Researchers find no evidence fluoride in drinking water reduces cavities

Water fluoridation first began in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945 and spread across the country over the next several years. Today, two-thirds of Americans drink tap water that has fluoride added.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the American Dental Association, calls water fluoridation “nature’s way to prevent tooth decay,” sophistically claiming that adding the chemical sodium fluoride to water equates to the naturally occurring calcium fluoride found in the environment. The ADA’s document also claims that:

 Studies have shown that water fluoridation can reduce the amount of decay in children’s teeth by as much as 60%. Today, even with the widespread use of fluoride toothpaste, mouth rinse, and professional fluoride treatments, fluoridation has been shown to reduce tooth decay by 18-40% among children and by nearly 35% among adults.

One wonders if they even read their own propaganda. On the one hand, the CDC claims water fluoridation reduces cavities by 60 percent, and then claims that by drinking fluoridated water and adding topical sources of fluoride (via toothpaste, mouth rinse and professional fluoride treatments) cavities are reduced only 18 percent to 40 percent among children and by 35 percent among adults. So by the CDC’s own admission, additional sources of fluoride reduce its purported effectiveness.

There is little to no supporting evidence that added fluoride does anything to reduce cavities, as a report recently published by theCochrane Collaboration shows. What the Cochrane Collaboration researchers found was that only three studies of sufficient quality to be accepted have been conducted since 1975 that address the effectiveness of fluoridation on tooth decay, and they each determined that fluoridation does not reduce cavities to a statistically significant degree in permanent teeth. Two “includable” studies looked at fluoride’s effect on baby teeth and found the same thing.

“From the review, we’re unable to determine whether water fluoridation has an impact on caries levels in adults,” study co-author Anne-Marie Glenny told Newsweek.

The “health” industry has long claimed that fluoride prevents 1.5 cavities in each person using it. Of course, there is significant reason to believe that fluoride does not prevent any cavities at all, but suppose it really does prevent 1.5 cavities per person. How many lives would that be worth?

In the 1980s, several studies linked sodium fluoride to osteosarcoma (bone cancer). The U.S. Congress then directed The National Toxicology Program to do a definitive study of fluoride. The study was completed in 1990. You may remember that Dr. William Marcus, a senior Environmental Protection Agency scientist in the Office of Drinking Water, went on the program 60 Minutes to tell us that the study found cancer. But the results were downgraded and ignored.

The data of the two-year study is summarized this way:

Four groups of male and female rats were studied. The only difference was the amount of sodium fluoride in their water. Historical incidence fluoride ppm, fluoride 25 ppm, fluoride 100 ppm, fluoride 175 ppm percentage. The higher dosages caused bone cancer in the rats.

Trivia: Fluoride was the most popular rat poison for 150 years. Rats may have developed an amount of immunity to it. For example, a liter (quart) of water at 175 ppm would kill a human child.

In an effort to downplay the results of the NTP study, The Public Health Service published a report titled “The Benefits and Risks of Fluoride.” In the report they admit that osteosarcoma afflicts 5 percent of males under 20 years old, that there was a 57 percent increase of osteosarcoma over a 14-year period, (1973 – 1987), and that the increase was greater in fluoridated than non-fluoridated areas. They conclude that, although the cause of the steep rise is a mystery, the increase of bone cancer was definitely not caused by fluoride.

A World Health Organization study conducted from 1978 to 1992 showed that Americans living in areas where drinking water was treated with what the Environmental Protection Agency deemed was “optimal” levels had increased risk of cancer in 23 different areas of the body. Male children exposed to high levels of fluoride may have a 546 percent increased risk of developing osteosarcoma later in life, according research conducted at Harvard.

This study, combined with the NTP study, combined with the studies that prompted Congress to order the NTP study, all add up to hardevidence that fluoride causes cancer.

To answer the question posed at the beginning of this section: It is not worth one single life to prevent 1.5 cavities per person, much less the millions of lives counted in the 57 percent to 546 percent increase of bone cancer.

Apart from cancer, how toxic is fluoride?

The American Academy of Family Physicians’ position paperFluoridation of Public Water Supplies provides the numbers: “Acute toxic effects from fluoride occur at doses of 1 to 5 mg per kg. Symptoms of toxicity include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sialorrhea and abdominal pain, often accompanied by seizures, cardiac arrhythmias and coma.”

“Optimally fluoridated water” contains 1 part per million of fluoride. That’s how much they add to city water. One liter (quart) of such water therefore contains 1 mg of fluoride. A 100 kg (220 lbs) person who drank one liter (quart) of that water would get 1 percent of the “acute” toxic dose of fluoride. On a hot day, a person could drink up to 5 percent of the acute toxic dose.

Toothpaste is 5,000 times more concentrated. A regular tube contains enough fluoride to kill the largest person in the world. The “taste” of toothpaste alone contains a significant amount of fluoride. Children who swallow their toothpaste are the ones most likely to get bone cancer.

Fluoride is a unique medicine: It is the only medicine we have no choice of taking. It is the only one where the dose is not carefully weighed out for us. It is the only one where lethal amounts are put directly into children’s hands.

Additional studies have also found that sodium fluoride may negatively affect the endocrine system, increase the risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, and increase the risk of hypothyroidism. Fluoride in the drinking water displaces iodine (essential for making the thyroid hormone) in the body.

Fluoride in the drinking water bonds with magnesium in the blood into insoluble magnesium fluoride which is very toxic.

To remove fluoride from your tap water you need either a reverse osmosis filtration system or a water distillation system. Only the process of reverse osmosis or a distiller will remove fluoride from drinking water.

In reverse osmosis, water flows first through a carbon pre-filter to remove chemical contaminates and is then forced through tiny pores of semi-permeable membrane to remove solids like lead and arsenic. Distillers work by boiling the water and catching and condensing the steam, which leaves impurities in the boiling chamber. In higher grade systems, carbon filtration is included in the process.

Reverse osmosis systems for the kitchen faucet can be purchased for around $150 and up. Whole house systems start around $700. Countertop distillers can be purchased for about $80 on Amazon and the price increases with added capacities and other bells and whistles. The price for whole house distillation units start at about $330.

Selenium supplementation is a valuable tool against fluoride toxicity. Other research has shown that selenium has halted damage to the liver, kidneys, hearts and brains of lab animals. One study showed that selenium also increased the rate at which fluoride was eliminated from the body.

Supplementation of up to 100 to 200 micrograms (mcg) is recommended by many natural health professionals. The National Institute of Health’s upper tolerance limit is 400 mcg, but that figure is bogus. Brazil  nuts contain about 100 mcg each and you can eat a handful of them with no ill effects.