{"id":7901,"date":"2010-10-25T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T22:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=7901"},"modified":"2010-10-19T18:46:51","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T16:46:51","slug":"the-case-against-fluoride-toxifying-the-tap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2010\/10\/the-case-against-fluoride-toxifying-the-tap\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case Against Fluoride: Toxifying the Tap"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July of this year, the\u00a0United Nations declared<\/a> access to clean water a human right. The United States was among 41 nations that abstained from supporting the\u00a0resolution<\/a>. Since October 15th is Blog for\u00a0Water Day<\/a>, a close inspection of a common US practice \u2013 fluoridating city water supplies \u2013 is in order.<\/p>\n

The subject of water fluoridation has been controversial for decades, but a new book,\u00a0The Case Against Fluoride, won the\u00a0accolades<\/a> of a Nobel Laureate:<\/p>\n

\u201cSweden rejected fluoridation in the 1970s and, in this excellent book, these three scientists have confirmed the wisdom of that decision. Our children have not suffered greater tooth decay, as World Health Organization figures attest, and in turn our citizens have not borne the other hazards fluoride may cause. In any case, since fluoride is readily available in toothpaste, you don\u2019t have to force it on people.\u201d ~ Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology (2000) and Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg<\/p>\n

Published on October 7th,\u00a0The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There<\/a>, by Paul Connett, James Beck, and Spedding Micklem, warns that water fluoridation \u201creceives no oversight from the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency takes no responsibility for the practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Hays (a\u00a0Booklist Online<\/a> reviewer) also applauded the book:<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the eve of the new millennium, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), listed water fluoridation as one of the twentieth-century\u2019s 10 greatest public-health achievements. Yet according to the authors of this painstakingly researched expose of fluoridation\u2019s overall ineffectiveness and toxicity, endorsements such as these from the CDC and other health organizations are motivated more by face-saving politics than credible research.<\/p>\n

\u201cFluoridation advocates who have previously branded detractors as conspiracy theorists and shills for junk science will be hard pressed to debunk the hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and sound scientific reasoning presented here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March of this year, the issue again made\u00a0news<\/a> when workers in the Amesbury, Massachusetts water plant found that the bags of fluoride the city had bought from China contained an unknown, non-soluble substance. It comprised 40% of the product.\u00a0This month, the\u00a0video<\/a> caught the attention of bloggers who focused on the warning label on the sodium fluoride bag seen in the video:<\/p>\n

TARGET ORGANS: Heart, Kidneys, Bones, Central Nervous System, Gastrointestinal System, Teeth. Do not get in eyes or on skin. Do not ingest or inhale.<\/p>\n

Why are they putting this in our water?<\/p>\n

Many scientists oppose adding such a toxic substance to our main drinking supply, yet powerful forces keep our water fluoridated. A short 30-minute film,\u00a0Professional Perspectives on Water Fluoridation<\/a>, provides some chilling information.<\/p>\n

Even assuming that the given reason for fluoridating our water \u2013 to prevent tooth decay \u2013 is legitimate, pharmacologists, toxicologists, dentists, and medical doctors explain how mass drugging a population violates medical ethics since it lacks informed consent.<\/p>\n

Among the 2,000-plus professionals who call for the ban of this practice, Dr Carlsson states: \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely obsolete.\u201d Modern pharmacology recognizes that individuals react differently to the same dosage of a given drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow in this case, you have it in the water and people are drinking different amounts of water. So, you have huge variations in the consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Phyllis Mullenix concurs. \u201cThe whole name of the game [of pharmacology] is to deliver the right dose to the right person at the right time. And that\u2019s not what fluoridation does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any beneficial effect from fluoride on teeth is only topical. As one scientist put it, \u201cIf you want to prevent sunburn, you don\u2019t drink suntan lotion. You put it on your skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, fluoridated municipal water exposes our internal organs to a toxic substance. Children are especially vulnerable, because the blood-brain barrier is not fully developed. Fluoride lowers intelligence. One in three US adults has arthritis, which is a symptom of skeletal fluorosis.\u00a0 Fluoride also causes depression and lethargy, they report.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization advised that a third of US children suffer from dental fluorosis caused by too much fluoride intake.<\/p>\n

Professionals in the film also cite a\u00a02006 report<\/a> by the National Research Council, which urges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the maximum amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0Amesbury news report<\/a>, we saw bags of sodium chloride. But the form of fluoride added to most municipal water supplies is hexafluorosilicic acid, a waste product of the agricultural phosphate industry. It is not pharmaceutical grade sodium fluoride.<\/p>\n

Both the book,\u00a0The Case Against Fluoride<\/a>, and the film,\u00a0Professional Perspectives on Water Fluoridation<\/a>,\u00a0provide citizens with sound science to use when demanding that city officials end this \u201cunethical, unnecessary, ineffective and dangerous\u201d practice.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, fluoride filtration systems can be purchased for home installation, ranging from around $50 a year to several hundred dollars.<\/p>\n

For more information, see\u00a0www.FluorideAlert.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The subject of water fluoridation has been controversial for decades, but a new book, The Case Against Fluoride, won the accolades of a Nobel Laureate:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}