPA increased fluoride residues allowed on foods since  approving Dow Chemical Company's sulfuryl fluoride  (ProFume) as a post-harvest fumigant. NYS Governor Eliot Spitzer, when Attorney General, wrote the EPA and said "...the tolerances established by EPA are not sufficiently protective against adverse health effects."   

9)   The FDA never tested the safety or efficacy of fluoride ingestion. 

       a)  Fluoride was “grandfathered in” because it was on the market pre-1938 when   drug safety testing laws were first enacted.

        b)  Pre-1938, fluoride was only sold as a rat poison.

        c) FDA approved fluoridated toothpaste as a drug. All drugs, including fluoride, have side effects.

10)  Fluoridation chemicals, Silicofluorides, have never been safety tested in humans or animals 

11) Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor required for healthy teeth.

12)  Fluoride ingestion confers little, if any, benefit.   

      a) The CDC says: “fluoride’s predominant effect is posteruptive and topical”
            
13) Fluoride ingestion, like all drugs, delivers health risks.  

14)  Studies supporting fluoridation are scientifically invalid  

    a) National Institutes of Health Reviews of the tooth decay literature.        

    b) UK’s York Review.  

    c) Pennsylvania Judge Flaherty presiding over a fluoridation court case where

      proponents could not produce valid science to support their “trust us we’re experts”

      rhetoric wrote: “"In my view, the evidence is quite convincing that the addition of …

      fluoride to the public water supply at one part per million is extremely deleterious to

      the human body, and a review of the evidence will disclose that there was no

      convincing evidence to the contrary.”

15) From 1 – 5% of the population is allergic to or intolerant of fluoride, according to Feltman R, Kosel G. “Prenatal and postnatal ingestion of fluoride: fourteen years of investigation; final repor,”. Journal of Dental Medicine 16 190-198 1961. More information about allergies and intolerances is here

16) 7000 EPA Scientists and ProfessionalsReject Fluoridation. Eleven EPA employee unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals of the Civil Service have called for a moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country, and have asked EPA management to recognize fluoride as posing a serious risk of causing cancer in people

17) Dentists are not fluoride experts

18) Besides the EPA scientists, hundreds of  professionals and organizations doubt the wisdom of fluoridation 

For an overview of fluoridation, see Fluoridation 101

For more science that shows the harm and ineffectiveness of fluoridation see:

Fluoride Journal http://www.FluorideResearch.Org

Second Look http://www.slweb.org/bibliography.html

Fluoride Action Network http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health

 

A list of communities which rejected or stopped fluoridation since 1990 is here: http://www.fluoridealert.org/communities.htm