Dangers of Fluoridation
The Mesa, Arizona Tribune recently quoted Dr. Hardy Limeback, head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry for the University of Toronto and president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research. He is Canada's leading flouride authority and until recently, the country's primary promoter of the additive. He announced a dramatic change of hart when he said, "Children under three should newer use flouridated toothpaste, or drink flouridated water, and baby formula must newer be made up using Toronto tap water. Never." He went on to say, "Residents of cities that flouridate have doubled the flouride in their hip bones compared to the balance of the population. Worse, we discovered that flouride is actually altering the basic architecture of human bones, skeletal flourosis is a debilitating condition that occurs when flouride accumulates in bones, making them extremely weak and brittle.
In Canada we are now spending more money treating dental flouroses than we do treating cavities. Here in Toronto we've been flouridating for 36 years. Yet, Vancouver, which has never flouridated, has a cavity rate lower than Toronto's. Cavity rates are low all across the industrialized worlds, including Europe, which is 98% flouride free. Your well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of misinformation from public health organizations and the dental association."
Dr. Hardy Limeback addressed his faculty and students at the University of Toronto, Department of Dentistry. He said, "Speaking as the head of Preventive dentistry, I told them that I had unintentionally misled my colleagues and my students. For the past 15 years, I refused to study the toxicology information that is readily available to anyone. Poisoning our children was the furthest thing from my mind.
For more information go to the International Society for Flouride Research www.fluoride-journal.com.
Fluoride in water is probably the most controversial water pollutant. Mostly because utilities intentionally add fluoride in water supply of more than 50 percent Americans.
Fluoride in drinking water is believed to be a preventer of tooth decay. But, according to a two-year study by the National Institute of Dental Research, fluoride does not affect the number of tooth cavities.
On the other hand, in large enough doses fluoride in drinking water damages teeth and bones (fluorosis), as well as liver. Not to mention the danger of cancer and mutagenic effects.
Among great defenders of water fluoridation is the American Dental Association (ADA) that still insists on great benefits of fluoride and water fluoridation. But the same ADA states that fluoridated water is 100 percent safe - if not swallowed. Dentists are not qualified to give a professional opinion on the safety of swallowed fluoridated water.
On the other hand, fluoride also occurs naturally. You consume much more fluoride than recommended by the ADA just eating and drinking, without using fluoridated water. For example, if you eat cereal and milk and one can of soda for breakfast, you receive over 200 percent of the ADA recommended fluoride amount.
Another problem with water fluoridation is that chemicals used to fluoridate the water supply are not of high purity pharmaceutical quality - they actually are by-products of aluminum and fertilizer industries. They contain high concentration of toxins and heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead, and cadmium. All are cancerogenics and are routinely found in fluoridated water.
Chemicals used for water fluoridation are more toxic than lead and slightly less toxic than arsenic, but EPA standards for fluoride water pollution in US are hundreds of times the standards for those heavy metals.
Many European counties (like Sweden, France, Norway, Holland, and others) do not use fluoride due to its suspected side effects. For those people any potential benefits of fluoride in water are not worth the increased danger of cancer.
In USA, it is your local and state health authorities who decide if fluoride should be added to your water.
You can remove fluoride from drinking water by special fluoride water filters, water distillation, reverse osmosis water filters and catalytic activated carbon water filters.