Fluoride: Off the Fence
By: Keith
Several months ago I wrote an article about teaching good dental hygiene to kids. Somewhere in there I mentioned fluoride and that I didn’t really know what to think of it. Since then I’ve done some thinking and have gotten off the fence about it. While not an expert on the matter I think I’m at least qualified to point out that some of our local governments, the ones that add fluoride to the public water supply, have taken it upon themselves to medicate us. Regardless of the health implications of such medication, positive or negative, it’s at least an ethical violation. It doesn’t matter that they have our best interest in mind. It only matters that we’re consuming something that has debatable health benefits and documented health risks. Don’t take my word for it, I’m not a professional.
What Does Fluoride Do?
Fluoride occurs naturally in most drinking water and many foods. It helps keep tooth enamel strong and protects your teeth from the affects of acid in your mouth. Additionally, it accumulates in areas already affected by acid and strengthens the enamel by a process called remineralization. Demineralization is what eventually brings on cavities. It’s therefore important to protect the enamel on your teeth. Fluoride has been show to do just that (Note: When applied to the teeth from toothpaste, not by drinking or eating it).
Fluoride is a Poison:
I’m not one to blow things out of proportion. I don’t think the government wants to put a chip in my head or that Barack Obama is preparing to enslave my children to the state. It isn’t an opinion that fluoride is a poison, it’s a fact, and it’s why ingesting it in artificially enhanced quantities is unwise. Read this – Material Safety Data Sheet – about Floridine.
An excerpt:
Ingestion:
Toxic! May cause salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Symptoms of weakness, tremors, shallow respiration, cardopedal spasm, convulsions, and coma may follow. May cause brain and kidney damage. Affects heart and circulatory system. Death may occur from respiratory paralysis. Estimated lethal dose = 5- l0 grams.
Now, 5-10 grams is a massive amount of fluoride. Nobody in their right mind would take a teaspoon (NaF in a teaspoon weighs about 4.5 grams) of the stuff just for giggles. The government says between 0.7 and 1.5 PPM (1.5 mg/L) is recommended in drinking water. You might say “Well, that’s not going to kill me.” You’d be right. It won’t. In fact the EPA has set a maximum allowable level at 4 PPM because anything more than 20 PPM per day could lead to adverse health effects (according to the EPA). They also say that children should not take more than 2 mg/L (2 PPM) of fluoride per day.
The Kicker: Fluoride is Everywhere
The real kick in the pants isn’t about fluoride in drinking water. It’s that the fluoride in our drinking water is in addition to the fluoride we get naturally and unnaturally in everyday products. A few examples of where kids get fluoride:
Chicken Baby Food: 4.4 PPM (Heilman JR, et al. (1997). Fluoride concentrations of infant foods. Journal of the American Dental Association 128(7):857-63.)
Canned Fish: 4.57 PPM
Juice: 1.03 PPM
Chicken Sticks (w/ mechanically deboned chicken): 3.61 PPM
Soda: 0.78 PPM (Dr. Pepper has more than 1 PPM for some reason)
Some Dry Cereals: 3.8 – 6.3 PPM (current and future role of fluoride in nutrition. Dental Clinics of North America 47: 225-43.)
You can see that it doesn’t take much to get more than the very dangerous 20 PPM that even the EPA says is terrible. I’m not going to go into too much detail here. My job is simply to express my misgivings about fluoride and the government’s misdirection in its unethical mass medication of us. Of course everybody needs to decide for themselves and for their families when it comes to this sort of thing. That’s just the point of this article; the government, for whatever reason, doesn’t seem overly concerned with the mounting medical evidence against artificial fluoridation. Doesn’t that make you feel a teensy bit mad? I’m not on the fence anymore. For more information please follow these links.
EPA: Ground Water and Drinking Water
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I was aware of these risks 17 years ago when my babies were born. My doctor wanted to give my baby vitamins with flouride it them “Poly-Vi-Flor” because I was breastfeeding.
I researched it back then and never gave them the vitamins because of the flouride risk. Still drink filtered water. Good for you, taking a stand!
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Geez– this is scary. I had no idea so many things had fluoride in them. What do we do?
.-= Dennis Yu´s last blog ..Why some technology companies fail and others succeed =-.
It makes me wonder why they persist. I will never believe that they have our interest in mind. matrixrebellion.com has a great article on fluoride along with many other things they are up to. Thank you for your attention on this subject.
People need to organize and petition their local legislators to stop adding unnecessary, health-robbing fluoride chemicals into their drinking water – and then charging them for doing so.
On the national level, people need to sign the letter to Congress asking them to stop water fluoridation here: http://congress.FluorideAction.Net
However, many communities have stopped fluoridation at the grass roots level.
Sometimes just bringing this information to city council meetings garners support as has been done in Austin Texas (http://www.fluoridefreeaustin.com)
for more info FluorideAction. Net
We don’t drink our local tap water and not just because of the issue with fluoride. It should tell you something about it if they won’t even let it go into toothpaste for children.
.-= PJ Mullen´s last blog ..Time for Bed, Baby Ted – A Review =-.