Family Forum / Pregnancy / Breastfeeding / August 2009

New York – June 21 -- Water suppliers nationwide, in the US, are
required to supply consumers with annual Water Quality Reports or
Consumer Confidence Reports at least once a year at around this
time.

“Consumers should take this yearly opportunity to check their water
fluoride levels,” says attorney Paul Beeber, President, New York State
Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. "If your water department adds
fluoride chemicals, tell them and your legislators to stop. They are
wasting your money and endangering your health," says Beeber.

“If your water is not fluoridated, don’t be complacent.  The American
Dental Association has mobilized their army of dentists nationwide to
go to your legislators and convince them that you need to swallow more
fluoride (a) without any knowledge of how much fluoride you are
already ingesting,” says Beeber

Dental fluorosis (discolored teeth), the visible sign of fluoride
overdose, now afflicts up 48% of school children, reports the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC).
Fluoride's purported benefits are topical but its risks are systemic,
says the CDC. "This means there is no good reason to swallow fluoride
and no logical justification for water fluoridation," says Beeber.

A 2006 review of peer-reviewed studies in respected journals by the
prestigious National Research Council (NRC) reveals fluoride is a
health risk even at low levels added to water supplies. Especially
harmed are high-water drinkers, babies, kidney and thyroid patients.
The NRC panel found that fluoride’s links to cancer and lowered IQ are
plausible.

Because of the NRC report, the CDC and the American Dental Association
both advise that infant formula should NOT be mixed with fluoridated
water.

The NRC report also caused the National Kidney Foundation to advise
that “Individuals with CKD  [Chronic Kidney Disease] should be
notified of the potential risk of fluoride exposure.” Too much
fluoride damages bones and malfunctioning kidneys do not excrete
fluoride properly allowing a toxic build-up in the bones.

Besides, fluoride ingestion is not stopping tooth decay in primary
teeth.

According to a systematic review of fluoride supplement research
published in the November 2008 Journal of the American Dental
Association, "There is weak and inconsistent evidence that the use of
fluoride supplements prevents dental caries in primary teeth." In
fact, the authors could find only one study, from China, showing any
fluoride benefit to primary teeth and that study was probably biased
with a high withdrawal rate, the authors write.

Fluoride supplements never underwent FDA testing.(1)

"Fluoridation began with the untested belief that ingested fluoride
prevented tooth decay in small children, only. Evidence-based-
dentistry now shows that swallowing fluoride poses dental risks
without benefits to the very children fluoridation was supposed to
help," says Beeber.

"It may...be that fluoridation of drinking water does not have a
strong protective effect against early childhood caries (cavities)
reports
dentist Howard Pollick, University of California, and colleagues, in
the Winter 2003 Journal of Public Health Dentistry.

Beeber advises: Call your water department, ask if fluoride chemicals
are added into your water supply.  Then ask them and your local
legislators, “Who has the authority to stop fluoridation?”  Organize
your neighbors to lobby the appropriate agency or department to have
them cease fluoridation. You will be saving your community money and
improving overall health with no increased dental risk. In fact, many
studies show that when fluoridation ends, tooth decay rates actually
go down or stay the same.

Fluoride does occur naturally in most water systems. But over 90% of
fluoridating communities use silicofluorides, waste products of
phosphate fertilizer production, which carry trace amounts of lead,
arsenic, mercury and other toxins, according to NSF International, the
governing body over water additives.(2)

Opposition to fluoridation is scientific, respectable and growing in
numbers and political popularity.

On November 4, 2008, 53 US cities rejected fluoridation joining a
growing list of communities saying "No" to fluoridation.

Dr. Joey Hensley, a respected practicing physician serving in the
Tennessee legislature, urges all Tennessee Water Districts to stop
fluoridation. At least 31 Tennessee water districts have already
complied.

Over 2,500 professionals signed a statement urging the US Congress to
stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted,
citing scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight
tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. See
statement: http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html

Also, 11 Environmental Protection Agency unions, representing over
7000 environmental and public health professionals, called for a
moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country,
and have asked EPA management to recognize fluoride as posing a
serious risk of causing cancer in people. (3)

Fluoridation is now a political issue usually defended and promoted,
without valid science, by organized dentistry and their members in
federal and state health departments as well as those in private
practice.

For more information on fluoride's adverse health effects, visit the
Fluoride Action Network Health Page at  http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health

Join the 21,000 Americans calling on Congress to stop fluoridation
here:  http://congress.FluorideAction.Net

SOURCE:  New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc.
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
http://www.FluorideAction.Net

References:

a) http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3589

1) August 2000 letter from NJ Assemblyman Kelly to Senator Robert
Smith http://www.fluoridealert.org/fda.htm

2) www.nsf.org/business/water_distribution/pdf/NSF_Fact_Sheet.pdf

3)  Press Release August 19, 2005, “EPA Unions Call for Nationwide
Moratorium on Fluoridation, Congressional Hearing on Adverse Effects,
Youth Cancer Cover Up,” Contact: Dr. William Hirzy, Vice-President
NTEU Chapter 280

http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Alert/United-States/National/EPA-unions-call-for-m
oratorium-on-fluoride-in-drinking-water