Update to the Hydrate Safely post referenced in the previous post on fluoride risks.
Its important to be on top of this information so Im updating and adding to the original post Hydrate Safely Whats in Your Water? by including some very excellent and recent clips from articles plus a brief overview of the fluoride toxicity from a cancer-causing perspective
as well as comments about another common chemical in water, Chlorines toxic byproducts.
The US Government recently stated fluoride causes splotchy teeth and called for an investigation to lower levels in water, although its not clear how quickly that will be acted on or enforced.
Hmmmm
this is not new news, but it is interesting that, finally, someone is at least taking a look
Ill comment about splotchy teeth later on. Some municipalities are pushing this along faster by enacting their own laws about fluoridation in their water. Its about time!
Jan. 7, 2011 ATLANTA In a remarkable turnabout, federal health officials say many Americans are getting too much fluoride, and it's causing spots on children's teeth and perhaps other, more serious problems.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced plans Friday to lower the recommended level of fluoride in drinking water for the first time in nearly 50 years, based on a fresh review of the science. [
news.yahoo.com]
Jan. 11, 2011, EPA Moves to Ban Pesticide that Leaves Fluoride Behind. [
www.scpr.org]
I was helping a person research cancer prevention recommendations. In the book, Outsmart Your Cancer, the sections on environmental cancer triggers caught my eye
especially the chlorine byproducts and fluoride notations.
Key notes and excerpts follow. We must be aware. All too often, the harmful side effects of exposure to these toxins are either downplayed or covered up.
Quotes and notes are from Outsmart and an article published in Townsend Letter, January 2011, by Gary Null, PhD Fluoridation: Medicating our Water Part 3
(see references)
Modern living exposes us to cancer-causing factors
including
insufficient dietary nutrition, environmental pollutants and life-style choices.
Five Big Environmental Cancer Triggers
1. Chlorine byproducts
2. Fluoride
3. Asbestos
4. Fiberglass
5. Nuclear radiation
FLUORIDE
Governmental statements and community actions to ban fluoride completely from water supply is in the news. The controversy seems to only on a political level since the science indicates fluoride is an extremely hazardous substance to everyones health I many ways.
Dean Burk PHD, former chief chemist of the National Cancer Institute was quoted as saying: In point of fact, fluoride causes more human cancer deaths and causes them faster than any other chemical. Even Proctor and Gamble (Crest toothpaste) presented studies to the US Public Health service that showed fluoride to be a cancer causing agent at the lowest concentrations used.
Adding to the information in the referenced post
Hydrate Safely, Whats in Your Water?, an important point is the type of fluoride used in initial dental health studies versus the type of fluoride put into our water and toothpaste. The original tooth decay prevention tests used calcium fluoride or dietary fluoride. Calcium fluoride is the type found naturally in water and plants. But one type of fluoride from industrial waste that is added to public water supplies and dental products is sodium fluoride (NaF) and this is highly toxic
and amounts to about 10% of fluoridated water. Clinical toxicology organizations list sodium fluoride as more toxic than lead poisoning. The public was fooled into thinking fluoride was safe.
The most commonly used fluoride compound for public drinking water treatment is sodium silicofluoride or fluosilicic acid known as silicofluorides (SiFs). Its estimated that 140 million Americans drink water treated with this compound. Yet the safety of SIFs has never been tested, nor have they been approved by the FDA. Research published in the December 20000 issue of the journal, Neutrotoxicology, warns that public drinking water treated SiFs, is linked to higher uptake of lead in children.
Even in communities that do not have fluoridated water, the effects of fluoridation are everywhere because fruits and vegetables not grown in a fluoride-free community are shipped to supermarkets. Fluoride is often added to artificial fertilizers and pesticides. This brings up the fact that even organically grown foods might be irrigated with fluoridated water. Fluoride gets washed into the soil and absorbed by the roots of food plants.
Drinking common commercial beverages such as sodas, juices, beer and wine may offer fluoride exposure since they may have been made with fluoridated water.
Chromosome damage to cells can occur at fluoride amounts as low as one parts per million or 1.0 ppm
examples of fluoride content in common food and beverage products
Diet Coke 2.6 ppm
Beer, Wine 15 ppm
Gerbers First Years Juices 3 ppm
Kelloggs Fruit Loops Cereal 2.1 ppm
Dental fluorosis can occur when developing teeth are exposed to more than 1.0 ppm. The fluorosis is not only unsightly, but often the teeth are mal-formed and are therefore can be weak in structure.
Splotchy teeth or dental fluorosis. Dental fluorosis was noted over 50 years ago in communities where the natural fluoride content in spring or well water was high. Residents there had brown, mottled, splotchy tooth enamel, although a very low incidence of dental decay. Depending on the degree of dental fluorosis, these teeth are typically very strong and decay resistant. Some needed cosmetic treatment and others with malformed cusps as in molars, needed to be crowned to preserve structural integrity
that wasnt a common occurrence.
In my years of dental hygiene practice, I saw plenty of dental fluorosis in children treated with prescription fluoride as advised by the American Dental Association as a standard of care for those living outside municipalities where the water was not treated with fluoride. It soon became evident that these children were receiving fluoride from the Rx tablets and additionally, drinking beverages including reconstituted juices made with fluoridated water so were undoubtedly exceeding the recommended 1 ppm dose. As pointed out by Dr. Kennedy in the original Water post, this not only affects teeth but has an impact on bone health as well
so long term, these children may have bone issues as adults.
As a note of interest, my DDS employers three children were all given Rx fluoride; yet one was very prone to decay even though she had traces of fluorosis on her front teeth.
Dr. Null points out in his Fluoridation article several key points for consideration:
1. Lead isnt the only metal that interacts with fluoride in a toxic combination. Aluminum is another. He details the concerns over the connection between fluoride, aluminum and the increasing prevalence of Alzheimers disease. Aluminum is often added to drinking water as a flocculating agent by the same agents who oversee fluoridation. One deadly combination that results is aluminum tetrafluoride and the body reacts to that as if it were a phosphate ion capable of triggering G proteins which are water-soluble substances (ie hormones, neurotransmitters and growth factors) that transmit messages from the outside to the inside of cells. This aluminum tetrafluoride can switch on G proteins without hormones, neurotransmitters or growth factor present.
2. Fluoride affects the pineal gland located between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. The pineal secretes melatonin and affects sleep cycles, jet lag, hibernation in animals, immunity and the onset of puberty. One study found the pineal glad attracts fluoride and thereby interferes with melatonins functions. In this study, pineal autopsies showed extremely high concentrations of fluoride averaging 9000 ppm and going up to 21,000 ppm. (keep in mind 1 ppm or less is recommended as safe for water standards) The study suggests that people with insomnia may have the fluoride accumulation. Another study found that the lower the levels of melatonin, the earlier-than-usual onset of puberty which is rising at alarming rates. Another comparison found girls in a fluoridated community were reaching menstruation five months earlier on average than those in unfluoridated communities. Premature menstruation is associated with a variety of ills including breast cancer and obesity
in fact, the American Journal of Public Health (2001) fins early maturation nearly doubled the odds of being obese.
3. Animal studies finds that fluoride undermines fertility.
4. Several studies link fluoride exposure to adverse effects on intelligence
dating back to the infamous 1944 secret Manhattan Project
and current studies in China demonstrating diminished intelligence (IQ) by degrees of dental fluorosis in children.
5. Fluoride is a potent enzyme poison and can cause genetic damage.
Another ah ha! moment: Fluoride is found to interfere with magnesium.
And fluoride is found to bond easily and strongly with hydrogen which strikes at the very heart of biology. One researcher (Connett) says
.Its a huge red flag to be extremely careful about introducing fluoride to any living system.
6. Fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially the thyroid gland that regulates growth and metabolism. Sperm cells were found to display a significant increase in mutation after being treated with fluoride.
Dr. Null notes that
while critics argue that only high doses cause such effects, studies suggest that even a supposedly safe concentration of 1 ppm of fluoride added to drinking water can interfere with critical biological functions.
Partial list of countries that banned and or discontinued fluoridation..
(dates not verified)
Sweden 1971
Norway, Germany 1975
Holland 1976
Denmark 1977
France 1980
Finland 1992
Hungry stopped 60s
China banned
Austria - rejected
Belgium - rejected
UK banned 2009
All Councils in Northern Ireland have rejected fluoridation
Italy, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg have rejected water fluoridation.
Less than 2% of Europeans drink fluoridated water and studies show people in Europe with the best teeth do not have fluoridation.
Lets hope the US does more than just talk and study after 30 years of watching this problem unfold.
Thanks to the popularity of UTube video clips, you can listen to some very brief comments by Dr. David Kennedy
I hope you will visit here and experience his wisdom and candor.
Truth 2 Power Water Fluoridation David C. Kennedy, DDS [
www.youtube.com]
[
www.youtube.com]
He says: The FDA has never approved ANY substance containing fluoride to be swallowed intended for the purpose of preventing tooth decay.
Question to the FDA: Is fluoride a drug?
Response: Any substance used to prevent disease
man or animal
is considered a drug
subject to the regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.
Fluoride has never been legitimately approved as a water additive.
CHLORINE
Chlorine byproducts rank up there with pesticides and herbicides as huge threats to public health
mostly because people arent the least bit aware of it. The same is true with chlorine byproducts. Treating water with chlorine has purifies our water and keeps us healthy by reducing disease from waterborne microbes. Paper mills use chlorine for bleaching and the plastics industry uses chloride to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC plastics).
Initially, chlorine was thought to be safe because under controlled lab conditions, it harmlessly breaks down into salt and water. While chlorine in its pure form does not cause cancer in lab animals, byproducts that result from industrial uses of chlorine are a problem.
[Incidentally Alan Gaby, MD, comments that it is easy to get rid of the harmful effects of chlorine in water
just by boiling or adding a pinch of vitamin C to the water to offset the high and harmful pro-oxidant effects.
or just use water that is not chlorinated. We go out of our way to take 12,000 different types of antioxidants and then we consume huge amounts of a liquid every day that contains a powerful pro-oxidant chlorine.]
In 1974, scientists discovered that chlorine-treated public water combined with organic material (from plant and animal sources) to form byproducts in the water called organochlorines or chlorine byproducts.
Chlorine combined with organic material is extremely toxic. Water sources from lakes, reservoirs and rivers pose a greater problem than well-water sources with much less organic material (algae, leaves and other plant materials) to which the chlorine can combine.
Organochlorine compounds are not found naturally anywhere in the world but once combined as a byproduct of water chlorination, they are not only toxic, they are also extremely stable and do not break down in nature for hundreds of years.
The bad news is that organochlorines are easily absorbed into the bodies of virtually all animals and tend to accumulate over time in fat cells. With enough exposure, they can produce birth defects, reproductive disorders, immune system breakdown and cancer. Harmful for the animal, undoubtedly, but definitely harm for the individual consuming that animal as a food source.
A form of organochlorine, trihalomethanes, has been extensively studied. Epidemiological studies show that the number of years a person drinks water with certain levels of trihalomethanes directly correlates with increased risk of bladder and rectal cancer.
Organochlorines are not just in the water we drink. Everyone has been exposed to organochlorines. High levels are in swimming pools and enters through the skin. We inhale them from fumes near the surface levels of swimming pools and hot tubs. By opening the dishwasher, we can inhale them from the steam/vapor that comes from the volatized soap and water released in the steamy mist. Organochlorines are released into the air from laundry detergents combining with organic material in clothes laundered in municipally-treated water. Because of their prevalence and persistence in the environment, most all humans and almost all animals and marine life have been contaminated with organochlorines.
People considered to be average Americans were found to have 177 different organochlorines in their bodies
found in fat cells, mothers milk, semen, blood and breath. Organochlorine molecules are shaped like our human hormone molecules and can easily slip into cells in place of hormones
pointing to the alarming, escalating increase in infertility.
Most chlorine byproducts do not come from public water supply but from a family of organochlorines called dioxins which is the single-most carcinogenic type of manmade chemical known to science. The EPA considers dioxin to be 300,000 times more potent as a carcinogen than DDT. No level of dioxin is considered safe.
Digoxins from which we get our exposure are released into the environment by
--Industrial incineration of chlorinated wastes
--Industrial production of plastics
--The paper production industry
and the big factor:
The food we eat because of dumping into streams and waterways where dioxins are easily absorbed by fish and food crops irrigated with that water. It then bioaccumulates up the food chain into beef, dairy products, chicken, pork, fish, eggs. The most concentrated amounts of dietary dioxin are found in beef and dairy products. In the paper industry, it is found in paper milk cartons where it leaches into milk and in bleached coffee filters.
Something to think about.
Add this to your mental notes about Hydrate Safely Whats in Your Water?
Jackie
References
Outsmart Your Cancer
Tannya Harter Pierce, MA MFCC
Thoughtworks Publishing
© 2009
www.OutsmartYourCancer.com
Fluoridation: Medicating our Water Part 3
Gary Null, PhD
Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients January 2011
Subscriptions $51/year [
www.townsendletter.com]