The Hidden Dangers of Fluoride
This is an extremely contentious topic when brought up in the general public. Dentists push parents to use fluoridated toothpaste with their children to help prevent tooth decay. Cities fluoridate their water supplies telling everyone it is for their best good to help promote strong teeth. However, when you begin researching where and how fluoride originated and what the studies have shown about its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay – the picture looks quite different than the story we have been told.
Where does fluoride come from? What is it?
Fluoride is a waste by-product of the fertilizer industry. Taken from ‘Origins: Current events in historical perspective’, published by the history departments at the Ohio State University and the Miami University, we read:
“Highly toxic hydrogen fluoride and silicon tetrafluoride gases are by-products of fertilizer production. Prior to the 1970s, these pollutants were vented into the atmosphere and gave central Florida some of the most noxious air pollution in the country. During the 1960s, however, complaints by farmers and ranchers eventually forced reluctant manufacturers to invest in pollution abatement scrubbers that converted toxic vapors into fluorosilicic acid (FSA), a dangerous but more containable liquid waste. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) cautions that FSA, an inorganic fluoride compound, has dire health consequences for any worker that comes into contact with it. Breathing its fumes causes severe lung damage or death and an accidental splash on bare skin will lead to burning and excruciating pain. Fortunately, it can be contained in high-density cross-linked polyethylene storage tanks. It is in such tanks that fluorosilicic acid has for the past half century been transported from Florida fertilizer factories to water reservoirs throughout the United States. Once there, it is drip fed into drinking water. This is a practice that the American Dental Association and numerous scientists and public health officials describe as “the precise adjustment of the existing naturally occurring fluoride levels in drinking water to an optimal fluoride level . . . for the prevention of dental decay.”
The fluoride used in toothpaste is considered to be pharmaceutical grade fluoride, but the fluoride which is dumped into our water supplies is an untreated industrial waste product, one that contains trace elements of arsenic and lead. According to the handbook, Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, fluoride is more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. It is a cumulative poison that accumulates in the bones over years of exposure.
From 1990 to 1992, the Journal of the American Medical Association published three separate articles linking increased hip fracture rates to fluoride in the water. Research has confirmed that fluoride consumption can lead to a condition known as ‘skeletal fluorosis’. The liver is unable to process fluoride, so it passes into the bloodstream, where it combines with calcium that’s been leached from the skeletal system, which leaves you with damage to bones and joints. The bones can become hardened and become less elastic, which can lead to a higher risk of fractures. Osteoarthritis has also been linked to skeletal fluorosis. Another way that fluoride can have a detrimental effect on the bones is by damaging the parathyroid gland. This can result in hyperparathyroidism, which involves uncontrolled secretion of parathyroid hormones. This secretion can result in a depletion of calcium in bone structures and a higher than normal concentration of calcium in the blood.
Other damaging effects of fluoride can include:
Dental Fluorosis
Exposure to high concentrations of fluoride during childhood, when teeth are developing, can result in white streaks or specks in the enamel of the teeth.
Poor Cognitive Abilities
In 2017, a report was published suggesting that exposure to fluoride before birth could lead to poorer cognitive outcomes in the future.
The researchers measured fluoride levels in 299 women during pregnancy and in their children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Higher levels of fluoride were associated with lower scores on IQ tests.
In 2014, fluoride was documented as a neurotoxin that could be hazardous to child development, along with 10 other industrial chemicals, including lead, arsenic, toluene, and methylmercury.
The Fluoride Action Network reports that, as of May 2013, 43 studies have examined the effect of Fluoride on human intelligence. The studies show that children in highly fluoridated areas have up to a 5 times greater chance of developing a low IQ as compared to areas with low fluoride.
According to the International Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), fluoride can cause neurological problems, possibly leading to ADHD.
Thyroid Dysfunction
Iodine and fluoride belong to a family of compounds known as halogens. Iodine is beneficial to the thyroid, but fluoride is not. However, because of the similarities, the thyroid can absorb fluoride instead of iodine. Fluoride is toxic to thyroid cells, which can inhibit function and cause cell death.
Pineal Gland Calcification
Scientists do not have a complete understanding of all of the functions of the pineal gland, but some of the things they do know are that it helps regulate the body rhythms and wake-sleep cycles. Fluoride is extremely toxic to the pineal gland – it accumulates and calcifies the gland. By the time the average person reaches old age, their pineal gland can have a higher calcium density than their bones.
Infertility
Studies have shown a direct link between fertility rates and fluoridated drinking water. Higher levels of fluoride correspond to lower fertility rates in both men and women.
Research is showing that girls living in areas prone to more fluoride exposure experience puberty earlier than girls exposed to less.
Cancer
Epidemiology research in the 1970’s by the late Dr. Dean Burk, head of the cytochemistry division of the National Cancer Institute, indicated that 10,000 or more fluoridation-linked cancer deaths occur yearly in the United States.
In 1989, the ability of fluoride to transform normal cells into cancer cells was confirmed by Argonne National Laboratories.
The justification for using fluoride in toothpaste, mouthwash, and our drinking water is that it reduces tooth decay. However, the most recent studies are not confirming this reasoning. The United States Public Health Service dental records of over 39,000 school children, ages 5-17, from 84 areas around the United States showed that the number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth per child was virtually the same in fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas. According to Michael B. Schachter, M.D.:
“As a result of clever public relations campaigns, fluoride was transformed from an environmental pollutant to an essential nutrient necessary for producing healthy teeth. The science was poor, but the P.R. campaign was great. Being against fluoride was like being against motherhood or apple pie. Industries not only made millions from selling this environmental pollutant to water companies and toothpaste companies, but more importantly, it saved billions of dollars that would be required to clean up this environmental pollutant.
We know that fluoride is toxic because the number one reason for poison control calls concerning fluoride are for children who’ve eaten toothpaste.”
In the United States Pharmacopoeia, a guide to drug information, which lists some of the side-effects that can result from the daily ingestion of the amount of fluoride found in 1 to 2 pints of artificially fluoridated water, we find:
Black tarry stools
Bloody vomit
Faintness
Nausea and vomiting
Shallow breathing
Stomach cramps or pain
Tremors
Unusual excitement
Unusual increase in saliva
Watery eyes
Weakness
Constipation
Loss of appetite
Pain and aching of bones
Skin rash
Sores in the mouth and on the lips
Stiffness
Weight loss
White, brown or black discoloration of teeth
Although not all of these side-effects appear very often, when they do occur, they may require medical attention.
The 1991 Physicians’ Desk Reference cautions:
“Dental fluorosis (mottling) may result from exceeding the recommended dose. In hypersensitive individuals, fluorides occasionally cause skin eruptions such as atopic dermatitis, eczema, or urticaria. Gastric distress, headache, and weakness have also been reported. These hypersensitive reactions usually disappear promptly after discontinuation of the fluoride. In rare cases, a delay in the eruption of teeth has been reported.”
Both of the books quoted above are books that are used to research the side-effects of drugs. If the fluoride which is being added to our water supply is considered a drug - then we are being medicated without our consent. This seems to violate our basic freedoms. If fluoride is considered to be a drug, then it should be our choice whether we want to use it or not.
Fluoride has been used as a pesticide for the control of mice, rats, and other small pests. One-hundredth of an ounce of fluoride could kill a 10-pound child, and one-tenth of an ounce could kill a 100-pound adult. Proctor and Gamble, the makers of Crest, acknowledges that a family-sized (7-ounce) tube of fluoride toothpaste “theoretically, at least, contains enough fluoride to kill a small child”. Fortunately, most children will not eat an entire tube of toothpaste, but it is important to understand the potential hazard.
With research coming in which shows that fluoride is not only NOT preventing tooth decay but is actually contributing to some major health issues, it may be time to make sure our children are not drinking from fluoridated water sources and using toothpaste which does not contain fluoride. Where possible, it is also important to let our voices be heard when it comes to a vote on whether or not to fluoridate our water supplies. This is an issue that is well worth our time to become educated on the facts and not just blindly accept the advertising used to promote products.