Science and Alternative Facts: About fluoridation, false dilemmas and fake news

Undeterred by mounting evidence proving the dangers of fluoride, power, prestige, and paychecks continue to motivate fluoridationists.

Despite the fact that the prestigious international 2015 Cochrane panel, like the 2000 York panel, found the fluoridation literature to be of abysmally poor quality, at high risk of bias, and with no evidence of safety…

Despite the fact that those panels had low confidence in a very small dental benefit that translates to maybe some children, not all, having one fewer cavity during childhood…

Despite the fact that there is robust evidence that fluoridation worsens the symptoms of inflammatory diseases, disrupts thyroid function, endangers the health of kidney patients, accelerates destruction of water pipes and in so doing increases lead in the water, and is linked to increased learning disabilities…

Despite the fact that fluoridation is a false dilemma, that the only scientifically proved dental benefit is from topical use of fluoridated toothpastes, rinses, and varnishes and that any who still want to consume it can do so cheaply without fluoride being added to municipal water…

Despite all this, fluoridationists have mounted a marketing campaign to promote fluoridation mandates based on a hundred year old dental myth.

Incongruously, at the center of this scheme is the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Fluoridation is a profitable business for some, and over the years too much organizational prestige and too many paychecks have become inextricably linked with fluoridation promotion in the network of government regulatory agencies. Consequently, our tax dollars are being used to create marketing materials that incentivize states to fluoridate using Medicaid monies in a move that most harms the health of the very population Medicaid is supposed to serve. Lobbyists are presenting these materials to state politicians while public relations experts are planting pro-fluoridation articles in the press.

Fluoridationist organizations also have apparently created curriculum targeting college students that encourage students lobby for fluoridation based on the disinformation in marketing materials. Moreover, citation cartels are manufacturing fraudulent reports and studies that misrepresent both historical and scientific fact. These unprincipled papers are widely promoted by vested interests in popular press using biased language. They are aided by self-important bloggers with decidedly prejudiced points of view. Talk about anti-science and dishonest media.

This astroturfing effort is further supported by an organized troop of trolls who overwhelm social media with vitriol that dismisses arguments, denies science, denigrates opponents, distracts the public, and disrupts conversation about the real health risks of fluoridation policy to consumers.

Consider this:

1.     Fluoridation is linked to preterm births and preeclampsia possibly due to “placental fluorosis”

2.     Fluoridation depresses thyroid hormones, which in the fetuses of pregnant women, bottle-fed infants, and young children can result in permanent cognitive-behavioral deficits, i.e. it rewires the brain to cause learning disabilities

3.     Fluoridated water can inflame rashes like eczema and psoriasis, making even bathing painful for the afflicted who include both the very young and the elderly

4.     Fluoridation policy has caused permanent dental damage to approximately half our adolescents, with higher rates and worse severity among the poor and non-white populations. Many of these disfigured teeth will require veneers and crowns with age

5.     Fluoride concentrations in the water have little relationship to dose which is determined by individual consumption over time based on age, size and health status  

6.     Fluoride is only partially excreted by kidneys. In a healthy adult, 50% of fluoride consumed is stored primarily in the bones where it replaces calcium. These bones become more brittle over the years. Fluoride also causes inflammation and the symptoms of arthritis. Retention is higher during childhood, old age, and periods of ill health    

7.     Fluoride is an enzyme poison that has profound impact on cellular function

8.     Fluoridation chemicals are mostly corrosive, acidic, and contaminated waste products harvested from industry smokestacks. Despite any seals of approval from the NSF, a contracted service which tests a sample about once every 3 years, the contents in the bags of chemicals added to our water supplies every day are a witches’ brew of toxins that cause sinister chemical reactions when they come in contact with metal

9.     Fluoridation policy has been rejected by EPA scientists since the 1980s as unsafe, although EPA management continues to allow the practice through legal doublespeak that only focuses on politically set contaminant threshold levels (MCL/MCLG)

10.  Fluoride contaminant thresholds set by the EPA were found to be not protective of human health in 2006 by the National Research Council who also advised that at that time they could find no science that proved fluoride in drinking water was safe at any concentration. That panel of experts also stated that it was reasonable to anticipate adverse effects from fluoride consumption among vulnerable populations at much lower water concentrations. Those ill effects would include gastrointestinal disease, endocrine disorders, kidney damage, and skeletal deterioration. The EPA has failed to take action.

Fluoridation policy is politics pretending to be science. It protects corporate health not consumer health. Fluoridationists are motivated by power, prestige, and paychecks. They ignore actual science and the voices of thousands of dentists, doctors, toxicologists, research scientists, consumer advocates, environmentalists, and civil rights leaders who have concluded that although there may be benefit to brushing your teeth with the stuff if you have no medical contraindications, spit, don’t swallow.

A few expert quotes

Dentist: “If teeth are the only reason why you like fluoride, you better come up with a different reason. Fluoride hurts teeth, bones, brain, nerves, etc.” – Michael Taras, DMD, FAGD (2015)

Doctor: “Right now we have 1 in 6 children in the U.S. with neurodevelopmental brain disease, including ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, low IQ and behavioral disorders, and 1 in 8 women who will develop thyroid disease. These two epidemics tell us that chemicals like fluoride and lead, both developmental neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors, have no place in our public water.” – Angela Hind, MD (2015)

Toxicologist: “Fluoride is a carcinogen by any standard we use. I believe EPA should act immediately to protect the public, not just on the cancer data, but on the evidence of bone fractures, arthritis and mutagenicity and other effects.” – Dr. Wm. Marcus, EPA Senior Scientist (1998)

Researchers: “Consequently, although the World Health Organization continues to support F schemes for caries prevention despite a lack of scientific proof, the F schemes are not able to improve the crystal quality but rather contribute adversely to affect tooth development and increases the risk of developing postmenopausal osteoporosis.” – Mitsuo Kakei, Masayoshi Yoshikawa and Hiroyuki Mishima (2016)

Environmentalist:  “Love Canal taught us the lesson that health, environment, and justice are inextricably linked. We oppose water fluoridation as it harms our health, it harms the environment, and is a textbook case of environmental justice harm affecting low income and families of color.” – Lois Gibbs, founder Center for Health, Environment & Justice,  Nobel Peace Prize nominee (2015)

Take Action

Contact your representatives at municipal, state and federal levels. Tell them that fluoridation is ethically and economically unsustainable. Begin by signing this petition to Congress and the Institute of Medicine demanding a review of modern science and a controversial 20 year old Food and Nutrition report. Follow up with a phone call to your representatives’ offices.

For evidence-based research on fluoride, visit the GreenMedInfo.com Research Dashboard.

REFERENCES

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