FLUORIDE FAQ:
Lifesavers Guide to Fluoridation
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[From: http://mindgallery.com/hiddenroom/lifesaver.html]
Risks/Benefits Evaluated in this
Question and Answer Report
[Dr. Yiamouyiannis received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the
University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Rhode
Island. He is recognized as an international authority on the
biological effects of fluoride and has served as Science Consultant
on fluoridation in the United States and abroad.]
What is fluoridation?
Fluoridation is the addition of fluoride to the public water
systems, at the rate of about 1 part fluoride for every million
parts of water. Industries stuck with fluoride as a waste-product
originally promoted it as a means of reducing tooth decay.
What is fluoride?
It is more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous
than arsenic. It has been used as a pesticide for the control
of mice, rats, and other small pests. A spokesman from Procter
and Gamble, the makers of Crest, acknowledges that a family-sized
tube of fluoride toothpaste "theoretically, at least, contains
enough fluoride to kill a small child." While no one is going
to die from drinking one glass of fluoridated water, just as no
one will die from smoking one cigarette, it is the longer-term
chronic effects of glass after glass of fluoridated water that
takes its toll in human health - and life.
What are some of these harmful effects?
According to our estimates, fluoridation is responsible for
the chronic poisoning of over 130,000,000 Americans, of a substantial
number of the 40,000,000 Americans suffering from arthritis, of
over 8,000,000 American children who are so badly poisoned that
their teeth are discolored, of about 2,000,000 Americans who suffer
allergic or allergic-like reactions from fluoride, of about 35,000
Americans who die from fluoridation each year, and of about 10,000
Americans who die from fluoridation-induced cancers each year.
Have these harmful effects been proven?
Yes. In a court case in Pennsylvania lasting 20 days, it was
proven that fluoridation is harmful. The presiding judge, John
Pl. Flaherty, said he was "compellingly convinced" of
the harmful effects of fluoridation. In an Illinois court case
lasting 40 days, Judge Ronald A. Niemann ruled that fluoridation
"created a risk... of serious health hazards". Allergic-type
reactions have been reported by top physicians, including Nobel
Prize winner Dr. William Murphy. With regard to the amount of
fluoride found in a quart of fluoridated water, the Physlcians'
Desk Reference points out: "Dental fluorosis (mottling) may
result... In hypersensitive individuals, fluorides occasionally
cause skin eruptions such as atopic dermatites, eczema, or urticaria.
Gastric distress, headache, and weakness have also been reported.
These hypersensitive reactions usually disappear promptly after
discontinuation of the fluoride."
Are there any visible symptoms of people poisoned by fluoride?
Yes. About 20-35% of the people growing up in artificially
fluoridated areas experience a disturbance of tooth development
so great that the resulting damage is visible to the naked eye.
This disease is referred to as dental fluorosis. In mild cases,
it appears as the chalky-white area on the tooth. In more advanced
cases, teeth become yellow, brown, or black and the tips break
off. Poorly nourished children consuming water with as little
as 0.4 ppm fluoride have exhibited dental fluorosis. Even the
1992 Canadian Dental Association's Proposed Guidelines recommends:
"Fluoride supplements should not be recommended for children
less than three years old." Fluoride damages teeth by interfering
with the proper formation of collagen and collagen-like proteins
in the toth during the tooth formative stages. These proteins
also comprise the structural component for our skin, ligaments,
muscles, cartilage, and bone. Fluoridated water leads to a breakdown
of these proteins.
Does that mean that fluoride will also cause bone damage?
Yes. In 1990,1991, and1992, the Journal of the American Medical
Association published three separate articles linking increased
hip fracture rates to fluoridated areas. Another article from
the March 22, 1990 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine
found that fluoride treatment of osteoporosis causes bone fractures.
Osteoporosis is one of the first signs of poisoning due to fluoride
in the water. As little as 0.7 part per million fluoride in the
water has been associated with skeletal fluorosis. In addition
to bone damage, reports of premature wrinkled skin and arthritis,
as wess as the possibility of a greater frequencly of torn ligaments
and tendons in fluoridated areas result from the effect of fluoride
on collagen.
Does fluoride cause genetic damage?
Yes. A study by Procter and Gamble showed that as little as
half the amount of fluoride used to fluoridate public water supplies
resulted in a sizable and significant increase in genetic damage.
Researchers from around the world have also shown that fluoride
causes genetic damage. Substances which cause genentic damage
are mutagens, and it is generally agreed that mutagenic activity
of such substances is a warning of possible cancer-causing activity.
Are there studies showing a link between fluoride and cancer?
Yes. In animal studies, water fluoridated at 1 part per million
has been shown to increase tumor growth rate by 25%, to produce
melanotic tumors, and to transform normal cells into cancer cells.
The ability of fluoride to transorm normal cells has been confirmed
by Argonne National Laboratories, which also found that fluoride
increases the cancer-causing ability of other chemicals. Battelle
Research Institute conducted a two-year study on rats and mice
and found an iron-clad link between fluoride exposure and an extremely
rare form of liver cancer, hepatocholangiocarcinomas, in fluoride-treated
male and female mice. On April 11, 1989, Battelle released additional
results which showed an increase in oral precancerous, tumorous,
and cancerous cells as a result of fluoride exposure in both male
and female rats. Similar results regarding oral squamous precancerous
cells and bone tumors from fluoride exposure were reported by
Proctor and Gamble. Battelle also found osteosarcomas in male
rats fed higher amounts of fluoride.
In human studies, fluoride has been shown to transform white
blood cells into cells "suggestive of reticuloendothelial
malignancy"; gastric cancer and lung cancer have also been
associated with fluoride exposure in humans.
If I live in a fluoridated community are my chances of getting
cancer greater?
Yes. Dr. Dean Burk, former Chief Chemist of the National Cancer
Institute and Dr. John Yiamouyiannis showed that 10,000 or more
fluoridation-linked cancer deaths occur yearly in the United States.
While numerous studies have been cited to refute the Burk-Yiamouyiannis
study, most of these studies, after corrections for errors and
omissions, show an increase in cancer death rate in the fluoridated
areas. From 1991-1993, the National Cancer Institute, the New
Jersey Department of Health, and the Safe Water Foundation all
found that the incidence of osteosarcoma was far higher in men
exposed to fluoridated water as compared to those who were not.
But how can such a small amount of fluoride have such harmful
effects?
The amount of fluoride used to fluoridate public water systems
leads to soft tissue fluoride levels which damage biologically
important chemicals, such as enzymes, leading to a wide range
of diseases. A study published in the Journal of the American
Chemical Society provided the chemical evidence to support this
view. Thus the editors of New Scientist concluded: "some
of the charges that are laid at its [fluoride's] door - genetic
damage, birth defects, cancer and allergy response - may arise
from fluoride interference after all." More recent findings
lend further support to this statement.
Does fluoride weaken the immune system?
Yes. During a court case in Scotland, studies by both proponents
and opponents of fluoridation confirmed that fluoride does weaken
the immune system. In 1985, Japanese researchers confirmed that
as little as 10% of the amound of fluoride used to fluoridate
public water supplies is capable of weakening the immune system.
In 1987, Russian investigators confirmed suppression of the immune
system among children drinking fluoride in their water. This fluoride-induced
damage to the immune system can lead to chronic problems such
as colds which never seem to go away, to cancer in individuals
whose immune system is too weak to arrest the growth of "precancerous"
cells, and to other immune deficiency diseases.
Doesn't fluoridation reduce tooth decay?
The largest U.S. study examining the effect of fluoridation
on tooth decay found that fluoridation does not reduce decay in
permanent teeth. Examination of the dental records of 39,207 schoolchildren,
ages 5-17, from 84 geographical areas around the United States
showed the number of decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth
per child was 2.0 in floridated areas, 2.0 in nonfluoridated areas
and 2.2 in partially fluoridated areas. Other recent large-scale
studies by public health dentists in New Zealand, Canada, and
the United States have also reported similar tooth decay rates
in fluoridated and nonfluoridated areas.
Dr John Colquhoun, former Chief Dental Officer of the Department
of Health for Auckland, New Zealand, investigated tooth decay
statistics from 60,000 12- to 13-year-old children; he found no
significant difference in tooth decay rates between fluoridated
and nonfluoridated areas in New Zealand. In the major cities of
New Zealand, the number of decayed, missing, and filled permanent
teeth per child was 2.7 in fluoridated areas and 2.4 in nonfluoridated
areas. Because of this and the damage he found fluoride was doing
to teeth (dental fluorosis), he has begun campaigning against
fluoridation.
The October 1987 issue of the journal of the Canadian Dental
Association published an article admitting that fluoridation isn't
doing the job that dentists have been claiming it could do. Accoring
to the article: "Survey results in British Columbia with
only 11% of the population using fluoridates water show lower
DMFT [tooth decay] rates than provinces with 40-70 percent of
the population drinking fluoridated water" and "school
districts recently reporting the highest caries-free rates in
the province were totally unfluoridated."
In 1989, researchers from Missouri examined the tooth decay
records of rural 6th grade schoolchildren and again found no significant
difference in tooth decay rates between those living in fluoridated
areas (who averaged 2.2 decayed, missing, and filled teeth per
child) and those living in nonfluoridated areas (who averaged
2.0 decayed, missing, and filled teeth per child).
And the teeth of people drinking low-fluoride water aren't
falling out?
No. In primitive societies whose drinking water contains negligible
amounts of fluoride, such as the Otomi Indians in Mexico, the
Bedouins in Israel, and the Ibos in Nigeria, 80-90% of the people
go throughout life without tooth decay. Looking at their diets,
we find that their consumption of refined carbohydrates, such
as white sugar, is extremely low. It is evident that proper diet
- not fluoridation - is necessary for good health.
What people will be hurt most by water fluoridation?
People on poor diets and inpoor health, older people, people
with or having a predisposition toward kidney disease (especially
people on kidney machines), diabetes (and hypoglycemia), and hypothyroidism.
What other sources of fluoride should I stay away from?
1. Fluoride treatments at the dentist's office use 5,000 to
20,000 ppm fluoride, which is hazardous, even deadly (consider
the January 20, 1979 New York Times headline: "$750,000 Given
in Child's Death in Fluoride Case" about a 3-year-old killed
by a fluoride treatment at the dentist's office).
2. Fluoride toothpastes use 1,000-1,500 ppm fluoride, which
can cause gum damage, sickness - even death if a small child consumes
a family-sized tube.
3. Fluoride mouthrinses sold in stores or administered in schools
containing 500 ppm, will often cause sickness - and can in rare
cases cause death.
4. Fluoride tablets or drops usually prescribed for children
or infants have as bad and sometimes worse effects than fluoridated
water.
5. Fluoride tablets for the treatment of osteoporosis contain
about 50 times the amount of fluoride as the children's tablets
and are very hazardous.
6. Foods contain fluoridated water which has been added during
foold processing (for example soft drinks, freeze-dried coffee).
Concern over the safety of fluoridated water has led infant formula
manufacturers to remove fluoride from the water they use to make
their formulas.
7. The use of fluoridation for the preparation of foods (such
as rice, spaghetti, of coffee) in which the water used is consumed
with the food.
The lack of effectiveness and the dangers of using fluoride
from the above sources is well documented.
Is there any danger from malfunctioning fluoridation equipment?
Yes. In 1979, 5,000 people were poisoned when up to 50 ppm
fluoride was dumped into the Annapolis, Maryland public water
system. A number of other spills have also been reported.
If all this is true, why are some pushing fluoridation more
than ever?
In my opinion, the conclusion is unescapable. Officials of
the U.S. Public Health Service, the American Dental Association,
and Procter and Gamble, as well as others, are more concerned
with their reputations than they are about the health and welfare
of the very people they claim to serve. In 1983, one member of
a blue ribbon committee called together by the Surgeon General
of the U.S. Public Health Service states that "You would
have to have rocks in your head, in my opinion, to allow your
child more than 2 ppm [fluoride in their drinking water]."
Added another member: "I think we all agree on that."
Their conclusions were published by the U.S. Public Health Service
as recommending that up to 4 ppm fluoride should be allowed in
the drinking water.
In 1980, the U.S. Public Health Service contracted with Battelle
Research Institute to do studies to find out whether fluoride
could cause cancer. When, in 1988, the results showed that fluoride
caused a rare form of liver cancer, oral cancers, and possibly
bone cancer, the U.S. Public Health Service covered up the most
significant results and only allowed that fluoride might cause
bone cancer. Then, in attempt to water this down even further,
Under Secretary of Health James Mason assigned former FDA commissioner
Frank Young to reevalualte fluoride to whitewash this already
watered-down conclusion. Despite additional information that they
collected from the National Cancer Institute that bone cancer
rates were almost 50% higher in men living in fluoridated areas
and data from Procter and Gamble showing a dramatic increase in
bone tumors as a result of fluoride exposure, they claimed that
fluoride did not cause cancer.
Procter and Gamble has tried to cover up studies that they
performed showing that as little as one-half the amound of fluoride
added to public water supplies causes genetic damage and that
fluoride causes tumors and precancerous growths. In 1993, the
National Academy of Sciences admitted that up to 80% of the children
living in fluoridated areas have dental fluorosis and that "fluorosis
is twice as prevalent among African-American children" and
that there are a number of studies showing that fluoride causes
genetic damage and transforms normal cells into cancer cells -
and then gave fluoridation a clean bill of health. Similarly,
a 1993 study put out by the U.S. Public Health Service admitted:
"in cultured human and rodent cells, the weight of the evidence
leads to the conclusion that fluoride exposure results in increased
chromosome aberrations [genetic damage]", and then tried
to discount the importance of their findings.
[This article came with reams of references which are not included
here. If you would like more information, a book is offered called
"Fluoride: The Aging Factor". As of the time this article
was released, the book could be received by sending $15.00 per
copy to: THE SAFE WATER FOUNDATION, 6439 Taggart Road, Delaware,
Ohio 43015. I would recommend checking first to see if there has
been a change of address or availability of the book.]
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