Nov 30, 2024 07:40 PM
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medica...ontroversy
EXCERPTS: The nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services is a travesty. His ideas about vaccination, raw milk, hyperbaric oxygen, HIV, Wi-Fi and COVID fly in the face of evidence-based science. But once in a while, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn, so not all of Kennedy’s ideas are outrageous. The American diet with its plethora of highly processed foods needs change, the pricing of drugs and some of the advertising antics of pharmaceutical companies need to be addressed. Kennedy is also bent on eliminating water fluoridation, making this a good time to revisit the science of fluoridation and the controversies that have enveloped it. Buckle up, you are in for a long and bumpy ride...
[...] Water fluoridation does reduce the incidence of cavities. The extent to which this happens, though, is debatable. In recent years the ready availability of fluoride toothpastes, mouthwashes and dietary supplements has reduced the effects attributable to fluoridated water in more affluent areas. Underprivileged communities are the ones that are the most likely to see the benefits of a fluoridated water supply. But at what risk? After all, the critics are correct when they refer to fluoride as “rat poison.” So, should we worry? Are humans just giant rats? With some exceptions, no. Still, the issue of the safety of fluoride merits discussion.
Fluoride can be toxic, there is no doubt about it. As the opponents of water fluoridation constantly remind us, it has indeed been used to poison rats. This, however, has no bearing on whether or not we should add fluoride to drinking water to improve dental health. Toxicity is always a question of dose! A mouthful of pure sodium fluoride will kill a rat, but the rodent would have to drink roughly a hundred liters of fluoridated tap water before suffering the same fate if the water had the usual fluoride concentration of 1 part per million. And the rodent would have to do this without urinating!
Labeling a substance as a “poison” without putting it into the proper context is meaningless and irresponsible. After all, we use “poisons” all the time. The chlorine we use to purify our water can also be used as a chemical weapon. Morphine is an excellent pain killer, but at doses just slightly higher than that needed to alleviate pain, it can put you to sleep. And it doesn’t take much more to put you to sleep permanently. Aspirin at a high dose can kill, as can table salt or iron supplements, or fluoridated toothpaste. It might be a challenge to do so without vomiting, but in theory, one could down a lethal dose of fluoridated toothpaste. Still, this has nothing to do with adding fluoride to water, or indeed, to toothpaste.
Neither has the fact that fluoride is used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, or to prepare Sarin nerve gas, or to isolate aluminum from its ore have anything to do with water fluoridation. And arguing against fluoridation by bringing up the CIA’s supposed attempt to study a dinitrofluoride derivative of acetic acid as a potential mind-controlling substance is just absurd. Anti-fluoridationists also relish in pointing out that hydrofluorosilic acid, the chemical commonly used to fluoridate water supplies, is a waste byproduct of the fertilizer industry. This is true enough, but so what? If anything, converting an industrial waste to a useful substance instead of discarding it, is highly desirable.
These anti-fluoride arguments are as inane as Senator Joe McCarthy’s charge in the 1950s that fluoridation was a communist plot to poison America, or as others alleged, that it was a masterful stroke by the sugar industry to increase sales of sweets without affecting children’s’ teeth. Anti-fluoridationists, I think, actually harm their cause by using such irrelevant arguments as well as with their excessive fearmongering. The truth is that there may be legitimate reasons to take a more careful look at the issue.
The major allegations that have been aimed at water fluoridation are as follows: it increases the risk of bone fracture and bone cancer, it may interfere with thyroid function as well as with other biological systems, it may expose the public to contaminants inherent to hydrofluorosilicic acid production and it may cause fluorosis of the teeth. Only the last of these is a clear concern. Dentists do report seeing more teeth with the hallmark white stains of fluorosis in areas where fluoride is added to water. While this is only a cosmetic problem, nevertheless, it is a problem. Why is it happening? (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: The nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services is a travesty. His ideas about vaccination, raw milk, hyperbaric oxygen, HIV, Wi-Fi and COVID fly in the face of evidence-based science. But once in a while, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn, so not all of Kennedy’s ideas are outrageous. The American diet with its plethora of highly processed foods needs change, the pricing of drugs and some of the advertising antics of pharmaceutical companies need to be addressed. Kennedy is also bent on eliminating water fluoridation, making this a good time to revisit the science of fluoridation and the controversies that have enveloped it. Buckle up, you are in for a long and bumpy ride...
[...] Water fluoridation does reduce the incidence of cavities. The extent to which this happens, though, is debatable. In recent years the ready availability of fluoride toothpastes, mouthwashes and dietary supplements has reduced the effects attributable to fluoridated water in more affluent areas. Underprivileged communities are the ones that are the most likely to see the benefits of a fluoridated water supply. But at what risk? After all, the critics are correct when they refer to fluoride as “rat poison.” So, should we worry? Are humans just giant rats? With some exceptions, no. Still, the issue of the safety of fluoride merits discussion.
Fluoride can be toxic, there is no doubt about it. As the opponents of water fluoridation constantly remind us, it has indeed been used to poison rats. This, however, has no bearing on whether or not we should add fluoride to drinking water to improve dental health. Toxicity is always a question of dose! A mouthful of pure sodium fluoride will kill a rat, but the rodent would have to drink roughly a hundred liters of fluoridated tap water before suffering the same fate if the water had the usual fluoride concentration of 1 part per million. And the rodent would have to do this without urinating!
Labeling a substance as a “poison” without putting it into the proper context is meaningless and irresponsible. After all, we use “poisons” all the time. The chlorine we use to purify our water can also be used as a chemical weapon. Morphine is an excellent pain killer, but at doses just slightly higher than that needed to alleviate pain, it can put you to sleep. And it doesn’t take much more to put you to sleep permanently. Aspirin at a high dose can kill, as can table salt or iron supplements, or fluoridated toothpaste. It might be a challenge to do so without vomiting, but in theory, one could down a lethal dose of fluoridated toothpaste. Still, this has nothing to do with adding fluoride to water, or indeed, to toothpaste.
Neither has the fact that fluoride is used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, or to prepare Sarin nerve gas, or to isolate aluminum from its ore have anything to do with water fluoridation. And arguing against fluoridation by bringing up the CIA’s supposed attempt to study a dinitrofluoride derivative of acetic acid as a potential mind-controlling substance is just absurd. Anti-fluoridationists also relish in pointing out that hydrofluorosilic acid, the chemical commonly used to fluoridate water supplies, is a waste byproduct of the fertilizer industry. This is true enough, but so what? If anything, converting an industrial waste to a useful substance instead of discarding it, is highly desirable.
These anti-fluoride arguments are as inane as Senator Joe McCarthy’s charge in the 1950s that fluoridation was a communist plot to poison America, or as others alleged, that it was a masterful stroke by the sugar industry to increase sales of sweets without affecting children’s’ teeth. Anti-fluoridationists, I think, actually harm their cause by using such irrelevant arguments as well as with their excessive fearmongering. The truth is that there may be legitimate reasons to take a more careful look at the issue.
The major allegations that have been aimed at water fluoridation are as follows: it increases the risk of bone fracture and bone cancer, it may interfere with thyroid function as well as with other biological systems, it may expose the public to contaminants inherent to hydrofluorosilicic acid production and it may cause fluorosis of the teeth. Only the last of these is a clear concern. Dentists do report seeing more teeth with the hallmark white stains of fluorosis in areas where fluoride is added to water. While this is only a cosmetic problem, nevertheless, it is a problem. Why is it happening? (MORE - missing details)