It was odd to read the other day that the Northern Ozaukee County Village of Saukville was considering ending its fluoridation of the municipal water system.
You'd have thought that debates over the wisdon water fluoridation was a closed issue, since it's known to reduce tooth decay and help children and adults avoid other related diseases, too.
It does cost a few thousand bucks a year to put fluoride in the water, but the Village of more than 4,000 people is a growing community with family incomes that exceed Wisconsin averages.
And the Village seems to be able to provide other municipal services, and amenities. The annual cost of $5,300 to fluoridate the drinking water doesn't look like a budget-buster.
Fluoridation was a contentious issue in America in the 50's, when some claimed it was an insidious Communist plot to weaken Americans through contaminated drinking water supplies.
Saukville has been adding fluoride to its drinking water since 1964, and with the Cold War over, it's hard to imagine that Saukville's possible fluoride removal is part of some throwback, 'better-dead-than-Red' resurgence.
Let's hope that the idea gets set aside, and the region can focus its interest in water policy on getting a strong Great Lakes Compact, with solid conservation and diversion restrictions, adopted in the legislature.
Just found your blog--keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI'm puzzled by the fuss over fluoride, too. I work in a water treatment plant and recently received a call from a consumer who just moved into the area, and was very concerned about the fluoride and did not agree with it at all because "they don't fluoridate the water in Europe." With so many decades of exposure, if there were serious problems they would have manifested themselves by now.
Besides, as I pointed out, if it was a Communist plot it wasn't a very good one, as there aren't very many Communists around any more!
Thanks for being a reader.
ReplyDeleteMaybe all the Communists drank unfluoridated water.
In a statement released August 9, 2007, over 600 dentists, physicians, scientists and environmentalists urge Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted. They cite new scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. (http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html)
ReplyDeleteSigners include a Nobel Prize winner, three members of the prestigious 2006 National Research Council (NRC) panel that reported on fluoride’s toxicology, two officers in the Union representing professionals at EPA headquarters, the President of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment, and hundreds of medical, dental, academic, scientific and environmental professionals, worldwide.
Signer Dr. Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, says, “Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It's really obsolete.”
An Online Action Petition to Congress in support of the Professionals' Statement is available on FAN's web site, www.fluorideaction.org.
“The NRC report dramatically changed scientific understanding of fluoride's health risks," says Connett. "Government officials who continue to promote fluoridation must testify under oath as to why they are ignoring the powerful evidence of harm in the NRC report,” he added.
An Assistant NY State Attorney General calls the report “the most up-to-date expert authority on the health effects of fluoride exposure.”
The Professionals’ Statement also references:
-- The new American Dental Association policy recommending infant formula NOT be prepared with fluoridated water.
-- The CDC’s concession that the predominant benefit of fluoride is topical not systemic.
-- CDC data showing that dental fluorosis, caused by fluoride over-exposure, now impacts one third of American children.
-- Major research indicating little difference in decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities.
-- A Harvard study indicating a possible link between fluoridation and bone cancer.
-- The silicofluoride chemicals used for fluoridation are contaminated industrial waste and have never been FDA- approved for human ingestion.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a DC watchdog, revealed that a Harvard professor concealed the fluoridation/bone cancer connection for three years. EWG President Ken Cook states, “It is time for the US to recognize that fluoridation has serious risks that far outweigh any minor benefits, and unlike many other environmental issues, it's as easy to end as turning off a valve at the water plant.”
Partially, as a result of this statement, at least one city, Cobleskill NY, stopped 54 years of water fluoridation. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/2998.html
Many communities rejected or stopped fluoridation over the years. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/communities.htm
Take Action to End Fluoridation. Sign the Online Petition to End Fluoridation and call for a Congressional Hearing
http://www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm?option=begin&pageid=8276
SOURCE: Fluoride Action Network http://www.FluorideAction.Net
Yes, flouride prevents tooth decay when applied topically. Ever wonder why when the dentist gives you a flouride treatment they put it in a tray that you bite down on, making maximum contact with your teeth - then you spit it out? Have you read toothpaste labels that warn not to swallow? Now put two and two together. Flouride is toxic to the human body. To medicate an entire population by spiking the water supply, disregarding how much flouride people may ingest from other sources, is bad science and quite possibly dangerous.
ReplyDeleteFluoride is poison!!! Did you know that? Did you also know that oxygen is a poison? If you breathed pure (100%) oxygen, you would die. Our atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Did you know water (H2O) is a poison? If you drink water in excess you will upset the chemical balance of your body which could lead to death. Alcohol in excess is a poison too! Maybe we should ban all these substances from our planet so as to not get "poisoned". All the studies you sited are filled with "could be", "might be", "600 (out of 120,000) dentists said", etc. Show me empirical science with studies that have been replicated and juried. Then you may speak. Until then it is all hearsay, and witch hunting.
ReplyDeleteAre the ignorant political members of this community better in understanding this issue than the CDC? Dig deep in your heart to know what is right. And shame on you for putting your children at risk.
Check out these articles:
https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/factsheets/cost.htm
https://www.cdhp.org/blog/270-the-cost-of-not-fluoridating
Yours,
A concerned Dentist from a nearby town.
PS: More work for me is just fine. But morally I feel I must advise you as an expert of the the oral cavity and the effects on your entire body by not taking care of it.
I read the 2006 NRC Report nyscof left in his comment above stating: “The NRC report dramatically changed scientific understanding of fluoride's health risks," says Connett. "Government officials who continue to promote fluoridation must testify under oath as to why they are ignoring the powerful evidence of harm in the NRC report,” he added.
ReplyDeleteHave you read the more recent report from 2007? This is a quote from the CDC report (see web address below):
The 2007 NRC Report on Earth Materials and Health: Research Priorities for Earth Sciences and Public Health
http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/nas.htm
"In this report, the NRC considered research issues related to the medical geology field on connections between earth science and public health, addressing both positive and negative societal impacts. This report identified fluoride as a mineral that can positively influence human health. The report further stated that fluoride in drinking water has two beneficial effects: preventing tooth decay (dental caries) and contributing to bone mineralization and bone matrix integrity."
Your concerned Dentist