Monday, September 8, 2014

The Truth About Fluoride

by Riley Houser

Do you brush your teeth twice a day? Are you making sure you’re staying hydrated by drinking at least 64 ounces of water on a daily basis? Well if you are, then we need to have a talk about fluoride and what it could be slowly doing to your mind and your body.

Fluoride is claimed to be a mineral that helps fight tooth decay. It is found in public water supplies, toothpaste and many other dental products. Referred to as “nature’s cavity fighter”, it is reported to help repair the early stages of tooth decay even before tooth decay can be seen. Research states that fluoride helps prevent cavities in children and adults by making teeth more resistant to acid attacks that cause cavities from plaque bacteria and sugars in the mouth and also reverses early tooth decay. Dentists suggest that brushing your teeth twice daily for two minutes each time could help prevent cavities.

Now, with that being said, everyone knows not to swallow your toothpaste, and that if you do you’re supposed to call poison control immediately. Did you know that in the serving size of toothpaste, which is about the size of a pea, is equivalent to the amount of fluoride we consume in 8 ounces of tap water? Something just doesn’t add up: you’re not supposed to swallow the toothpaste but it’s okay for you to drink the water?

Poison

Did you know that the same fluoride that is in our drinking water is a crude industrial waste product of the aluminum and fertilizer industries, and it’s a substance toxic enough to be used as rat poison? In a report by NaturalNews, it is shown that  the chemicals used to fluoridate the United States’ water systems today are commonly purchased from Chinese chemical plants looking to discard surplus stores of this form of industrial waste. Oddly enough, the report details that some Chinese vendors of fluoride advertise on their website that their product can be used as an “adhesive preservative”, a “flux for soldering and welding”, and even an “insecticide”. A Chinese manufacturer, Shanghai Polymet Commodities Ltd, who produces fluoride destined for municipal water reserves in the United States, adds on their website that fluorides is “highly corrosive to human skin and harmful to people’s respiratory organs”. I wonder how healthy it really is for your teeth?

How it all started

Declassified files of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Commission shows that the original motivation for promoting fluoride and water fluoridation in the United States was to protect the bomb, aluminum, and other fluoride polluting industries from liability and with the use of propaganda it spread like wildfire. The toxicity of fluoride was recognized in the 1850s during the Industrial Revolution when iron and copper factories discharged it into the air and poisoned plants, animals, and even people. The problem was recognized in the 1920s when medical writer Joel Griffiths explained that “it was abundantly clear to both industry and government that spectacular U.S. industrial expansion, the economic and military power and vast profits it promised would necessitate releasing millions of tons of waste fluoride in the environment.” Not only that but their biggest fear was “if serious injury to people were established, lawsuits alone could prove devastating to companies, while public outcry could force industry-wide government regulations, billion in pollution-control costs, and even mandatory changes in high-fluoride raw materials and profitable technologies”. Once again, the rich get richer.



At the start, the industry could dispose of fluoride legally in small amounts by selling it to insecticide and rat poison manufacturers. Then in the 1930s a commercial outlet was devised when a connection was made between water supplies carrying traces of fluoride having lower rates of tooth decay. Griffith wrote that this was not a scientific breakthrough, but rather part of a “public disinformation campaign” by the aluminum industry “to convince the public that fluoride was safe and good”. Soon after, a plan was carried out when the Government and industry both strongly supported intentional water fluoridation. Griffiths stated “it made possible a master public relations stroke, one that could keep scientists and the public off fluoride’s case for years to come.” If the leaders of medicine and public health could be encouraged to endorse fluoride in the public’s drinking water, proclaiming a wide margin of safety, how could they turn around later and say industry’s fluoride pollution was dangerous.

To follow, one year into the experiment six U.S. cities adopted the process and by 1947 (two years later), 87 more communities were treated; popular demand was the official reason for this unscientific haste.

Hard to swallow the truth

Did you know that there is not a single process in your body that requires fluoride? Instead, swallowing this toxin has been found to damage your soft tissues (endocrine system, kidneys, and brain), as well as your teeth, causing dental fluorosis in bones, which can cause skeletal fluorosis. There are now over 100 published studies that illustrate fluoride’s harm to your brain and another 25 published studies directly linking fluoride exposure to reduce IQ in children. It has also been discovered that over time of ingesting fluoride it accumulates in many areas of your body, including areas of your brain that control and alter behavior, particularly your pineal gland, hippocampus and other limbic areas. A study release in 1995 showed that fluoride ingestion had a profound influence on the animals’ brains and altered behavior. Pregnant rats given fluoride produced hyperactive offspring and the animals given fluoride after birth became apathetic and lethargic, basically couch potatoes. The studies that showed fluoride made teeth harder and more resistant to acid attacks where further reviewed, and it was discovered that the evidence supporting fluoride really wasn’t strong after all, and that naturally occurring fluoride also happened to be found in areas that are high in calcium and other minerals. Many dentists now say that the calcium and higher mineral content could be the real reason for reduction in tooth decay, not fluoride.

What can you do?

The sad truth of the matter is that there isn’t much that can be done. Commercial reverse osmosis systems have typically been recommended to remove fluoride from drinking water because many home systems aren’t as efficient in the task. Switching to bottled water isn’t the greatest solution either due to the harsh chemicals in plastics that can leach into your water and add to the environmental pollution. You’re also not guaranteed a safer alternative due to the fact that 40% of all bottled water is just bottled tap water that may or may not have received additional water treatment. Many companies still believe fluoride is beneficial so they end up adding it back into the water. There are a few steps you can take. You can choose to use fluoride-free toothpaste and mouthwash and you can easily choose to stop taking fluoride supplements. The best solution of all is to stop the archaic practice of water fluoridation at the source and become a fluoride-free activist. This doesn’t mean you have to picket and protest, but find someone on the city council and have that person do their own research until they find the truth about fluoride. Please help support the Flouride Action Network and help remove fluoride from our water to save lives for years to come.