Fluoride Health Dangers in Drinking Water

Did you know that the fluoride in drinking water can be dangerous to your health? Fluoride is commonly added to the water supplies of 60% of our cities to improve dental health. Some reports suggest that fluoride is directly linked to the increased rates of thyroid related disease. It doesn’t improve dental health instead it causes hypothyroidism, cancer and a host of other serious health problems.
Fluoride is a chemical element of the halogen group which also includes iodine and chlorine. It is commonly added to the water as a sodium fluoride to prevent cavities. It is also found in toothpaste, mouthwash and other dental products. In the early 1940s a group of researchers concluded that fluoride helps to fight tooth decay among children. Since then the use of fluoride in dental products became prevalent. Contrary to that, in recent research on fluoride effectiveness, a report from Dr John Yiamouyiannis concluded that fluoride is not effective at preventing tooth decay. Another research project in a different part of the world, in New Zealand, scientists concluded that teeth of children in non-fluoride water areas were slightly better than the children living in fluoride water areas! Despite these findings, as well as, growing health conce
s among people almost 60 percent of the US cities still fluoridate their water supplies.

In the USA most recent and controversial debate is about “fluoride being added to water supply”, a contaminated water to improve dental health. According to one government agency, fluoridated water has been considered to be one of the top achievements so what is all this fuss about?

Well, since late 2008 certain US townships started a trend to stop supplying fluoridated water. Since then the debate has opened up again. It is believed that excessive amount of fluoride in water can cause tooth fluorosis, weakness of bones and the cancer. There has been much discussion among government agencies to arrive at maximum limits and perhaps even agree on set amounts. This is a challenging task as to we can’t seem to agree on a specific amount. Public and government opinion are divided in this matter. There are some who are in favor of adding fluoride to water supply, and there are those who are against contaminating the water with fluoride. It is a highly controversial subject in the USA, and some states are more inclined to leave the matter untouched. Last month the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has launched an enquiry into the fluoride level in the water supply of Ohio City.

So what are a few of the facts regarding fluoride?

According to the official toxicology handbook, Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, fluoride is more toxic and poisonous than lead and just a little less toxic and poisonous than arsenic. It is a poison which accumulates in our bodies and especially the bones as it is consumed over the years. We read in the Physician's Desk Reference, "in hypersensitive persons, fluorides can occasionally result in skin eruptions such as urticaria, eczema, and atopic dermatitis. These hypersensitive reactions will normally go all way immediately after stopping the use of fluoride." Mayo Clinic researchers reported in the 1990, March 22 issue of the New England journal of Medicine that treating osteoporosis with fluoride increase the rate of hip fractures and also bone fragility.

Procter and Gamble performed a study which revealed that an amount of fluoride only half the amount used in public water supplies resulted in a significant and sizable increase in the occurrence of genetic damage. Epidemiology research performed in the middle of the 1970s by the now deceased Dr. Dean Burk, head of the cytochemistry department of the National Cancer Institute, showed that 10,000 or more cancer deaths linked to fluoridation occurred each year in the United States. Argonne National Laboratories confirmed in 1989 that fluoride has the ability to morph normal cells into cancer cells. In clinical studies performed by Battelle Research Institute in 1989 revealed that fluoride was causally linked to a rare type of liver cancer found in the mice, cancers and oral tumors in rats, and cancer of the bone in male rats. The New Jersey Department of Health has observed since 1991 that the occurrence of osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, was significantly elevated in young men who had been exposed to for dated water when compared to those who had not been exposed.

In addition to the thoroughly documented toxic effect dangers of fluoride, even very slight dosages of 1 ppm, which can be found in water which has been artificially fluoridated, can inhibit and impede enzyme systems, make arthritis worse, contribute to soft tissue calcification and produce fluorosis of the teeth in children.

You may be surprised to learn that the most recent studies have failed to provide any proof that water fluoridation helps to reduce the incidence of tooth decay.

Given this scientific data, we must ask what is the motive force behind this campaign for universal fluoridation. Before 1945, fluoride was accurately regarded as a pollutant to the environment. It brought about numerous lawsuits against industries, specifically the aluminum industry as well as the phosphate fertilizer industry, whose manufacturing waste products contain voluminous quantities of fluoride. The lawsuits resulted from the fact that these fluoride compounds killed farm animals and destroyed crops. These fluoride waste products were then classified as dangerous environmental pollutants and classified as toxic waste.

In part, to avoid having to pay the high cost of disposing of toxic wastes, manufacturers embarked on an intense and cleverly formulated public relations campaign. As a result of this, the status of fluoride was changed from a toxic environmental pollutant to an essential nutrient vital in ensuring healthy teeth. The science was a very bad, but the public relations campaign was the best money could buy.