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Fluoridated vs. Unfluoridated Countries (Tooth Decay Trends)
Fluoridation of community water started in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945, and municipalities across the country soon began adopting the practice. Studies showed a 50 to 70 percent reduction in dental cavities in children who drank fluoridated water. But these studies were poorly designed and riddled with bias and conflicts of interest. None were blinded; so dentist-examining children for cavities knew which kind of water they were drinking. But they served their purpose. These studies were designed to further the propaganda interests of the state, not test a hypothesis.
A large number of better-conducted studies show that tooth decay rates are the same in fluoridated and unfluoridated countries. Only five countries still fluoridate their water. When European countries stopped fluoridating their water tooth decay rates continued to trend down.
Dental Fluorosis:
The first visible sign of fluoride poisoning is dental fluorosis, which affects more than 40 percent of children in optimally fluoridated areas. It begins as small white specks in the enamel that then turn into spots, become confluent, and, in most severe stages, turn brown. Brown mottling occurs in 3 percent and fluorosis of aesthetic concern affects 12 percent of children.
Cosmetic Correction of Fluorosis:
Dentist in fluoridated communities make more money. Not only do they have an equal number of cavities to repair, the disfigurement fluorosis causes is more lucrative to correct than filling cavities. Fluoride also delays the normal shedding of baby teeth and their replacement by permanent teeth, increasing the likelihood that the permanent teeth will come in malpositioned and require the services of an orthodontist and braces to straighten them.
Lead, Fluoride, and Arsenic:
As a poison, fluoride ranks up there with lead and arsenic. But given its protected pollutant status, the EPA gives fluoride a pass, setting its maximum contaminant level in water at 4,000 parts per billion, or 4mg per liter. Lead and arsenic, in contrast, are tightly controlled at 15 and 50 parts billion respectively.
The concentration of fluoride added to human drinking water – 1 mg per liter – kills freshwater fish.
Manifestations of Fluoride Poisoning:
Fluoride has a particular affinity for calcium and thus for bone. It poisons bones the same way it does teeth, by blocking the enzyme that produces collagen, which provides the structural framework for both tissues. One study has shown that children with severe dental fluorosis are more likely to have bone fractures. On average, 50 percent of the fluoride a person ingest accumulates in the bones and other tissues. Unlike teeth where the enamel, once formed, remains static, 10 percent of bone tissue is broken down and replaced annually, giving fluoride an opportunity to steadily accumulate year-after-year in bones.
Skeletal fluorosis, in its initial clinical stage mimics arthritis. The causes of most forms of arthritis, like osteoarthritis, are unknown. One in three American has arthritis, and it is biologically plausible that this high incidence is a consequence of fluoridation; but government agencies will not fund studies to investigate this possibility.
In the next stage, osteoporosis develops and bones become more brittle and weak, making them prone to fracture. There is also an epidemic of osteoporosis and hip fractures in the United States. The third and final stage, crippling fluorosis, occurs mainly in India where the natural fluoride content of water is very high.
There is growing evidence that fluoride also causes brain fluorosis. Researchers in China have shown that children who drink naturally fluoridated water have lower IQ scores. Rats given fluoridated water at the upper limit approved by the EPA develop symptoms resembling attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Fluoride combines with aluminum in drinking water and takes it through the blood-brain barrier into the brain, and a characteristic finding in Alzheimer’s disease is high aluminum levels in the brain.
Being a smaller and thus more active halogen, fluoride blocks iodine uptake in the thyroid gland and causes hypothyroidism, an increasingly frequent disorder in the United States.
Studies show that the rates of bone cancer are substantially higher in fluoridated areas, particularly in boys.
High concentrations of fluoride accumulate in the pineal gland in the brain, which produces serotonin and melatonin. Girls who drink fluoridated water reach puberty six months earlier than those who drink unfluoridated water, thought to be a result of reduced melatonin production.
Fluoride damages sperm, and one study found an increased rate of infertility among couples living in areas where fluoride content in the water was 3mg/L, 1mg below the EPA’s upper limit.
Water Filters that Remove Fluoride:
Regular carbon filters do not remove fluoride, which is smaller than the pore size of the filters. One has to use reverse osmosis filtration or distillation.
Hydrofluorosilicic acid, produced in manufacturing phosphate fertilizer, is now used to fluoridate municipal water. Other waste products are mixed with this compound scrubbed from smokestacks of the fertilizer plants. They include lead, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, mercury, and aluminum. One of the best investments people who live in fluoridated area can make for maintaining good health is to filter the water they drink with a reverse osmosis filtration system or a water distiller.
The average American living in a fluoridated community now ingests 8mg of fluoride a day. But people who live in unfluoridated areas also consume a lot of fluoride, on average 4mg/day. It is in toothpaste; in fruit juices, soda pop, tea, and processed foods; and unfortunately, also California wines, whose grapes are sprayed with the pesticide cyrolite (sodium aluminum fluoride).
Water Fluoridation in the United States:
Overall, 60 percent of Americans are forced to drink fluoridated water. The lowest percentage, less than 2 percent, is in Utah, which has the best dental health in the country, and the highest percentage, 100 percent is in Illinois. The CDC, in its wisdom, ranks fluoridation of community drinking water as one of the ten most significant public health achievements of the 20th century, and the goal of the government’s Healthy People 2010 initiative is to have 75 percent of the population drinking fluoridated water.
For more information on Fluoride and this article please see the following website.http://www.fluoridealert.org
If you have any questions about Fluoride Testing please contact FFP LABORATORY at 877-900-5556 or go to their website at http://cypress.he.net/~bigmacnc/FFPLab/orderinginfo.htm