Too much fluoride in drinking water will mean little public confidence

Anyone, who chooses, can use fluoride toothpaste and go to a dentist to receive fluoride treatments and a prescription for fluoride drops.  They are allowed to make conscientious decisions regarding themselves and their children.  When fluoride treatment of public water supplies is mandated, advocates are saying that they know what is best for all of us and that the rest of us should not be allowed to make conscientious decisions regarding ourselves and our children.  The first rule of medicine is “do no harm”.  There is an abundance of evidence that fluoridation is harmful.  The corporations that benefit financially from fluoridation are the big contributors to unscrupulous, incompetent politicians and health boards in order to force fluoridation upon us.

Pollution has invaded every place on earth.  Air and water currents have spread toxic industrial, agricultural and chemical wastes to every point on the earth.

American Weevil (Euhrychiopsis lecontei) and their larvae feed on Eurasian water milfoil.  Holes drilled by adult weevils allow bacteria and funguses to infect the water milfoil stems and air to escape from them.  Eventually, the once buoyant stems collapse like spent balloons into the mud.

www.citizengadfly.com

It was no surprise to hear that thousands of Brisbane homes have received water overdosed with fluoride at the rate of 30 to 31 milligrams per litre when the rate of fluoride contained in the water should have been 0.8 mg/L (0.8 parts per million).

Premier Bligh says the health risk was almost zero ("Malfunction blamed for fluoride overload", ABC News, 14/5/09).

But a Queensland water safety spokeswoman said that the concentration of fluoride in Brisbane's water supply was the "equivalent of 30 fluoride tablets in every glass of water".

A two-year-old boy died of fluoride poisoning in Brisbane's Mater Hospital on 14/5/73 "after ingesting at one time no more than six fluoride tablets." (page 99, "Fluoride in Australia - A case to answer" by Wendy Varney).

"This death was never reported in any medical or dental journal throughout the world…" (page 201, "Fluoridation - Poison on Tap" by Glen S. R. Walker FIMF EMECS MAES).

Premier Bligh was wrong when she said "the (Brisbane) incident was unprecedented at any other fluoride treatment plant in Australia" ("Malfunction won't slow fluoride rollout: Bligh", Brisbane Times, 14/5/09).

"A family named Collins was rushed to hospital in Dalby, Queensland after a malfunction of the fluoridation plant in October 1976. All the family were treated in hospital for fluoride poisoning. The plant was closed for nine months...All this was reported in the Dalby Herald 28/1/77 and confirmed by Dalby Council even though there is no mention in the Council's minutes of any accident or harm to the Collins family." (page 281, "Fluoridation - Poison on Tap")

Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the amount of fluoride (overdose in Brisbane) was "of no health concern at all" ("Malfunction won't slow fluoride rollout: Bligh") but admitted on prime-time television (14/5/09) that people could suffer from gastroenteritis (whose symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea).

If readers care to visit www.FluorideAction.net and then type "fluoride accidents and spills" in the search box they can access information that should be an embarrassment to those who promote fluoridation.

For further damning information, this link www.fluorideinbeds.org/FIB/albertschatz.asp accesses an affidavit by the claimed discoverer of Streptomycin (the first human cure for tuberculosis), which is an indictment of the practice of fluoridation in Chile.

With fluoride being more poisonous than lead and only slightly less poisonous than arsenic, those who claim that this fluoride overdosing of a public water supply is nothing to worry about are skating irresponsibly around the truth.

Goodness me - how on earth did this happen?  Apart from obvious concerns about health such an episode plays straight into the hands of the anti-fluoridation nutter community. This episode will probably put pack the introduction of fluoride into Queensland water for years. I hope those reponsible for this disgraceful event consider how many people (mostly children from low socio-economic backgrounds) will suffer painful tooth decay as a result of their incompetency.  

Heads should roll.  

Re. the "the anti-fluoridation nutter community", I can see a few comments in previous postings.  E.g. some dubious report on a dubious website that was never reported in any respectable journal.  Evidence of a conspiracy and cover-up?  Sounds more like the original story is hokum, and that's why no respectable journalist touched it.  

As to the present incident, there are two ways fluoride could contribute to ill-health.  One is a chronic route, involving moderately high doses (e.g. 5 times normal levels) for long periods (e.g a lifetime), which can cause bone/teeth problems.  The incident reported lasted around 3 hours, so effects to bone/teeth from chronic exposure is not a concern.
  
The other mode is acute poisoning, in which case the intake (per body mass) needs to be extremely high.  (Evidently one fluoride tablet contributes more per kg for a baby than for an adult;  however babies generally don't drink a couple of large glasses of water at one sitting, whereas adults might.)  The fact that no ill health (let alone death!) was reported indicates that fluoride is not as harmful as the "nutters" fear (or hope?!?).  
The point is that absence of fluoride contributes to ill health in the form of dental decay.  No-one is forced to consume fluoridated water.  It is the obligation of the state to provide the best services that they are able to reasonably afford.  In the case of drinking water, this normally means the water should be fluoridated.  Not to do so would be a disservice to the community.  

Still unsure???  Consider these analogies.  
Doctors and hospitals try to save lives:  we consider it their duty.  So when a person is unconscious and bleeding to death the 'default' action is to provide a blood transfusion.  Sure there are some religious zealots around who reject that action, as they are generally entitled (morally, if not legally).  That _doesn't_ mean the default action should be to refuse everyone a blood transfusion, unless they 'opt in'.  

How about folate?  It's probably deadly if you ate kilograms of the stuff each day.  But we know it prevents birth defects, and so it is added as a supplement in bread.  Not everyone knows they are going to get pregnant, not everyone knows what to do.  Should we let their babies die because of an imagined risk that a bakery somewhere might accidentally switch the ratio of folate and flour, and kill everyone???

UPDATE:

Interim advice into a water treatment plant malfunction which resulted in higher than usual levels of fluoride being discharged into water supplies from North Pine has concluded homes initially believed to have been affected were in fact not.

“Further validation of the initial test result has confirmed the level at 19.6 milligrams per litre, lower than originally believed

“The advice is that no more than 19.6 milligrams per litre would have reached the water supplied to taps and any adverse health effects are very unlikely and would be limited - at the most - to very mild gastroenteritis which would have been temporary and have no long-term health consequences.”

From www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/.../...ntDisplaySingle.aspx

Fluoride is a chemical waste product from aluminium production, the Nazi's used it in the camps to dumb down & make docile the prison poulation, sodium fluoride is used as a key ingredient of rat poisoning and they are putting it in drinking water ??????
Tell those 'illuminati' idiots their game is up, convict bankers & big pharma for their fraud, crimes against humanity & politicians for their complicity in accommodating this system of madness. Stop watching TV & get back into real life!

What is wrong with our country and the world for that matter. Fluoride is almost as toxic as arsenic. It's a poison which effects the function of various organs within the human body.

Here's some further information.

http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/

FLUORIDE ACCIDENTS & POISONINGS

Fluoride, the active ingredient in many pesticides and rodenticides, is a powerful poison - more acutely poisonous than lead. Because of this, accidental over-ingestion of fluoride can cause serious toxic symptoms.

Each year there are thousands of reports to Poison Control centers in the United States related to excessive ingestion of fluoride toothpastes, mouth rinses, and supplements.

Water fluoridation accidents, resulting in excess levels of fluoride in water, have been one of the sources of acute fluoride poisoning.

FLUORIDE & DENTAL FLUOROSIS)
Excessive ingestion of fluoride during the early childhood years can damage the tooth-forming cells, leading to a defect in the enamel known as dental fluorosis.

Teeth impacted by fluorosis have visible discoloration, ranging from white spots to brown and black stains.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 32% of American children now have some form of dental fluorosis, with 2 to 4% of children having the moderate to severe stages (CDC 2005).

According to Dr. Hardy Limeback, Head of Preventive Dentistry at the University of Toronto, "it is illogical to assume that tooth enamel is the only tissue affected by low daily doses of fluoride ingestion.

FLUORIDE & ALLERGY/HYPERSENSITIVITY
As acknowledged by the Physicians' Desk Reference, some individuals are allergic/hypersensitive to fluoride. The largest, government-funded, clinical trial found that 1% of individuals exposed to 1 mg/day of fluoride exhibited allergic/hypersensitive reactions, including skin reactions, gastric distress, and headache.

FLUORIDE & the KIDNEYS
The kidneys play a vital role in preventing the build-up of excessive fluoride in the body. Among healthy individuals, the kidneys excrete approximately 50% of the daily fluoride intake. However, among individuals with kidney disease, the kidneys' ability to excrete becomes markedly impaired, resulting in a build-up of fluoride within the body.

It is well recognized that individuals with kidney disease have a heightened susceptibility to the cumulative toxic effects of fluoride.

Of particular concern is the potential for fluoride, when accumulated in the skeletal system, to cause, or exacerbate, renal osteodystrophy - a bone disease commonly found among people with advanced kidney disease.

In addition, fluoride has been definitively shown to poison kidney function at high doses over short-term exposures in both animals and humans. The impact of low doses of fluoride, given over long periods of time, has been inadequately studied. A recent animal study, conducted by scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency (Varner 1998), reported that exposure to just 1 ppm fluoride caused kidney damage in rats if they drank the water for an extended period of time, while a new study from China found an increased rate of kidney disease among humans consuming more than 2 ppm (Liu 2005). Hence, the adverse effects to kidney function that fluoride causes at high doses over short periods of time, may also be replicated with small doses if consumed over long periods of time.

FLUORIDE & the BRAIN

Fluoride's ability to damage the brain represents one of the most active areas of research on fluoride toxicity today.

Concern about fluoride's impact on the brain has been fueled by 18 human studies (from China, Mexico, India, and Iran) reporting IQ deficits among children exposed to excess fluoride, by 4 human studies indicating that fluoride can enter, and damage, the fetal brain; and by a growing number of animal studies finding damage to brain tissue (at levels as low as 1 ppm) and impairment of learning and memory among fluoride-treated groups.

According to the US National Research Council, "it is apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain."

FLUORIDE & the PINEAL GLAND
In the 1990s, it was discovered that the pineal gland is a major site of fluoride accumulation within the body - with higher concentrations of fluoride than either teeth or bone.

Subsequent animal studies indicate that the accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland can reduce the gland's synthesis of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the onset of puberty. Fluoride-treated animals were found to have reduced levels of circulating melatonin and an earlier onset of puberty than untreated animals. The scientist who conducted the research concluded:

"The safety of the use of fluorides ultimately rests on the assumption that the developing enamel organ is most sensitive to the toxic effects of fluoride. The results from this study suggest that the pinealocytes may be as susceptible to fluoride as the developing enamel organ" (Luke 1997).

The fact that fluoride's impact on the pineal gland was never studied, or even considered, before the 1990s, highlights a major gap in knowledge underpinning current policies on fluoride and health.

According to the US National Research Council, "any agent that affects pineal function could affect human health in a variety of ways, including effects on sexual maturation, calcium metabolism, parathyroid function, postmenopausal osteoporosis, cancer, and psychiatric disease.”

FLUORIDE & the THYROID GLAND

According to the US National Research Council, "several lines of information indicate an effect of fluoride exposure on thyroid function" - particularly among individuals with an iodine deficiency.

Fluoride's potential to impair thyroid function is most clearly illustrated by the fact that -- up until the 1970s -- European doctors used fluoride as a thyroid-suppressing medication for patients with hyperthyroidism (over-active thyroid). Fluoride was utilized because it was found effective at reducing the activity of the thyroid gland - even at doses as low as 2 mg/day.

Today, many people living in fluoridated communities are ingesting doses of fluoride (1.6-6.6 mg/day) that fall within the range of doses (2 to 10 mg/day) once used by doctors to reduce thyroid activity in hyperthyroid patients. This is of particular concern considering the widespread problem of hypothyroidism (under-active thyroid) in the United States. Symptoms of hypothyroidism include obesity, lethargy, depression, and heart disease.

FLUORIDE & BONE DISEASE

Excessive exposure to fluoride is well known to cause a bone disease called skeletal fluorosis.

Skeletal fluorosis, especially in its early stages, is a difficult disease to diagnose, and can be readily confused with various forms of arthritis including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

In its advanced stages, fluorosis can resemble a multitude of bone/joint diseases.

In individuals with kidney disease, fluoride exposure can contribute to, and/or exacerbate, renal osteodystrophy.

FLUORIDE & BONE FRACTURE

The majority of animal studies investigating fluoride's effect on bone strength, have found fluoride to either have no effect or a negative effect on strength. According to the US National Research Council, "The weight of evidence indicates that, although fluoride might increase bone volume, there is less strength per unit volume."

Studies on human populations consuming fluoride in drinking water have found an association between dental fluorosis and increased bone fracture in children; and between long-term consumption of fluoridated water and increased hip fracture in the elderly.

Carefully conducted human clinical trials - including two "double-blind trials" - have found that fluoride (at doses of 18-34 mg/day for just 1-4 years) increases the rate of bone fracture, particularly hip fracture, among osteoporosis patients.

FLUORIDE & CANCER

According to the National Toxicology Program, "the preponderance of evidence" from laboratory 'in vitro' studies indicates that fluoride is a mutagenic compound. Many substances which cause mutagenic damage also cause cancer.

While the concentrations of fluoride causing mutagenic damage in laboratory studies are higher than the concentrations found in human blood, there are certain "microenvironments" in the body (e.g. the bones and the bladder) where the concentrations of fluoride can accumulate to levels comparable to, or in excess of, those causing mutagenic effects in the laboratory.

Fluoride has been found to cause bone cancer (osteosarcoma) in government animal studies and rates of osteosarcoma among young males living in fluoridated areas have been found to be higher than young males living in unfluoridated areas. Osteosarcoma, while rare, is a very serious cancer. Children who develop osteosarcoma face a high probability of death (usually within 3 years) or amputation.

Fluoride exposure has also been linked to bladder cancer - particularly among workers exposed to excess fluoride in the workplace. According to the US National Research Council, “further research on a possible effect of fluoride on bladder cancer risk should be conducted.”

FLUORIDE & the GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
Among people hypersensitive to fluoride, gastrointestinal ailments have been produced following ingestion of 1 mg tablets of fluoride or consumption of 1 ppm fluoridated water.

A single ingestion of as little as 3 mg of fluoride, in carefully controlled clinical trials, has been found to produce damage to the gastric mucosa in healthy adult volunteers. No research on the gastric mucosa has ever been conducted to determine the effect of lower doses with repeated exposure.

FLUORIDE & TOOTH DECAY (Caries)
According to the current consensus view of the dental research community, fluoride's primary - if not sole - benefit to teeth comes from TOPICAL application to the exterior surface of teeth, not from ingestion.

Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, tooth decay rates have declined at similar rates in all western countries in the latter half of the 20th century - irrespective of whether the country fluoridates its water or not. Today, tooth decay rates throughout continental western Europe are as low as the tooth decay rates in the United States - despite a profound disparity in water fluoridation prevalence in the two regions.

Within countries that fluoridate their water, recent large-scale surveys of dental health - utilizing modern scientific methods not employed in the early surveys from the 1930s-1950s - have found little difference in tooth decay, including "baby bottle tooth decay", between fluoridated and unfluoridated communities.

Also pertinent is the assertion that since fluoride is a natural substance, it suggests that this fact means it's non-toxic. There are in fact many naturally-occurring substances that originate from nature that are deadly. One that is well known is arsenic. Also, aluminum was associated not long ago to Alzheimer's disease.