Fluoride in Your Drinking Water, a Slow but Efficient Poison!

Most city water facilities add fluoride to drinking water. It was introduced into the water supply in the fifties because crude studies showed that it helped to decrease demineralization of teeth and prevent cavities. By 1961 it was widely used in public water systems. Some of the reasons used for putting fluoride in the water were to protect low-income people from cavities, to protecting children's teeth and even due to the high rate of sugar consumption in our society.

Fluoride was also included in most toothpaste formulas. It has been shown that fluoride has been beneficial to teeth when used topically but no conclusive studies have shown that treated water has made a difference.

tooth decay rates. Although the amount of fluoride in toothpaste and water is very small, what is really not considered is that it does not dissolve in the body easily. About half of a person's daily intake will be retained in the body. When drinking water is treated, fluoride ends up in other foods or food items such as: cereals, juices, infant formulas, and it is also used in Teflon coatings and plastic containers. Adding those to your daily intake of water can create a cumulative effect over time and no best possible intake amount has been studied and documented. Also when cooking with fluoridated water, fluoride doesn't enter the steam and fluoride concentrations increase as water boils. This accumulation adversely affects people with impaired kidney functioning, immune deficiencies, heart problems and diabetes.

Now for some interesting facts:

> Sodium Fluoride is the chemical that is used in treating drinking water. It is also an efficient rat poison! It is also used in insecticide for roaches and ants.

> Fluoride is more toxic to the brain than lead. It effects the brain development of children, produces unusual behavior in animals and reduces IQ in humans.

> Fluoride can accumulate in the bones, kidneys, brain and thyroid and reproductive systems. Ingested fluoride generally first acts on the stomach mucosa, and creates hydrofluoric acid, it becomes corrosive and leads to gastrointestinal problems, larger accumulations have also been attributed to irregular heartbeats and cardiac arrest.

> Harvard scientists have found a connection between fluoride and osteosarcoma, bone cancer. > Animal

studies in the 90's found that when even small amounts of fluoride, was given to rats they developed dementia and Alzheimer-like symptoms.

Dr. William Marcus, Science Advisor at the Office of Drinking Water stated in his May Day memo, available at 1-800-728-3833 that fluoride is a carcinogen. Yet in spite of all these studies it is still being used in our water supply.

All of the recent studies of water fluoridation have shown that it does not prevent tooth decay. In fact 97% of western Europe has chosen to not to fluoridate their water, instead they give their people the right to chose fluoride or refuse it, and there is no real difference in their tooth decay rates and ours. Belgium's position on this matter is "the fundamental position of the drinking water sector that it is not its task to deliver medicinal treatment to people. This is the sole responsibility of health services." A quote on Germany's stance on this matter is "The argumentation of the Federal Ministry of Health against a general permission of fluoridation of drinking water is the problematic nature of compulsion medication." And Luxembourg believes that drinking water isn't the suitable way for medicinal treatment and that people needing an addition of fluoride can decide by their own to use the most appropriate way." If we would like to have water that is free from fluoride we have to buy expensive specialty water filters to remove it, the popular water filters in most stores will not remove Fluoride. That is the only choice we have.

Since 1997, due to the large number of calls to the poison control centers from children who became very ill due to ingestion. The following is required by the FDA on all fluoridated toothpaste: "Warning: keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. In case of accidental overdose, seek professional assistance or contact a poison control center immediately."

There are many ways to bring this issue to light and take action to stop the use of fluoride use in your water supply. You can send a message to congress, start a community petition, write the local paper, or spread the word to friends and family. You may email a link to this message or post it on a website. Make your voice be heard!

sources:

http://www.fluoridealert.org/

http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/fluoride.htm

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/814774-overview

http://www.pauapress.com/fluoride/files/1418.pdf

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/fluoride.htm

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 1993: (ATSDR, p 112, 153)."

(Junco, L.I. et al, "Renal Failure and Fluorosis", Fluorine & ntnl l Health, JAMA 222:78- 785, 191972)

The Fluoride Fact Sheet by David Kennedy D.D.S.