(Update August 12, 2011) According to Cal-Am’s Chemistry lab, as of August 2011 they do not yet add any Fluoride to Monterey Peninsula water. However, naturally occurring fluoride is in our water at about 0.3 (ppm?) and Cal-Am does not remove that. However, when Funding becomes available (we’re #27 and 17 was just funded) they will start adding it !
(Originally written in 2001, updated in 2003) Monterey County’s so-called “Health Department” is now taking steps to put a poison, fluoride, in our Peninsula’s drinking water supply as directed by a recent and extremely controversial state law that was passed with little debate.
HOPE wants you to be aware of the best science on Water Fluoridation and have included two articles.
They illustrate six vital health issues —
- Fluoride is not safe. Fluoride is Highly Poisonous, dangerous and even deadly.
- Fluoride is not a nutrient or a vitamin.
- Water Fluoridation damages teeth (mottling) in some 30% of children.
- Drinking Fluoridated water, at its very best, has only a tiny statistical benefit on tooth decay, but likely no actual physical benefit.
- Applying Fluoride paste to teeth is Very Different than drinking fluoridated water.
The first article is an overview of the science by Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly.
The second article is put out by a US-Environmental Protection Agency employees union (scientists, attorneys and engineers) explaining their strong opposition to drinking water fluoridation, and some critical ethical and public health issues related to the way the US-EPA twisted the science and outrageously abused their authority to allow fluoridation of drinking water. (Click here for EPA article)
But first let’s start with the question —
Q. What’s the difference between the fluoride put in drinking water, in toothpaste and rat poison?
A. Absolutely nothing ! — except the intent.
Rat poison and Drinking Water fluoride are exactly identical chemical compounds !
Rat poison fluoride is highly toxic, is intended and used to kill mammals and it does so easily.
Fluoride put in drinking water and toothpaste is chemically identical to rat poison, but is claimed to “improve” tooth health.
Since 1997 all fluoridated toothpaste is now required to carry a warning, (go take at a look at the tube in your bathroom) which states in part to “keep out of reach of children,” and if you accidentally swallow more than needed for brushing teeth “Contact the Poison Control Center!“
Q. How many foods, nutrients or vitamins do you eat with a warning like that?
A. None, of course.
Would you eat a hamburger or a milkshake with a warning to “Contact the Poison Control Center” if you ate too much?
Water fluoridation is typically performed in the U.S. by adding sodium fluoride, a waste product of aluminum production, sodium silicoflouride or hydrofluosilicic acid to drinking water supplies (at 1 ppm). All three compounds are indisputably poisonous in small amounts.
In concentrations exceeding 1.5 ppm Sodium Fluoride “may cause mottling of tooth enamel.” Van Nostrands Scientific Encyclopedia, 1976 Fluorine is the most reactive element and one of the strongest oxidizing agents known.
Prior to 1945 fluoride was not added to water anywhere in the world. Some areas, notably China, have significant amounts of fluoride naturally occurring in drinking water.
Switzerland, after fluoridating its water for 40 years, just passed a law prohibiting Water fluoridation because it has shown no benefit. Most European countries (e.g. Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Denmark) forbid adding fluoride to drinking water.
Separately from fluoride’s broad array of known cumulative poisonous effects on humans (including arthritis, mutations and death), water companies may be reluctant to add fluoridation because of the extreme difficulty in controlling the amount of it in each gallon of water. Too little (less than 1 ppm) and there is no claimed effect upon teeth; only slightly more (1.0 to 1.5ppm) and fluoride is known to damage teeth.
MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet. Every product for sale or for use in business in United States, which has dangerous properties (such as poisonous, toxic or deadly effects) must have an MSDS sheet. Products which do not have dangerous properties, such as most foods, do not need an MSDS sheet.
All of the fluoride products put in drinking water are well-established , hazardous waste products. Each of them is required by law to have an MSDS sheet.
Click here to read MSDS Sheets for —
Sodium fluoride (a waste product of aluminum production),
Q. Why did the 2002 Monterey County Grand Jury recommend fluoridating our water ?
A. Is important to understand that the County Grand Jury willfully refused to look at the science about the dangers on fluoridation or listen to any toxicity experts. The Grand Jury only looked at one side of the issue, the pro-fluoridation side, before making their decision!
What do fluoridation activists want?
Although Debra Diaz of the “Monterey County Fluoridation Task Force” seems well intentioned (she seems to genuinely care about protecting the teeth of children from poor families), her advocacy contradicts all the known science. She claimed “Fluoridation is the single most cost-effective way to fight dental disease, and its safe” and that fluoridation could benefit older people who suffer from root decay.
First, as the above articles explain, fluoridation simply does not work; it just does not realistically fight dental disease.
So fluoridation cannot be the most “cost-effective” because it is not effective at all. Brushing teeth, flossing and avoiding sugar do work and are the most cost effective methods of preventing tooth decay.
Ms. Diaz has provided no evidence of water fluoridation’s benefit to the elderly or concerning root decay. The only studies we can find on water fluoridation related to the elderly is that it increases hip fractures. Hip fractures cause the deaths of some 50,000 older Americans each year.
We urge you to read the science first, then make your own decision on whether you would like to pay to have poison added to your drinking water.
You might ask Ms. Diaz what scientific evidence she is relying upon.
Click here to read Fifteen (15) articles on fluoridation (including – Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, Project Censored, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury).
(Update October 2011) New York Times: “Looking to Save Money, More Places Decide to Stop Fluoridating the Water“
An alternative you might consider is how our neighbor Santa Cruz adopted a local initiative and joined most European countries in prohibiting drinking water fluoridation and non-consensual medication of the public.
More reading –
If you’d like to read the history of how a toxic got into our water supply — try this article —
Fluoride: How A Toxic Poison Ended Up In Our Water Supply
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Hey There David,
great blogpost
susan,
thought this article was generally good. needs more references for ease of fact checking.
I have done the fact checking and know what you’re saying is truth, but next time, maybe include more references for the reader.
thanks
I am reading this in a rush, but have to say it’s great to find your articles. Has Monterey City or the County gone ahead with this mass public poisoning campaign? San Diego, where I am, buckled last year to it.
The recent Harvard University fluoridation study should convince everyone of the dangers fluoridation imposes. There have been many other recent studies. For example,
a British study found that people living in areas of high water fluoridation experienced a substantial reduction in IQ by as much as 20 percent. Fluoridation has a known detrimental effect on the thyroid gland, which is key to general health, and fluoridation reduces the proper functioning of this gland: all known for quite some time. At poor functioning thyroid makes people lethargic and obese. Also, fluoride is a known poison that has no verifiable benefit in halting tooth decay other than the fact you can kill the host with fluoride poisoning and thereby eliminate tooth decay since dead people do not experience tooth decay.
Thank you for your note Sal. Do you have a link to the Harvard study you mentioned ?