by Nick Meyer
The movement to remove industrial sodium fluoride from the world’s water supply has been growing in recent years, with evidence coming out against the additive from several sources.
Now, a report from the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, has officially classified fluoride as a neurotoxin — in the same category as arsenic, lead and mercury.
The news was broken by author Stefan Smyle, who cited a report published in The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, in the March 2014 edition, by authors Dr. Phillippe Grandjean and Philip J. Landrigan, MD. The report, which was officially released in 2014 and published in the journal, can be viewed by clicking here.
Fluoride Classified Along with Mercury, Lead and Others
As noted in the summary of the report, a systematic review identified five different similar industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene.
The summary goes on to state that six additional developmental neurotoxicants have also now been identified: manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The authors added that even more of these neurotoxicants remain undiscovered.
Also in the report, they note that neurodevelopmental disabilities, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, are now affecting millions of children worldwide in what
they call a “pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity.”
Because of the documented health risks of fluoride, many people have launched campaigns to remove the chemical from their water supplies, to varying degrees of success. Such initiatives usually begin through the are often controversial and emotionally charged because of the reputation fluoride still enjoys among mainstream dentistry practitioners. In addition to fluoride in city water supplies, the substance can also be found in certain foods, especially in heavily processed brands of tea that may be grown in polluted areas (see this list for more info).
If you’ve ever noticed the warnings on toothpaste labels you probably know just how serious fluoride poisoning can be, especially for children if they swallow too much at one time.
Because of this threat, many parents have begun eschewing fluoridated toothpaste brands altogether and are using more natural brands such as Earthpaste, Dr. Bronner’s toothpaste line, or even making their own from a combination of ingredients such as coconut oil, organic neem leaf powders, essential oils like peppermint or cinnamon, and other natural ingredients.
The fluoride added to our water supply is mostly seen as a cumulative toxin that accumulates in our bodies and can manifest itself in problems over time, including dental fluorosis, or far worse health problems.
Global Fluoride Prevention Strategy Recommended
In the Lancet report, the authors propose a global prevention strategy, saying that “untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity.”
They continue: “To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse.”
The report coincides with 2013 findings by a Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health that concluded that children in areas with highly fluoridated water have “significantly lower” IQ scores that those who live in areas with low amounts of fluoride in their water supplies.
Sodium fluoride in drinking water has also been linked to various cancers. It is functionally different than the naturally-occurring calcium fluoride, and commonly added to drinking water supplies and used by dentists who posit that it is useful for dental health.
Fluoridation is Actually Uncommon in Europe
Currently, fluoride is added to water supplies across much of North America, but as this list of countries that ban or reject water fluoridation shows, the practice is actually not too common, or banned entirely throughout most of Europe and in several other developed nations across the world.
Since most places in America still add fluoride to the water a high quality water filter is recommend to filter out the fluoride, and it can be especially important to avoid exposing yourself to too much fluoride in your daily shower or bath.
What is the Difference Between Natural Fluoride and the Kind That is Artificially Added to Our Water Supply?
On the heels of recent news that the fluoride in North American drinking water supplies is considered to be a neurotoxin according to a recent study in the top peer-review medical journal The Lancet, on par with some of the most notorious environmental toxins out there, many people are becoming more interested in the truth about fluoride.
Specifically, most people still do not know the difference between the naturally occurring calcium fluoride and other industrialized forms that are added to water supplies in North America (but not throughout most of Europe, and many other high-tech countries).
That’s because the term “fluoride” is often thrown around without making a distinction between these substances.
There are three types of fluoride used to “fluoridate” water supplies: Fluorosilicic acid, sodium fluorosilicate and sodium fluoride.
Fluorosilicic acid is the type most often used for cost reasons, and it is derived from phosphate fertilizers according to the CDC’s website.
The other two are created by adding either table salt or caustic soda to the mix.
The natural calcium fluoride shown here is different from the
industrial byproduct added to water supplies. Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Fluoride Corrodes Town’s Pipes
These types of fluoride can be quite corrosive, as one town found out the hard way when the fluoride they used to add to their water supply began corroding pipes and damaging city vehicles. Officials from the town, Buffalo, Missouri, voted to stop fluoridating the water supply recently due to these issues.
In contrast with these types of fluoride is calcium fluoride, which is a much safer version of fluoride.
Calcium fluoride is considered the “least toxic” and in some cases “relatively harmless” according to the site fluoridedetective.com, and that’s because of its high insolubility.
Magnesium and especially calcium are known as minerals that counteract the effects of fluoride, an example of how nature often pairs antidotes with poisons or designs complete foods that mitigate harmful substances for the most part.
This type of fluoride is often found in natural waters, while the above industrial byproducts are added to water supplies, a highly controversial practice that more and more people are asking to be changed.
Many Towns are Being Pressured to Remove Flouride
While it was originally added as a way to assist in the area of dental health, more and more people are questioning whether that is actually true and many towns are removing fluoride due to grassroots citizens’ movements.
(A list of towns that have removed fluoride since 2014 can be viewed here).
And considering the health risks involved, not to mention the safety concerns and costs, many cities and towns will have a decision to make in the coming years about whether or not to stop fluoridation.
From AltHealth Works @ http://althealthworks.com/2262/fluoride-officially-classified-as-a-neurotoxin-by-worlds-most-prestigious-medical-journal/ and http://althealthworks.com/2366/what-is-the-difference-between-natural-fluoride-and-the-artificial-kind-in-our-water-supply/
Harvard Study Confirms Fluoride Reduces Children’s IQ
[and YOURS]
By Dr. Mercola
A recently published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have “significantly lower” IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas.
In a 32-page report that can be downloaded free of charge from Environmental Health Perspectives,1 the researchers said:
“A recent report from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC 2006)2 concluded that adverse effects of high fluoride concentrations in drinking water may be of concern and that additional research is warranted. Fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in laboratory animals, including effects on learning and memory…
To summarize the available literature, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies on increased fluoride exposure in drinking water and neurodevelopmental delays. We specifically targeted studies carried out in rural China that have not been widely disseminated, thus complementing the studies that have been included in previous reviews and risk assessment reports…
Findings from our meta-analyses of 27 studies published over 22 years suggest an inverse association between high fluoride exposure and children’s intelligence… The results suggest that fluoride may be a developmental neurotoxicant that affects brain development at exposures much below those that can cause toxicity in adults…
Serum-fluoride concentrations associated with high intakes from drinking-water may exceed 1 mg/L, or 50 Smol/L, thus more than 1000-times the levels of some other neurotoxicants that cause neurodevelopmental damage. Supporting the plausibility of our findings, rats exposed to 1 ppm (50 Smol/L) of water-fluoride for one year showed morphological alterations in the brain and increased levels of aluminum in brain tissue compared with controls…
In conclusion, our results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children’s neurodevelopment.
Future research should formally evaluate dose-response relations based on individual-level measures of exposure over time, including more precise prenatal exposure assessment and more extensive standardized measures of neurobehavioral performance, in addition to improving assessment and control of potential confounders.”
Studies have Repeatedly Linked Fluoride to Reduced IQ and Brain Damage
There are so many scientific studies showing the direct, toxic effects of fluoride on your body, it’s truly remarkable that it’s NOT considered a scientific consensus by now. Despite the evidence against it, fluoride is still added to 70 percent of U.S. public drinking water supplies.
It amazes me that the medical (and dental) communities are so stubbornly resistant to connect the dots when it comes to the skyrocketing increase of cognitive decline in adults, and behavioral issues in children (ADD, ADHD, depression and learning disabilities of all kinds). In fact, there have been over 23 human studies and 100 animal studies linking fluoride to brain damage.3 Fluoride can also increase manganese absorption, compounding problems since manganese in drinking water has also been linked to lower IQ in children.
Reported effects of fluoride on your brain include:
Reduction in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors Damage to your hippocampus Formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain abnormality in Alzheimer’s disease)
Reduction in lipid content Damage to purkinje cells Exacerbation of lesions induced by iodine deficiency
Impaired antioxidant defense systems Increased uptake of aluminum Accumulation of fluoride in your pineal gland
Six Facts You Need to Know About Water Fluoridation
Harmful Effects have Been Known for Half a Century…
What is perhaps most surprising is that the harmful effects of fluoride have been known by conventional medical organizations for over half a century. For example, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) stated in their September 18, 1943 issue that fluorides are general protoplasmic poisons that change the permeability of the cell membrane by certain enzymes. And, an editorial published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, October 1, 1944, stated:
“Drinking water containing as little as 1.2 ppm fluoride will cause developmental disturbances. We cannot run the risk of producing such serious systemic disturbances. The potentialities for harm outweigh those for good.”
Part of the problem is that it’s an accumulative toxin that, over time, can lead to significant health problems that are not immediately linked to fluoride over-exposure. In a 2005 paper entitled “Fluoride—A Modern Toxic Waste,” Lita Lee, Ph.D. writes:4
“Yiamouyiannis’ book, “Fluoride, The Aging Factor,” documents the cumulative effect of tissue damage by fluoride, commonly seen as aging (collagen damage), skin rashes and acne, gastrointestinal disorders, and many other conditions, including osteoporosis. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and the Safe Water Foundation reported that 30,000 to 50,000 excess deaths occur in the United States each year in areas in which the water contains only one ppm fluoride.
… Fluoride suppresses the immune system: Fluoride inhibits the movement of white blood cells by 70%, thereby decreasing their ability to reach their target. Yiamouyiannis cites 15 references in his pamphlet, Lifesavers Guide to Fluoridation, that document immunosuppressive effects of as little as 10% of the amount of fluoride used in fluoridated water… Immunosuppressive effects run the gamut, from a cold that won’t go away to increased risk of cancer and other infectious diseases.”
Studies have shown that fluoride toxicity can lead to a wide variety of health problems, including:
Increased lead absorption Disrupts synthesis of collagen Hyperactivity and/or lethargy Muscle disorders
Thyroid disease Arthritis Dementia Bone fractures
Lowered thyroid function Bone cancer (osteosarcoma) Inactivates 62 enzymes and inhibits more than 100 Inhibited formation of antibodies
Genetic damage and cell death Increased tumor and cancer rate Disrupted immune system Damaged sperm and increased infertility
Suppressed Science: Fluoride Link to Cancer
Long-lost research linking fluoride to cancer has resurfaced in a Dutch film clip featuring Dr. Dean Burk, who in 1937 co-founded the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and headed its cytochemistry department for over 30 years. In the taped interview, he equates water fluoridation to “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 clearly demonstrated that deaths from cancer abruptly rose in as little as a year or two after fluoridation began. This and other studies linking fluoride to cancer were government-ordered but were quickly buried once fluoride was found to be linked to dramatic increases in cancer.
Join the Fight to Get Fluoride Out of Drinking Water
There’s no doubt about it: Fluoride should not be ingested. At least when it comes to topical application, you have a choice. You can easily buy fluoride-free toothpaste and mouthwash. But you’re stuck with whatever your community puts in the water, and it’s very difficult to filter out of your water once it’s added. Many do not have the resources or the knowledge to do so.
The only real solution is to stop the archaic practice of water fluoridation in the first place. Fortunately, the Fluoride Action Network5 has a game plan to END water fluoridation in both Canada and the United States.
I urge you to join the anti-fluoride movement in Canada and United States by contacting the representative for your area below.
Contact Information for Canadian Communities:
If you live in Ontario, Canada, please join the ongoing effort by contacting Diane Sprules at sprules@cogeco.ca.
The point-of-contact for Toronto, Canada is Aliss Terpstra. You may email her at aliss@nutrimom.ca.
Contact Information for American Communities:
We’re also going to address three US communities: Portland, Wichita, and Phoenix:
Portland, Oregon: Even though residents have voted down fluoridation three separate times, the pro-fluoride lobbying is now working to influence city councilors to ignore the public and pass fluoridation without another vote. If you live in the Portland area, please contact FAN’s Oregon point person, Kimberly Kaminski. You can email her at kim@safewateroregon.org. Portland residents will be battling a very well financed campaign by the ADA, Delta Dental and the PEW Charitable Trust. Please consider making a donation to Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water.
Witchita, Kansas: The pro-fluoride lobby has also targeted Wichita for forced fluoridation. If you live in Kansas and would like to help protect the safety of the citiy’s drinking water, please contact Fluoride Free Kansas at org/contact-us
Phoenix, Arizona — The city council is reassessing their fluoridation program. The issue was raised by Councilman Tom Simplot and local fluoride-free campaigners. The city currently spends more than $500,000 annually on fluoridation, and currently joins only 9 other Arizona communities in fluoridating their water. The city council is expected to study the issue and meet on September 11, when it will hold further hearings and decide the fate of the practice. If you live in the Phoenix area and would like to get involved, please contact FAN’s Phoenix coordinator.
From Mercola @ http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/14/fluoride-effects-in-children.aspx
For more information about fluoridation see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/fluoridation
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