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Flouride
You hear it constantly from the experts: fluoride is good for teeth. Tell that to the parents of 3-year old William Kinnerly, who died after a routine fluoride treatment. The dental hygienist was engrossed in con-versation and forgot to instruct the boy to spit out the fluoride rinse. William swallowed and died later in a hospital emergency room from fluoride poisoning. (New York Times, January 20, 1979- front page) Fluoride comes from the element Fluorine, the most unstable and highly reactive of all existing elements. Pure Fluorine is rare in nature because it bonds readily with whatever is around it- which is how fluorides are formed. Thus, Fluorine combined with Sodium yields Sodium Fluoride. Fluorine and Calcium yield Calcium Fluoride and so on. Fluorides are invaluable as catalysts in chemical reactions, and have an enormous range of industrial applications-including nuclear weapons production. Fluoride has an affinity for Calcium, and is often found in hard water. This naturally occurring Calcium Fluoride builds up over millions of years from water running over rocks. However, the Fluorine compounds added to municipal water are mostly Sodium Fluoride compounds like Sodium Fluorosilicate, which come directly from smokestack scrubbers in the phosphate fertilizer and aluminum industry. Because of its ability to bond with almost everything, Fluoride bonds with tooth enamel and hardens it. But its effects are not specific to teeth. Fluoride is the most bone-seeking of all elements, and builds up in bones making them more brittle. Several articles published in the AMA Journal link osteoporosis and hip fractures with fluoridated water. Bulk shipments of Fluorides must by law carry the skull and crossbones symbol. Toothpaste also carries a warning label which mentions calling the poison control center. Only fluoride toothpastes carry this warning. The Merck Index is the standard reference book for the pharmaceutical industry. Under the heading for fluoride titled, “Human Toxicity,” the index reports the following: “Severe symptoms result from the ingestion of 0.25 to 0.45 grams, and death results from the ingestion of 4 grams.” You can’t even dispose of fluorides in a municipal landfill. Instead the stuff has to be hauled to the highest level EPA toxic waste dump. The Merck Index lists, among other industrial applications of fluoride, “an insecticide, particularly for roaches and ants.” Fluorine is a member of the Halogen family, a group of five elements, (Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Astatine, and Fluorine) that have a varying effect upon the nervous system. Consequently, they are used in psychiatric medications. For example, “Halothane,” a popular anesthetic, contains Fluorine, Chlorine, and Bromine. One of the main ingredients in Prozac (Fluoxetyne Hydrochloride) is fluoride. The date rape drug, “roofies” is Fluoridated Valium. Fluorides turn up in many other non-pharmaceutical products as well. Vikane gas, for instance, is a fumigation agent for killing termites. Cryolite, an industrial solvent, is Aluminum Fluoride. Fluoride is also the main ingredient in Sarin gas, the chemical warfare agent used in the terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system. In 1995, animal studies conducted at the Forsyth Dental Clinic in Boston, indicated that fluoride accumulates in the brain and contributes to lowered intelligence and developmental learning problems in children. According to the study, “a generic behavioral pattern of disruption as found in this study can be indicative of a potential for motor dysfunction, IQ deficits, and/or learning disabilities…” Dr. Hugo Theorell, Nobel Prize winner for his research in enzyme systems, stated, “The fluoride ion exerts its toxic effect by inhibiting the action of many enzyme systems.” In 1989, experiments conducted at the Argonne National Laboratories confirmed the ability of fluoride to transform normal cells into cancer cells. Why do we put this stuff in our water? Fluoridation programs don’t even work. Decay rates worldwide are similar in fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities. Not surprisingly, fluoridation is a cash cow for big business, which produces immense quantities of the stuff. Imagine the expense of hauling, depositing, and treating this lethal industrial by-product. Then weigh that against the benefits of sustaining this scam. Doing the right thing now could be embarrassing, painful and very expensive. The social engineers are concerned about our teeth, and so the authorities insist that we have fluoride: But in the words of the late Carl Sagan, “Arguments from authority do not count; too many authorities have been mistaken too often.” Why not let “we the people” make our own health care choices? Then we can all have something to smile about. Mark Palermo is a professor at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill and is the past vice-president of the faculty union. You can email him at markpalermo@lycos.com. *Send your questions
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Everyone
knows Fluoride is good for teeth. It’s common sense.
But how do we “know” if what we know is true?
Sometimes common sense is only unexamined prejudices and
falsehoods. Take George Washington’s doctors, for
instance, who bled him to death. That’s what they
did for sick people then: bleed them. Doctors were only
following the common sense medical wisdom of their time.