Dental fluorosis

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego recently joined the majority of fluoridated American cities. It took longer to sell the story to the West. More than 70 percent of our nation's drinking water is medicated to treat the teeth, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Fluoridation, in case your dentist has not drilled it into your head by now, is the process of adding sodium fluoride (NaF) to municipal drinking water. It is nothing new; there is a 50-year history of fluoridation in the U.S.

Fluoride is a binary compound of fluorine with another element. Sodium fluoride is routinely used as an insecticide and as a rodenticide. Although the compound is almost synonymous with rat poison, it represents something else to dentists and most health care advocates. Fluoride is the otherwise disposable by-product of the manufacturing process, and the suppliers of the product are the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer companies.

As early as 1940, Dr. Gerald Cox of the Mellon Institute was aggressively promoting the addition of fluoride to public water systems to reduce tooth decay. The Mellon family, interestingly, owned the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA), which proceeded to sell fluoride to the municipalities. In the face of the pressure, the American Dental Association (ADA) warned in the Journal of the American Dental Association (October 1, 1944) that

Three months after issuing its strong warning, the ADA was promoting and participating in the fluoridation projects. The ADA has maintained its continuous support of legislation to fluoridate drinking water.

Maybe fluoride causes truth decay.

Fluoridation programs are usually implemented by independent municipal choice, although a few states make it mandatory. Indianapolis was the first major city to fluoridate drinking water in 1951. The treatment of drinking water with the precise amounts of fluoride is supposed to prevent dental caries in children, but the record is dubious.

Dr. R. Trendley Dean, a dentist with the U.S. Public Health Service, was widely known as the "father of fluoridation" because he conducted a series of studies of the effects of fluoride on teeth in 1945. His initial findings were favorable, although he later admitted in court that his own statistics were invalid. Health Forum News (August 1992) ran the story as "Doctor Who Advocated Fluoridation Now Calls It a Fraud."

Dr. Dean's efforts led to the 1945 project involving Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Michigan. These small cities were assigned as treatment and control areas. Grand Rapids was given the treatment; they got the "poison." The lucky folks in Muskegon kept right on drinking the same untreated water.

The experiment lasted five years. The results were not surprising, but to most observers the interpretation and reaction were stunning. Tooth decay rates in young people did decline in each of the five years, but there was no distinction between the reduced rates in the two cities. Both outcomes were impressive. Dentists were so pleased with the Grand Rapids figures that they used the information to sell fluoridation all across the land.

The findings from the control city of Muskegon were totally ignored. The only report made public was that the tooth decay rate in Grand Rapids declined after the fluoridation.

In 1974, consumer champion Ralph Nader, in an address at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said:

Another dentist who was an early leader in the promotion of fluoridation was Dr. Robert Mick of Laurel Springs, New Jersey. He works for the other side now and offers a $100,000 reward to anyone who can prove that fluoridation is beneficial to humans.

Many major cities have been doctoring their water for more than 20 years; these include Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, St. Louis, Denver, New York, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Houston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.

Several states are 100 percent fluoridated; these are Minnesota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Indiana, North Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio.

Although most Americans casually accept fluoridation, Europeans are suspicious and wary. Sweden banned fluorides in drinking water, toothpaste, and food. Other countries in Europe (Greece, Italy, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Spain, and Belgium) have strict laws against adding fluorides to drinking water supplies. Less than 2% of the drinking water in Europe is fluoridated.

Fluoridation has a favorable reputation among the elite, the intellectuals, and the establishment in the U.S. The programs sound scientific, get a good press, and are supported by a large majority of dentists. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the ADA have been forceful promoters of fluoridation.

Sometimes you have to wonder. The Journal of the American Dental Association (October 1972) reported that the profits of dentists in fluoridated communities were 17% higher than those of their counterparts who were practicing in nonfluoridated areas. Think about it.

There are critics in high places. The late Robert Atkins, M.D., an author with national prominence in nutrition, wrote: "Dentists are concerned only with teeth, but medical doctors have to consider the effects on the whole body."

Even Dr. Kit Shaddix at the CDC was quoted in The Los Angeles Times: "Dentists routinely give out fluoride supplements in fluoridated areas. There probably is excess exposure."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued several warnings about the threat of skeletal fluorosis caused by too much fluoride, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned repeatedly that fluorides increase health risks. There is no unanimity on the matter, even in the government.

In New Zealand, the preponderance of negative evidence caused Dr. John Colquhoun, Chief Dental Officer of Auckland, to switch sides. Now he regrets founding the Fluoridation Promotion Society and admits to using bullying tactics to promote the doctoring of public water. Dr. Colquhoun is one of many who have changed from pro-fluoridation to con.

Research information from The Netherlands claims evidence of genetic damage to sperm cells of laboratory animals and the inhibition of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) repair. Dr. F. H. Sobels at the University of Leiden in Holland published this work in Mutation Research in 1979.

Dr. Dean Burk of the U.S. National Cancer Institute studied cancer-caused deaths in the 10 largest fluoridated cities, compared with the 10 largest nonfluoridated cities over a 25-year span. There was overwhelming statistical evidence implicating fluoride as a carcinogen. As a result, the Congress ordered tests on laboratory animals in 1977. Those tests confirmed the findings of Dr. Burk, but no further action was taken.

Dr. John Lee wrote in the Journal of American Medical Association (July 1991) that fluoridation was the cause of many cases of osteoporosis and hip fractures. Dr. C. Danielson, in the Journal of American Medical Association (August 1992), attributed many hip fractures in Utah to fluoridated drinking water.

Other research doctors have suspected fluoridation as a factor in nerve damage, enzyme inhibition, poor blood-clotting ability, liver dysfunction, and kidney damage.

"Patients with Alzheimer's disease have high levels of fluoride in their brain tissues," writes Dr. Jeffrey B. Arenswald in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Fluoride is not cheap. The Los Angeles Times reported that the initial cost of the Los Angeles County fluoridation program was $10 million for equipment and installation. Each subsequent year will cost $700,000 for supplies and service. It is an expensive business. The damage to organs, skeletons, nerves, and brains will be the greatest cost.

Some charge opponents with believing fluoridation to be a Communist plot. There is an interesting story associated with that.

During World War II, Major Racey Jordan was in charge of Lend Lease air cargo flights to the Soviet Union departing from a U.S. base in Helena, Montana. The Soviets were our allies, and Uncle Sam sent them anything they wanted. Russian officials were on the scene at Helena to help direct the shipments. When Major Jordan noticed the inordinate amounts of regular shipments of fluoride, he asked how it was needed for the war effort. Boris and Ivan explained that Premier Stalin ordered fluoride put into the water at the prison camps to induce a spirit of lethargy in prisoners-of-war and inmates in Siberia, to make them easier to control. The incident is recounted in Major Racey Jordan's Diary. This episode might possibly be the origin of the notion of a Communist conspiracy to advance fluoride agendas.

In the 1940's, both the Communists and the Nazis were interested in controlling prisoners and the occupied populations, and fluoride was probably employed in many cases. It appears that fluoride has had a poor reputation throughout Europe for many years. At least 100 years ago, the mind-altering and behavior-changing potential of fluoride was well known and described in prominent references, such as the Encyclopedia of Materia Medica. It was no secret, except in the U.S., where we still do not speak of it.

Are we Americans soft-headed, robotic, and submissive? Or do we consider ourselves too busy to care? When Premier Khrushchev of the Soviet Union toured the U.S. in 1959, he commented, "When you spit in the Americans' faces, they call it dew."

Remember the names William Kennerly and Jason Burton. They were true martyrs of this toxic madness. In his book, Fluoride, The Aging Factor (Health Action Press, Delaware, Ohio), Dr. John Yiamouyiannis described how two young boys perished by fluoride tablets and by a coating that was performed in the dentist's office. Dr. Yiamouyiannis has degrees in biochemistry and is the leading statistical expert in the struggle to inform. As reported in The New York Times (January 20, 1979), William Kennerly's parents were awarded $750,000 for his death, caused by an application of fluoride after routine teeth cleaning at a dental clinic. On November 3, 1979, the Melbourne Truth reported Jason Burton's tragic death from swallowing six fluoride tablets.

In Baltimore, Maryland, in 1979, too much fluoride was dumped into the public water system and resulted in acute poisoning for approximately 10,000 people. Five times the normal number of people died of heart failure during the week following the spill, according to The Annapolis Evening Capital (November 12, 1979).

Now we understand why toothpaste tubes are finally being printed with warning labels: "Keep Out of Hands of Small Children." Toothpaste tastes delicious to kids, but it must be used in tiny doses. A large dose would sicken; a whole tube could kill.

Ian E. Stephens, author of Fluoridation: Mind Control of the Masses, wrote:

Most developed nations ban fluoride, but fearless America embraces it--despite the evidence. All things considered water, food, and pharmaceuticals--we are the most fluoridated folks on earth. We are not very healthy; we rank 27th in longevity. Fluoridation damages bodies and minds over time, but it destroys liberty overnight. Our country was conceived in liberty. Why trade this precious heritage for mandatory mass medication?

COPYRIGHT 2003 Vegetus Publications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group