["Mild to Severe Fluorosis." Photographs of Dental Fluorosis by Dr. Hardy Limeback and Dr. Iain Pretty, et al. on the Fluoride Action Network website]
Did you know that fluoride is not needed for healthy, strong teeth, or to prevent cavities? In fact, it can lead to brittle, discolored teeth, and worse. According to the CDC, 41% of teens 12-15 are showing signs of dental fluorosis, some of them with moderate or severe cases that may require expensive treatment. Do you or your children have white or brown stains on your teeth like the photos shown above?
Fluoride is not a required nutrient in the body and is in fact dangerous. Some of the dangers include brain damage, neurotoxic effects, lowered IQ, lowered thyroid function, arthritic symptoms, weakened bone, bone cancer, and reproductive problems. It accumulates in the body, often in the bones and pineal gland. Adults only excrete 50-60% of the fluoride they
ingest, and children less than that. Babies fed exclusively on formula made with fluoridated water are especially at risk.
The “pea-sized” amount of fluoridated toothpaste recommended for children to use when brushing has the same amount of fluoride as an 8oz glass of fluoridated tap water. And yet you’re told to call poison control if your child swallows that dab of toothpaste–while simultaneously being encouraged to drink (and get your child to drink) eight glasses of water a day!
Besides toothpaste and water, we may also get additional fluoride in processed foods if they’re processed using water from a fluoridated supply, mechanically deboned meat, and tea (the tea plant naturally concentrates fluoride from the soil).
Public water fluoridation is a mass uncontrolled medical experiment without informed consent. Fluoride is the only chemical currently added to drinking water as a medical treatment. But dosage cannot be controlled and no health agency is monitoring exposure or side effects. From the Fluoride Action Network’s 50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoridation:
There has never been a single randomized clinical trial to demonstrate fluoridation’s effectiveness or safety. Despite the fact that fluoride has been added to community water supplies for over 60 years, “there have been no randomized trials of water fluoridation” (Cheng 2007). Randomized studies are the standard method for determining the safety and effectiveness of any purportedly beneficial medical treatment. In 2000, the British Government’s “York Review” could not give a single fluoridation trial a Grade A classification – despite 50 years of research (McDonagh 2000). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to classify fluoride as an “unapproved new drug.”
The fluoride added to public water supplies is a toxic byproduct of the fertilizer industry. It’s not “pharmaceutical grade”; it’s contaminated with various impurities including arsenic–for which no level of ingestion is safe. So instead of the industry being stuck paying to safely handle a toxic waste, we’re PAYING them to take it off their hands and add it to our water!
Learn more, and take action to get fluoride out of your public water supply. One by one, communities across the US are joining the 97% of Western Europe and many other countries who don’t fluoridate. Is yours one of them?
Where to Get a Water Filter to Remove Fluoride and Other Contaminants
Check out the Village Green Network Marketplace’s Water Purification page for companies that sell whole house water filtration systems that remove not only fluoride but chlorine, chloramines, heavy metals, and many other contaminants.
Resources for more information:
- Organization: Fluoride Action Network
- Organization: Your Local Fluoride-Free Campaign Home Base
- Flyer: Fluoride Health Alert
- Article: Fluoridation: The Fraud of the Century
- Article: Fluoride: Worse than We Thought
- Blog Post: Top 10 Dangers of Fluoride on Cheeseslave
- Book: The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics that Keep it There By Paul Connett, PhD, James Beck, MD, PhD, & H.S. Micklem, DPhil, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010 (Buy on Amazon via link above, read WAPF review here)
- Book: The Fluoride Deception, By Christopher Bryson, Seven Stories Press (Buy on Amazon via link above, read WAPF review here)
This post is linked to:
- The Healthy Home Economist’s Monday Mania Blog Carnival for 1/2/12
- Hartke is Online Weekend Gourmet Blog Carnival, January 2, 2012
The post Think Fluoridated Water Is a Good Thing? appeared first on Farm Food Blog.
