Nutritional Information Newberg OR

Hidden Fluoride in Our Food

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By Jeff Green

They say that hindsight is 20/20 vision. Today, as the devastating effects of chemicals in our water, food and environment surface, we need to look back and see where things went wrong. In fact, it turns out that most chemicals were introduced into the environment without adequate testing, often by means of publicity blitzes that misled the public.

Fluoride is a case in point. When the House Committee on Science recently asked for studies proving the safety or effectiveness of the substances that are used in 90% of the nation’s fluoridation programs, the Environmental Protection Agency responded that it could not identify any long-term studies proving that fluoride is safe. Research over the past few years, however, has shown that fluoridation of water presents a danger, not an advantage, for our health. ‘

Why we are at risk
Over 50 years ago, when public policy makers proposed fluoridation of drinking water, they presented valid-sounding arguments. Many communities rushed to add fluoride to their public drinking water, presuming that the additive would fight tooth decay. Now, that argument itself is decaying.

Policy makers, heavily influenced by industry lobbyists, had bought a bill of goods, and without proper toxicological studies had standardized what they considered to be an effective amount of fluoride. The standard was based on a hypothetical average amount of water that a person drinks each day. But they failed to consider the effect of ingesting larger amounts or to take into account other sources of fluoride—including fluoride in our foods.

According to the July 2000 cover story in the Journal of the American Dental Association, what limited benefit may be attributed to fluoride, if any, probably comes from direct application to the tooth. Even then, swallowed fluoride can cause fluorosis, a darkening or mottling of the tooth and erosion of the enamel.

More significantly, fluoride has been tied to serious health problems. This is compounded when the source of fluoride is hazardous waste from the phosphate fertilizer industry. The actual substances in most fluoridation programs are residues captured from the air quality control smokestack scrubbers of fertilizer producers in central Florida. This clever but less-than-ethical business ploy, which forces toxic waste upon an unsuspecting public in the name of good health, is thought by many to be just the tip of the iceberg.

According to Dr. Hardy Limeback, head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry at the University of Toronto, this waste contains not just fluoride but also lead, arsenic and radium—all carcinogenic—and these are dumped untreated into our drinking water. Furthermore, ingesting fluoride may increase the transport of these heavy metals across the blood-brain and gut-blood barriers.

According to studies of more than 400,000 children in three states, the presence of fluoride chemicals results in a doubling of the incidence of the danger l...

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