Fwd: Letter to editor Boca News,Florida on fluoridation myths

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Subj: NYSCOF co-founder sets record straight

7/17/2003 9:48:09 AM Eastern Standard Time

NYSCOF

 

 

 

Editorial (in the Boca News, Florida)

http://www.bocanews.com/index.php?src=news & prid=5894 & category=Local%20Opinion

 

 

Gralnick wrong on fluoridation

 

Published Wednesday, July 16, 2003

 

 

William Gralnick's opinion column (July 14th) shows ignorance of current

scientific issues in the fluoridation debate and contains gratuitous insults

about those who oppose the procedure. As SE Regional Director of the American

Jewish Committee, he should know better than to box opponents into a category

and label them with epithets such as " loony-tunes. "

 

But Mr. Gralnick is typical of those who have fallen for the relentless 55-year

fluoridation promotion which has always consisted of unsubstantiated guarantees

of safety and efficacy, meaningless endorsements, and systematic denigration of

all opposition. Today, however, anyone can easily access the truth by going to

any Internet search engine and typing the words, " Fluoridation Health Effects. "

One click and you will get to those facts that have been too long hidden from

the general public.

 

New York City's drinking water is no longer the " sweetest and purest " described

by Gralnick. In January, 2003, the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection

suspended fluoridation for at least four months while " critical system repairs "

were being done. Hydrofluosilic acid, the main chemical used for fluoridation,

has a highly corrosive effect on water supply pipes and equipment and it has

taken its toll in New York City.

 

This is also a likely contributor to the serious problems with fluoridated water

facilities in the Glades cities. Since the County Commission cannot afford to

immediately build the new water facility desperately needed and promised to the

people in those western communities, it would be irresponsible to waste hundreds

of thousands of dollars on fluoridating unincorporated areas of Palm Beach

County. A vote on this is scheduled by the Commission for August 26th.

 

More than 50 years after the start of artificial fluoridation, we are all

overdosed on fluoride, a cumulative poison (read your toothpaste label) rated

more toxic than lead and slightly less toxic than arsenic. Fluoride reaches us

from water, toothpaste, dental treatments, fluoride air pollution, fluorinated

medications and food and beverages containing fluoride pesticide residues and/or

processed with fluoridated water.

 

The Journal of Public Health Dentistry, Summer, l997 reported that 66 percent of

children in fluoridated areas have dental fluorosis (permanently spotted or

discolored teeth) and over 30 percent of children in non-fluoridated areas also

show this visible sign of fluoride overexposure. The American Academy of

Pediatrics lowered dosages for fluoride supplementation for all children in 1995

and pediatricians should no longer prescribe fluoride supplements for infants

from birth to age 6 months, even in totally non-fluoridated areas. Consequently,

infants drinking formula prepared with fluoridated water are overmedicated and

are at high risk for dental fluorosis. Government reports state that

African-American children are afflicted by dental fluorosis at twice the rates

of white American children.

 

A Congressional Investigation by the House Committee on Science in 2000 revealed

there are no federal safety standards for fluoridated water and the

silicofluoride chemicals used for 91 percent of fluoridation have never been

approved for safety or efficacy by any government agency.

 

Further, the U.S. EPA admitted to the Committee that there are no safety studies

at all for ingestion of the silicofluoride chemicals. (See

www.keepers-of-the-well.org for Congressional documents.) Silicofluorides are

industrial grade waste products that come directly from the chimney scrubbers of

the phosphate fertilizer plants in central Florida. They are contaminated with

arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium and radioactive elements, all of which end up in

our drinking water and add to the health risks of fluoridation. Recently

published peer-reviewed studies report that children drinking silicofluoride

treated water have significantly higher blood lead levels than children in

non-fluoridated areas. This alone is reason to end water fluoridation

immediately.

 

In July, 2000, the cornerstone of the fluoridation program was decimated by the

lead story in the Journal of the American Dental Association which revealed that

there is virtually no benefit from incorporating fluoride into tooth enamel

during the early childhood years and that any alleged benefits from fluoride are

primarily from topical exposure after the teeth have erupted. This has been

confirmed by U.S. Public Health Service publications and by evidence from

Western Europe where tooth decay rates have declined as much as in the U.S. even

though less than 2 percent of the population there is fluoridated. In order to

salvage the fluoridation program, promoters created a new theory which claims

that fluoride's benefits come from continuous " bathing of the teeth " in

fluoridated water.

 

Common sense tells us that brushing the teeth with fluoridated toothpaste, which

contains 1,000 or more parts per million of fluoride, is far more effective than

" teeth bathing " with fluoridated water that contains one part per million or

less. Clearly, there is no longer any rationale for fluoridating drinking water

supplies. Please visit www.fluoridealert.org for an understanding of the

economic motives behind fluoridation as well as documentation of its many

harmful effects on human health.

 

As Mr. Gralnick wrote, fluoridation is a " No Brainer. " Everyone in Palm Beach

County should contact their City and County officials to demand an end to this

outdated procedure that randomly, harmfully, and unnecessarily medicates the

public while adding tons of toxic industrial waste products to our fragile and

endangered water supplies and ecosystems.

 

Naomi Flack

Co-founder, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

 

Naomi now lives in Palm Beach County, Florida, but helped form NYSCOF when they

successfully beat down a New York State fluoridation mandate in the 1970's.

Without NYSCOF, I would probably still be drinking fluoridated water in

Levittown, NY, and glad to do so.

 

CK

New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof

http://tinyurl.com/ad9k

 

Fluoride Action Network

http://www.fluoridealert.org

 

 

 

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