USA - State still pushing fluoride
Two fluoridation-related observations:
First point: The Associated Press has just spotlighted drug makers’ efforts to promote use of opioid painkillers and blunt legislation aimed at preventing their overuse and abuse. Big Pharma’s efforts here mirror a much earlier promotion of fluoride-polluting industries and sugar producers for their own selfish purposes.
The AP series lays out how the drug industry has gained a measure of control over the science of painkillers, using its money to hire lobbyists and forge alliances with the medical sector to protect profits that come from the lucrative though deadly opioid trade.
A very similar strategy underlaid the promotion of fluoridation in the 1940s and beyond. Fluoridation was not so much a tooth decay preventative as a public relations ploy. The goal: protect fluoride-polluting industries from lawsuits and shield the sugar industry from being a target in tooth-decay prevention.
Second point: Recently, I sent the Vermont Department of Health laboratory water samples to compare my Rutland City tap water with water from my new, reverse osmosis filtration unit. I wanted to see if the filter was really working at removing fluoride.
The test report showed city water from my tap at 0.7 milligrams per liter, the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — misguided though that recommendation is. The test from my fluoride-filtering unit measured “less than” 0.3 milligrams per liter, the bottom level the state tests for. Therefore my filter is working.
Here’s the kicker: With my test report, the Health Department included a sheet with a “Dietary Fluoride Supplement Schedule” for those whose water has less than the “recommended” 0.7 milligrams per liter of fluoride.
And how does one supplement one’s fluoride intake? Well, with fluoride supplements, of course. And what about those supplements? It is notable that the Food and Drug Administration has never approved fluoride supplements, even though they require a prescription. Also, the FDA recently ordered Kirkman Industries to stop producing fluoride supplements on the grounds they are “drugs” that “are not generally recognized as safe and effective” for cavity prevention. Yes, really. The FDA said that.
As noted in today’s (Sept. 21) Herald, our state Department of Health is acting independently to curb the abuse of opioids in Vermont. But the same lead-the-way spirit is clearly lacking when it comes to the obsolete, unethical and risky practice of public water supply fluoridation and fluoride supplementation. Visit my website, rutlandfluorideaction.org, to see a critique of Health Commissioner Harry Chen’s previous false defense of fluoridation.
JACK CROWTHER
First point: The Associated Press has just spotlighted drug makers’ efforts to promote use of opioid painkillers and blunt legislation aimed at preventing their overuse and abuse. Big Pharma’s efforts here mirror a much earlier promotion of fluoride-polluting industries and sugar producers for their own selfish purposes.
The AP series lays out how the drug industry has gained a measure of control over the science of painkillers, using its money to hire lobbyists and forge alliances with the medical sector to protect profits that come from the lucrative though deadly opioid trade.
A very similar strategy underlaid the promotion of fluoridation in the 1940s and beyond. Fluoridation was not so much a tooth decay preventative as a public relations ploy. The goal: protect fluoride-polluting industries from lawsuits and shield the sugar industry from being a target in tooth-decay prevention.
Second point: Recently, I sent the Vermont Department of Health laboratory water samples to compare my Rutland City tap water with water from my new, reverse osmosis filtration unit. I wanted to see if the filter was really working at removing fluoride.
The test report showed city water from my tap at 0.7 milligrams per liter, the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — misguided though that recommendation is. The test from my fluoride-filtering unit measured “less than” 0.3 milligrams per liter, the bottom level the state tests for. Therefore my filter is working.
Here’s the kicker: With my test report, the Health Department included a sheet with a “Dietary Fluoride Supplement Schedule” for those whose water has less than the “recommended” 0.7 milligrams per liter of fluoride.
And how does one supplement one’s fluoride intake? Well, with fluoride supplements, of course. And what about those supplements? It is notable that the Food and Drug Administration has never approved fluoride supplements, even though they require a prescription. Also, the FDA recently ordered Kirkman Industries to stop producing fluoride supplements on the grounds they are “drugs” that “are not generally recognized as safe and effective” for cavity prevention. Yes, really. The FDA said that.
As noted in today’s (Sept. 21) Herald, our state Department of Health is acting independently to curb the abuse of opioids in Vermont. But the same lead-the-way spirit is clearly lacking when it comes to the obsolete, unethical and risky practice of public water supply fluoridation and fluoride supplementation. Visit my website, rutlandfluorideaction.org, to see a critique of Health Commissioner Harry Chen’s previous false defense of fluoridation.
JACK CROWTHER
posted by Bill at
9:56 AM
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