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Dear Aguanauts,
Discussion posts allow you to discuss your beliefs on a topic -- to share your understanding, experience and opinions -- without worrying about what's right or what others think. (Check out last week's discussion on farmers' response to water shortages.) Most important, the discussion allows us to learn from each other. So...
Discuss water fluoridation (and chlorination if you must)
08 February 2009
Weekend Discussion: Fluoride
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11 comments:
When I was a kid I had a very conservative uncle who was convinced fluoridation was the beginning of socialized medicine. Aside from people like him, and the Santa Cruz tinfoil hat types, most folks realize that fluoridation has saved untold millions from tooth decay and all the associated health problems. I once looked into seeing if the well water we provide to several farm families could be fluoridated, on account of their children, but the systems do not scale down.
The bone matrix of human teeth has absorbed about all the fluoride it can by the time we reach adulthood; but we still gain some benefit from fluoridated water and toothpaste as our gums recede, as previously untreated tooth becomes exposed.
Geez...what I left out is that "for those of us who have been fortunate enough to have grown up with fluoridated water" the further gains await our middle age years.
Modern science indicates that ingesting fluoride chemicals does not reduce tooth decay but is harmful to health and a waste of money
for more info
Fluoridation 101
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
Fluoride's Adverse health Effects
http://www.FluorideAction.net/health
News Releases
http://tinyurl.com/NewsReleases
Nysof, please show something published in a peer reviewed journal, not a news release, that substantiates your claims.
Every few years, the issue of fluoridation gets on the Town council agenda (ironically, it is the county authorities that look after water not the town council). The chief medical officer, the Canadian dental association and Health Canada support fluoridation as an economical, safe, highly effective means of improving dental health particularly for the poor, however, that does not seem to make any difference.
If one is trying to understand this or any other medical issue, it requires effort. One needs to download and read all of the relevant clinical studies particularly long term, large scale studies rather than relying on second hand sources. Unless you check it yourself, you don't know whether what you are reading is balanced or exaggerated.
If one is concerned about fluoride for example, a senior concerned about fluorosis of the bones, a simple solution is to leave one's glass of water to sit for 1/2 hr allowing the fluoride and chlorine to evaporate.
The National Kidney Foundation dropped its fluoridation support replacing it with this caution: “Individuals with CKD [Chronic Kidney Disease] should be notified of the potential risk of fluoride exposure.”
Researchers reporting in the Oct 6 2007 British Medical Journal indicate that fluoridation never was proven safe or effective and may be unethical.
“A qualitative review of ...studies found a consistent and strong association between the exposure to fluoride and low IQ,” concluded Tang el al., in "Fluoride and Children’s Intelligence: A Meta-analysis” in Biological Trace Element Research (e-published 8/10/08)
Scientific American editors wrote in January 2008, "Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland"
A study in the Fall 2008 Journal of Public Health Dentistry reveals that cavity-free teeth have little to do with fluoride intake. Researchers report, "The benefits of fluoride are mostly topical…while fluorosis is clearly more dependent on fluoride intake."
Fluoride exposure is rising and causing children’s tooth imperfections, ranging from white spots to brownish discolorations and pitting (fluorosis), dentist Elivir Dincer reports in the New York State Dental Journal.
There is clear evidence that small amounts of fluoride, at or near levels added to U.S. water supplies, present potential risks to the thyroid gland, according to the National Research Council’s (NRC) first-ever published review of the fluoride/thyroid literature
Fluoride supplements put children six and under at significant risk of permanently discolored teeth, according to a review of studies recently posted on the American Dental Association’s (ADA) web site in their new section, “evidence-based dentistry,” for dentists and their patients.
Contrary to belief, fluoridation is damaging
teeth with little cavity reduction, according to a review of recent
studies reported in Clinical Oral Investigations.
Fluoride jeopardizes health - even at low levels deliberately added to public water supplies, according to data presented in a recent National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) National Research Council (NRC) report. Fluoride poses risks to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and others and can severely damage children's teeth. (1) At least three panel members advise avoiding fluoridated water.
There are loads more studies at
http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health
So I guess there's nothing in the peer reviewed literature to substantiate these fears, just editorial opinions and subjective summaries. Somehow, I trust the ADA and the folks who make a living studying this stuff more than I do someone who just has an opinion. Of course Big Fluoride could be pulling the strings of these puppets, as they plot to poison all of us, but I can't figure out why.
nyscof,
If fluoridation causes thyroid cancer, one would certainly wonder why despite widespread use of fluoridation, thyroid cancer remains one of the least common forms of cancer according to the Thyroid Foundation of Canada.
The National Kidney Foundation has not issued specific recommendations regarding fluoride intake and kidney disease due to the limited available research on the topic.
Activist groups are usually a bit less reliable than health organizations. Am certainly open to considering large scale, long term, peer reviewed studies proving these risks but from what I can discern the existing studies are small scale and quite controversial.
There is certainly a well-documented risk of severe tooth fluorosis, a rare bone disease and increased risk of bone fractures. The recommended levels of fluoride have been lowered to address the risk of tooth fluorosis.
There are health risks associated with tooth decay. For example, studies indicate increased risk of endocarditis.
Could you tell me why allowing fluoride to simply evaporate is not a potential solution for groups at risk ie. seniors?
Good points, QT, but flouride will not evaporate out of a solution. You need reverse osmosis or distillation. People who believe junk science will just find something else to become afraid of anyway. It's their kids I worry about. Look at the chumps who refuse to vaccinate.
Raising the pitch of an unsupported argument sure worked for the right wing long enough to aim us at destruction. Thank heavens science has resumed its supremacy as the basis for good judgement in government once again...
Besides credible science, evidence to support fluoridation for me is a set of 32 pearly whites with no fillings at all. Check out some of those Texans from towns with fluoridated water. Wow. No wonder they win beauty pageants. I have a mouthful of mercury amalgum (sp?) which is probably far worse than trace fluoride because crazy religious zealots blocked fluoridating the water during my childhood. Crest toothpast did not make up for it and the dentist did not send us home with a fluoride rinse either.
A year ago I was diagnosed with a thyroid disorder. I stopped drinking fluoridated water and now avoid all products containing it which is no easy task. I drink carbon filtered rainwater and my thyroid is now functioning normally. I would like the choice whether or not to take fluoride and since in my case it causes me harm, I choose no fluoride. I believe the addition of fluoride to the water supply should be discontinued – there are only a few countries left in the world that still fluoridate water and unfortunately Australia is one of them. How can mass medication possibly work with no controls over gender, age, weight and the biggest flaw of all - the amount we consume?
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