Fluoride—A Caustic Issue; The Story of Fluoridation
Horizons Magazine (3/1/2001) by Tony Cobb
In the early part of the 20th century, it was common for residents of certain small towns, especially mining towns like Colorado Springs, to develop obtrusive brown stains on their teeth during adolescence. These stains were permanent, and they piqued a great deal of curiosity.
After three decades of research, health practitioners discovered high levels of fluoride in the local water supplies of these towns, and they correlated the presence of fluoride with “mottled” teeth. This was a profound discovery that has proven invaluable to millions ever since.
Along with the detection of fluoride, however, came a second discovery: scientists found that teeth which formed this dental fluorosis (the scientific term for mottled teeth) were extremely strong and virtually impervious to decay. Moreover, they found that when people took in less than 1.0 part per million (ppm) of fluoride in drinking water, their teeth did not develop fluorosis.
They hypothesized that, because mottled tooth enamel was unusually resistant to decay, adding fluoride to drinking water at physically and cosmetically safe levels might help prevent tooth decay.
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first city in the world to fluoridate its drinking water. During a 15-year project, the rate of tooth decay among some 30,000 Grand Rapids schoolchildren was monitored. Studies showed that, after just 11 years, the tooth decay among children born after the inception of fluoridation dropped by more than 60 percent.
It is a true and glorious fact that tooth decay has declined since World War II. However, another important fact coincides herewith: in Western Europe—98 percent of which is free of fluoridation—rates of tooth decay have also decreased. It is possible and even likely these trends have arisen from an increase in people’s consciousness of the need for more careful dental hygiene. A 1986 survey carried out by the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) of nearly 40,000 children found that those living in fluoridated areas of the United States had the same rate of tooth decay as those living in unfluoridated areas. Upon first request, the NIDR refused to release the data from the survey, and it only did so when forced by the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
Facts about Fluoride
Fluoride, a corrosive chemical more poisonous than lead, is added to more than 60 percent of U.S. water supplies annually. This number is said to be on the increase, as community residents—like NSP’s own neighboring Salt Lake county—vote to have their water fluoridated.
Sodium fluoride was the kind of fluoride originally added to public water supplies, but this is no longer the case. It is difficult to fathom why people would willingly add a substance once sold as rat poison to their drinking water, but sodium fluoride still might be preferable to the kinds of fluoride dumped into public water supplies today. Sodium fluoride is the only form of fluoride that has undergone thorough testing, out-dated though the data may be. Most fluoridated water supplies in the U.S. are treated with more caustic kinds of fluoride, such as fluosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride. These compounds are waste products supplied by major corporations of the phosphate fertilizer industry. Anti-fluoride groups believe these corporations save millions of dollars, because it would cost them many times more to dispose of such hazardous materials properly than it does to unleash them on the public.
How Much Fluoride Is Too Much?
As stated above, early researchers found that the presence of 1.0 ppm presented no danger of dental fluorosis. They also discovered any dosage over 2.0 ppm was unsafe and likely to give rise to the mottled-teeth condition. Were it possible to keep fluoride levels at the 1.0 ppm level, people would at least be able to avoid the fluorosis problem. However, studies show that the average fluoridated water supply in the U.S. already exceeds this level by double.
This danger is further complicated by the fact that many common foods (such as popular soft drinks) already contain fluoride. Thus, people living in fluoridated areas who choose to consume such foods will most likely take in far more fluoride than the amount deemed safe by scientific estimates. When common breakfast cereals can contain as much as 10.0 ppm, it is easy to see how quickly the average person can “overdose” on fluoride.
In a society literally plagued with incurable diseases whose causes are virtually unknown to medical “experts,” is it so incredible that some people are concerned about the intake of even the smallest amount of corrosive poison?
“I am appalled at the prospect of using water as a vehicle for drugs. Fluoride is a corrosive poison that will produce serious effects on a long-range basis. Any attempt to use water this way is deplorable.”
—Dr. Charles Gordon Heyd, former President of the American Medical Association
“Fluoridation…it is the greatest fraud that has ever been perpetrated and it has been perpetrated on more people than any other fraud has.”
—Professor Albert Schatz, Ph.D. (Microbiology), Nobel Prize Winner
“Your well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of misinformation from public health and the dental association. Me, too. Unfortunately, we were wrong.”
—Dr. Hardy Limebeck, Professor of Dentistry, University of Toronto
An Environmental Professional Speaks Out on Fluoridation
5:44 minutes
Dr. Vyvyan Howard on Fluoride in Drinking Water
3:52 minutes
Return from Dangers of Fluoride to the
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