Fluoride “Medication” Added to Our Water: Is it Safe?
What amounts to “medication” added to water without the informed consent of many U.S. citizens is justified as a measure to prevent tooth decay in our children. Yet it may be more harmful than beneficial.
A recently published Harvard University meta-analysis of 27 fluoride research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health has found that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have “significantly lower” IQ scores than those who live in homes delivering low fluoride doses.
The form of fluoride commonly used in municipal water supplies is a by-product of industrial processes, not naturally occurring fluoride. The industrial by-product would have to be dumped only into a hazardous waste facility if it were not sold as a drinking water additive.
Sodium fluoride was used as an insecticide and as a rat poison before it began to be mixed with our water supply in the 1940s. The toxin builds up in our bodies, and since the “treated” water is used to produce beverages and food products as well, there is a multiplying effect. The amount of the toxin found in people tested in the 1950s has increased by about five times today, most likely due to the presence of the toxin in so many consumer products.
Dr. Dean Burk, cofounder the U.S. National Cancer Institute equated water fluoridation with “public murder,” referring to a study that had been done on the 10 largest U.S. cities with fluoridation compared to the 10 largest without it. The study demonstrated that deaths from cancer abruptly rose in as little as a year or two after fluoridation began in those cities.
Another fact to consider is that only a small amount of water sold to the average household ever makes it into the mouths of our children where it does not have much time to penetrate into their teeth. Perhaps using fluoride toothpaste as a delivery method for the “medication” would be safer for everyone concerned.
Around 70 percent of all U.S homes currently deliver doses of fluoride through their water supply. Bottle-fed infants are most at risk of harm from fluoride. It is highly recommended that only distilled water be used for mixing their formula.
Filter systems are available to remove the toxin from your water, but charcoal-activated filters do not remove it. Distillation is the most effective method of removal. The ill-advised practice of dumping sodium fluoride into drinking water has been banned by nearly all European nations, China, and Japan (among others). See www.fluoridealert.org
Notify your municipal water system administrators of your concerns; their contact information is printed on every water bill. Your silence is interpreted as your consent. With feedback, comments, progressive ideas or alternative perspectives, please contact Orlando Martin at mrm61@uw.edu
