The One Thing that Shocks Dentists
Diet Recovery: e-Book Review
Assembly Line Orthodontics Can Damage Faces
Pediatric Dentistry – Possible Inadequacies
Magical Toothpaste Too Good To Be True
Fluoride: A Toxic Waste, Part 2
Sugar Alcohols and Tooth Decay
Mounting Environmental Mercury Concerns – But What About Our Mouths?
Bacteria Does Not Cause Disease – Raw Milk And Tooth Decay
Type 2 Diabetes Epidemic in Children; Dentistry and Tooth DecayFluoride: A Toxic Waste, Part 2
Industrial Smokestacks
After so many decades of being taught that fluoride is unquestionably a great substance that the human body needs to fight tooth decay, is this even true? While some evidence suggests that applying fluoride directly to the tooth surface can result in some short-term reduction in the rate of decay, no conclusive evidence shows drinking fluoridated water will do the same. And fluoride causes fluorosis - a mottled appearance of the teeth.
Despite its rampant use in Western society, few people know exactly what it is or where it originated.
But as the debate over fluoridated tap water revs up across the globe, the harsh light of closer inspection is revealing the startling truth about fluoride.
So what is fluoride?
If you conduct an Internet search on fluoride you will find an overwhelming number of sites that say fluoride is a naturally occurring substance found in the ground, air and water. And this is true. But like many natural substances, fluoride can be deadly in a high dose. And adverse effects on bone, kidney and renal health have been found repeatedly at moderate exposure levels.
What not one of the pro-fluoride sites will tell you is that the “fluoride” added to our community drinking water - fluorosilicic acid - is actually an industrial waste product.
In the 1940s the United States found itself in short supply of the fluospar - the common source of the fluoride - it needed to make atomic bombs. The feds also needed to raid Florida’s phosphate reserves to obtain uranium, producing additional large quantities of fluoride waste.
It just so happened that environmental regulations meant to protect crops and livestock from fluoride exposure were forcing fertilizer makers in the phosphate-rich (and ironically named) state of Florida to filter the fluoride out. The resulting fluorosilicic acid (fluorosilicates) removed from the smokestacks provided an inexpensive source of fluoride for the national government.
But with so much produced, what to do with all the filtered toxic waste became the problem.
Coincidence or not, the solution came at almost the exact same time when researchers discovered that the mottled brown staining of teeth in certain regions of the nation was caused by natural fluoride in the local water supplies. The staining became known as fluorosis.
H.V. Churchill, the head chemist for the Aluminum Company of America took the testing further. He wanted to know the levels of fluoride that would cause the mottling versus leave the dental enamel intact. What he inadvertently discovered was that the mottled teeth appeared to be more resistant to tooth decay.
Toxic waste problem solved.
Today more than 70 percent of Americans drink fluoridated water as huge quantities of fluorosilicates are shipped all over the country to be added to the water supplies of our cities and counties.
For more on who is standing against the practice of fluoridating tap water and why, read Fluoride Myth-Busting Part 3.
References:
1. Connett, Paul, PhD; Beck, James, PhD, MD; Micklem, H. Spedding, DPhil (2010). The Case Against Fluoride; How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.
2. "Naturally Occurring Fluoride." EFII. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
11:00 am on June 10, 2013 Permalink
Toxic waste is not better for human healths. I am happy to hear that this problem is solved.