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Health & Fitness

ABC-TV Reveals Fluoride’s Hidden Harmful Effects

Fluoride chemicals added to public water supplies are ineffective at reducing tooth decay, harmful to health and a waste of taxpayer's dollars.

The I-Team at WTVD, a Durham, NC, ABC-TV affiliate dug into the science behind the fluoride controversy and reported on Nov. 15, 2012 that “we found study after study dating back to the 80s from respected academic and scientific institutions that connect fluoride to health dangers."

Government officials claim fluoride chemicals added to water supplies is a safe tooth decay preventive and often dismiss valid negative fluoride findings as “junk science.”

But according to the I-Team investigation “Some of the studies were funded by the government. They suggest fluoride can be linked to brain, blood and bone deficiencies in humans. This past summer, Harvard University released a report after reviewing 27 studies of children in China exposed to fluoride. It concluded the higher the fluoride exposure, the lower the child's IQ.”

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At EPA’s request, the US National Research Council (NRC) issued a 2006 report after reviewing fluoride toxicological data and “found fluoride can affect the thyroid gland and potentially lower the intelligence of children,” reports the I-team.

"EPA's drinking water standards are supposed to protect all persons against anticipated adverse health effects of the contaminant in question," explained Kathleen Thiessen [to the I-Team] - one of the scientists who worked on the 400-page study. "And we concluded after three years worth of work that the drinking water standard for fluoride was not protective and cannot be assumed to be safe for humans."

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The EPA was warned about potential fluoride health dangers by one of its own chemists more than a decade ago. Dr. William Hirzy testified before a Senate subcommittee in 2000. He was representing the views of EPA scientists and staff who analyze hazards in the environment.

Hirzy said "In 1997, we voted to oppose fluoridation, and our opposition has grown stronger as more adverse data on the practice has come in.”

Former EPA senior scientist Robert J. Carton, PhD, wrote in a 1993 affidavit that EPA’s 1985 fluoride drinking water standard “is a classic case of political interference with science.”

A new group, Durham Against Fluoride, formed to stop fluoridation in Durham, North Carolina, lead by Corey Sturmer who has dental fluorosis (discolored teeth) caused by fluoride over-ingestion and extensive tooth decay at age 25

The American Dental Association says that, when fluoridation stops, cavities will rise. However, after an 11-month fluoridation break in Durham in the 1990’s, researchers found less dental fluorosis in children aged from birth to 3 years at the break, and those born 1 year after it compared to those aged 4-5 years at the break with no increase in tooth decay.

This is a pattern. Cavity rates declined in several cities that stopped water fluoridation. Yet, cavity crises are occurring in almost all fluoridated cities and states.

More Americans Reject Fluoridation – Fluoridation Proponents’ Efforts Backfire

This election day, 60% of Wichita voters rejected the well-funded and heavily lobbied campaign to fluoridate them despite weak and unscientific endorsements by the local media and professionals who were advised to focus on teeth and not fluoride’s harm. Crescent City, California, voters forced an end to fluoridation in their city. Wichita fluoridation opponents plan to take their message across the state to help other cities stop fluoridation.

Over 33,000 Portland, Oregon, petition signers forced a halt to their city council’s fluoridation mandate this year. In a related decision, Clean Water Portland won a court challenge that will enable the group to proceed with a second ballot measure drive, an initiative to amend the Portland City Charter to ban fluoridation. Many cities stopped or rejected fluoridation this year.

Unfortunately, Pinellas County Commissioners are  expected  to resume water fluoridation unless enough citizens band together and demand fluoride-free water.

Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, Sweden's Dr. Arvid Carlsson says fluoridation is obsolete and against all principles of modern pharmacology.

Without water fluoridation, Sweden’s toddlers are more cavity-free than U.S. 2-5 year-olds despite our extensive fluoridation programs.

 

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