Is Fluoride Bad for You? Or Is Adding Fluoride to Water A Good Thing?
Is Fluoride Bad for You? Or Is Adding Fluoride to Water A Good Thing?
Adding fluoride in water is a common practice in many countries, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The goal is to reduce tooth decay. But does it help? And are there any dangers you should be concerned about?
Introduction and Editor’s Notes by Ocean Robbins
Two-thirds of all Americans are drinking water with added fluoride. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?
Proponents of water fluoridation point out that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drinking fluoridated water reduces tooth decay and cavities by about 25% in children and adults.
The fluoridation of drinking water has been endorsed by the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization. A spokesperson for the American Dental Association has even said that every dollar invested in water fluoridation by a community saves $38 in dental costs. As a result, many people, including much of the medical community, think the fluoridation of our water supply is an entirely beneficial thing to do.
But there’s another, darker side to this story. Fluorosis is a defect in tooth enamel, caused by ingesting too much fluoride in childhood. It causes brown splotches and mottling of the teeth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that 41% of our adolescents today have fluorosis.
We can see our children’s teeth. We can see the brown and discolored splotches that are the telltale signs of fluorosis. But what about parts of our bodies that we can’t see? What is fluoride doing to our thyroid glands, to our brains, to our nervous systems, and to our hormones?
Studies have found that fluoride is a neurotoxin and an endocrine disruptor. Could the spots on nearly half of our children’s teeth be warning us of further damage?
There is a certain amount of topical exposure to fluoride that can prevent cavities. But with the addition of fluoride to the water supply, there is no control of the level of exposure that children and adults will receive. People have died from acute fluoride poisoning from public water supplies. Meanwhile, many scientists today believe that fluoride’s primary benefit to teeth comes, not from ingestion, but from topical application to the outside of the teeth.
Critics of water fluoridation say that common sense and common decency tell us not to use the public water supply to deliver any medicine. With most other medications, it is the patient, not the doctor and certainly not the government, who gets to choose whether or not to take a medication. With the addition of a medicine to our water supply, that right is taken away.
Critics of water fluoridation also point out that most western countries have rejected institutionalized fluoridation, without any detrimental effects on their teeth. And there is evidence that the incidence of many forms of cancer rises with water fluoridation.
The article below, written by Brian Bienkowski, tells of some recent studies that suggest that the fluoridation of our water supplies may be hurting us more than we’ve realized…......
Adding fluoride in water is a common practice in many countries, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The goal is to reduce tooth decay. But does it help? And are there any dangers you should be concerned about?
Introduction and Editor’s Notes by Ocean Robbins
Two-thirds of all Americans are drinking water with added fluoride. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?
Proponents of water fluoridation point out that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drinking fluoridated water reduces tooth decay and cavities by about 25% in children and adults.
The fluoridation of drinking water has been endorsed by the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization. A spokesperson for the American Dental Association has even said that every dollar invested in water fluoridation by a community saves $38 in dental costs. As a result, many people, including much of the medical community, think the fluoridation of our water supply is an entirely beneficial thing to do.
But there’s another, darker side to this story. Fluorosis is a defect in tooth enamel, caused by ingesting too much fluoride in childhood. It causes brown splotches and mottling of the teeth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that 41% of our adolescents today have fluorosis.
We can see our children’s teeth. We can see the brown and discolored splotches that are the telltale signs of fluorosis. But what about parts of our bodies that we can’t see? What is fluoride doing to our thyroid glands, to our brains, to our nervous systems, and to our hormones?
Studies have found that fluoride is a neurotoxin and an endocrine disruptor. Could the spots on nearly half of our children’s teeth be warning us of further damage?
There is a certain amount of topical exposure to fluoride that can prevent cavities. But with the addition of fluoride to the water supply, there is no control of the level of exposure that children and adults will receive. People have died from acute fluoride poisoning from public water supplies. Meanwhile, many scientists today believe that fluoride’s primary benefit to teeth comes, not from ingestion, but from topical application to the outside of the teeth.
Critics of water fluoridation say that common sense and common decency tell us not to use the public water supply to deliver any medicine. With most other medications, it is the patient, not the doctor and certainly not the government, who gets to choose whether or not to take a medication. With the addition of a medicine to our water supply, that right is taken away.
Critics of water fluoridation also point out that most western countries have rejected institutionalized fluoridation, without any detrimental effects on their teeth. And there is evidence that the incidence of many forms of cancer rises with water fluoridation.
The article below, written by Brian Bienkowski, tells of some recent studies that suggest that the fluoridation of our water supplies may be hurting us more than we’ve realized…......
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