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Fluoride? In the water?
A bill to battle tooth decay is, to some, a government plot, just as in ‘Dr. Strangelove’
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.
The state Legislature is debating a plan to mandate fluoridated water in Washoe County, which has brought out a paranoid libertarian streak in some people.
On Monday a Senate committee heard testimony about adding fluoride to the water, with public health advocates and dentists noting that the naturally occurring element helps prevent tooth decay. They said it is particularly important for children.
But some decried the addition of fluoride in the water, alleging it is toxic, a carcinogen and harmful to the brain.
The facts show otherwise. The National Institutes of Health and a slew of studies show that water fluoridated at recommended levels is safe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says studies show a significant decrease in tooth decay in communities that add fluoride to the water.
More than 60 percent of America has fluoridated water. Clark County started adding fluoride in 2001 in response to a legislative mandate. There are still people in Nevada vehemently opposed to it, however, as senators learned this week.
Some opponents said fluoridated water is a violation of people’s civil liberties and argued that the government wants to “medicate” the public.
Did we somehow get transported back to the 1950s, when ultraconservatives were arguing that fluoridation was a communist mind-control plot? Using arguments that range from absurd to false, the anti-fluoride advocates are making Nevada look like a backwater filled, of course, with unfluoridated water.
It reminds us of the wonderful parody of the paranoia surrounding fluoridation in a scene from the classic movie “Dr. Strangelove.” The crazy Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper sends a nuclear bomber toward the Soviet Union to protect the country against “the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids” through fluoridated water.
Ripper’s foolproof plan to keep his fluids pure: Drinking “only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol.”
Perhaps the Nevada opponents should follow suit, and choose bottled water over tap.
Discussion: 18 comments so far…
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Please google fluoride safety,do a little research. Fluoride is the next tobacco,asbestos,DDT,mercury and lead.They too were promoted by doctors, ect. Dentist put "silver fillings" in our mouths for years that were made of 50% mercury.Fluoride is a scam.
Fluoridation Opposition: Scientific, Respectable & Growing
Over 2300 professionals urge the US Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted, citing scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. See statement: http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.....
Also, eleven Environmental Protection Agency employee unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals called for a moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country, and have asked EPA management to recognize fluoride as posing a serious risk of causing cancer in people. (1a)
Last election day, 53 US cities rejected fluoridation joining a growing list of communities saying "No," to fluoridation.
-- The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canada's leading voice on environmental health issues, released a statement opposing fluoridation.
-- The National Kidney Foundation dropped its fluoridation support replacing it with this caution: "Individuals with CKD [Chronic Kidney Disease] should be notified of the potential risk of fluoride exposure."
-- "A qualitative review of ...studies found a consistent and strong association between the exposure to fluoride and low IQ," concluded Tang el al., in "Fluoride and Children's Intelligence: A Meta-analysis" in Biological Trace Element Research
-- Scientific American editors wrote in January 2008, "Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland"
-- A study in the Fall 2008 Journal of Public Health Dentistry reveals that cavity-free teeth have little to do with fluoride intake. Researchers report, "The benefits of fluoride are mostly topical"while fluorosis is clearly more dependent on fluoride intake."
A Tennessee State legislator who is also an MD is urging all Tennessee Water Districts to stop fluoridation, reported a Tennessee newspaper on 11/29/08. At least 30 Tennessee water districts have already complied with his request.
On 3/3/2009, Plainfield, Vermont bans fluoridation.
The Arkansas Oral Health Director is accused of giving eight "false or misleading statements" on fluoridation to an Arkansas legislative Committee.
Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Dr. Arvid Carlsson, says, "Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It's really obsolete."
Fluoride jeopardizes health - even at low levels deliberately added to public water supplies, according to data presented in a 2006 National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) National Research Council (NRC) report. Fluoride poses risks to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and others and can severely damage children's teeth. (11) At least three panel members advise avoiding fluoridated water.
nyscof,
What has the actual incidence of fluoride poisoning been with regard to the total number of people drinking treated water and over what period of time?
"Over 2300 professionals urge the US Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted, citing scientific evidence"
Might these "professionals" be the same folks that are pushing the global warming hoax?
You would be surprised if you really knew what chemicals they are using in the water that is called drinking water in L Vegas. Now that Lake Mead is being depleted, the sewerage waste water is being recycled to produce drinking water, did you know that??
pmmart,
The short answer to your supposition is no. The experts studying AGW include climatologists, paleoclimatologists, atmospheric chemists, physicists, biologists, and others with true expertise. 97 percent of active climate researchers agree that AGW is real and a growing threat to human civilization, although your question makes me wonder how civilized some are???
uddeboda,
Why would anyone be surprised when all they have to do is go look here:
http://www.lvvwd.com/html/wq_index.html
LVVWD has to meet higher standards than bottled water distributors.
This is why, despite what it is, we have to be thankful for the R-J. It wouldn't take for granted, at face value, claims of success of fluoride.
There's also plenty of evidence against fluoride.
In other states they're getting rid of this government-sponsored poison in the water. Another case of Nevada being decades behind the times. As one person posted, do a little research. Geez, this is a newspaper? Journalism doesn't mean just printing what people say.
Do a little journalism, sun, and follow the money/power trail.
You should read the information contained in Christopher Bryson's very well researched book, "The Fluoride Deception." His book details the real reasons why we have been deceived into placing this unnecessary neurotoxin into our water supplies. It is a sad tale to say the very least.
The shear amount of information available from both sides is staggering. Yet, knowing what I now know about the practice after a year and four months of research makes me generally appalled at the continuance of our health department's promotion despite all the evidence of fluoride's adverse health effects. And, I very much disagree with the collection of court cases that have determined that fluoridation is a proper exercise of state police powers for the good of a larger population. How do you legally justify placing a pollution by product into a resource that is so basic to human life with the expectation that it will affect everyone in the same manner? That's quite ludicrous.
Most of Europe does not fluoridate, and you will find that statistics show their dental health to be comparable, if not better, to that of America. In fact, European governments use the simple argument that fluoridation is mass medication using a non-approved drug without measured dose or prescription and without monitoring by a licensed health professional. This one argument makes the practice illegal in every state in our Union.
My family and I ceased using fluoridated water and switched to distilled water over a year ago. Prior to that we had experienced about 25 years of "mysterious" medical symptoms for which my doctors could find no cause. Within one week of getting off our fluoridated city tap water, all of those symptoms faded. We've been free of any kind of problems, including the usual flu virus periods ever since. So, my experience is not only from study, but also from experience. It is estimated that a small percentage of the population is particularly sensitive to very low doses of fluoride. It turns out that I am one of them. Yet, multiply that small percentage by the population of the U. S. and you get a large number indeed. I would prefer to stay healthy, but there is so much fluoride in our foods and environment that I find it difficult to avoid it entirely.
You should also note that the EPA Headquarters Union representing more than 1500 scientists, lawyers, engineers and other professionals in Washington, D.C. continue to work against fluoridation. Their statement can be found at:
http://www.nteu280.org/Issues/Fluoride/N...
Upon reading that statement, I think you will discover that not everyone working in health related government agencies are pushing fluoride so strongly.
To MSchaffer According to the US Centers for Disease Control up to 48% of school children sport fluoride-overdose symptoms - dental fluorosis, white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted enamel, with up to 4% severe/moderate.
We can see what fluoride has done to their teeth; but we can't see what it's done to their bones.
Several studies have linked fluoridation to higher rates of bone fractures.
nyscof,
Could you provide links to the these studies?
Leave the floride out of the water, then we can all have teeth like the British! Mmmmm pretty smile!
LV4LIFE
You are joking of course when you say that about the British. They have on average some of the worst teeth in Europe.
There was a time in history when whitening teeth was done by brushing them with urine, which resulted in piss-breath you wouldn't kiss while eventually resulting tooth decay.
Purify your drinking water with a distiller (distillate) for best water results.
Traces of arsenic, copper, lead and other impurities are found in chemicals used to fluoridate public water supplies, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (1)
Arsenic was detected in 43% of the 245 diluted water fluoridation chemicals sampled between the years 2000 and 2006 by NSF International which regulates public water supply additives. (2)
Arsenic may increase cancer risk, according to the EPA which sets the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal of arsenic in water supplies at zero.(3)
Also 3% of the samples contained copper; 2% contained lead; and less than 1% contained barium, chromium, mercury, selenium or thallium. Silicates, the second most prevalent substance in fluoridation chemicals, are not health regulated.
Although no radionuclides or beryllium were found in these samples, 0.4 parts-per-billion is allowed.
Bottled water suppliers, who add fluoride, typically follow the same standards, according to the CDC. (1)
Community water fluoridation uses industrial-waste fluoride (silicofluorides). However, pharmaceutical grade fluoride may also be contaminated. According to the CDC, "Given the volumes of chemicals used in water fluoridation, a pharmaceutical grade of sodium fluoride for fluoridation could potentially contain much higher levels of arsenic, radionuclides, and regulated heavy metals than a NSF/ANSI Standard 60-certified product [the standard that water fluoridation chemicals must meet]."
1)
http://www.cdc.gov/Fluoridation/fact_she...
2) http://www.nsf.org/business/water_distri...
3) http://www.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic/ind...
4) http://www.cdc.gov/Fluoridation/fact_she...
nyscof,
Nothing you have linked to shows actual harm caused. Do you or do you not have sources showing actual harm done as a result of adding fluoride?
Mschaffer - This is the second time I've had to do your research for you. I believe the moderator didn't pass on my response to you.
Fluoride and the Brain
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/brai...
Fluoride and Arthritis
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/bone...
Fluoride and Bone Fracture
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/bone...
Fluoride and Cancer
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/canc...
Fluoride and Allergy & hypersensitivity
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/alle...
Fluoride and the Kidney
http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/kidn...
So, nyscof, you link to an advocacy group which in turn links to poorly done studies filled with caveats. Are you a chiropractor by chance? Only someone with a crank medical background would fall for such crap studies.