Flouride Facts

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http://www.earthlife.org.za/factsheets/fs-flouride.htm

 

What is Fluoride ?

Fluorine is a highly reactive element which likes to bond with other

elements. These combinations are often salts and the fluorine part is called

flouride. Hence flourine added to water has commonly become known as flouride.

Fluoride occurs naturally in the water in certain areas of the world and people

in these areas exhibit mottling of the teeth (dental fluorosis). This often

occurs in volcanic environments eg. Naples in Italy, Pilansberg in South Africa.

 

The lethal dose of artificial flouride is 50 times smaller than naturally

occuring fluoride.

The fluoride naturally found in water is calcium fluoride (CaF2 ) as

fluorine has a strong affinity to calcium. When water is artificially

fluoridated sodium fluoride (NaF), sodium silicofluoride or hydrofluosilic acid

is added. Because calcium bonds relatively strongly with the fluoride ion, the

fluoride ions are much less available than in the artificially-produced

fluoride. The artificial compounds are more toxic because they are more soluble

in water and the fluoride dissociates from the compound. In the body this

fluoride becomes the " most exclusive bone seeking element, owing to its affinity

for calcium phosphate " . Studies have shown that the lethal dose of NaF is

approximately 50 times smaller than that of CaF2 (naturally-occurring

fluoride).1

Artificial fluoride becomes the " most exclusive bone seeking element " in

the body

How much fluoride is too much ?

The optimum amount of fluoride is said to be around 1 ppm (parts per

million). ppm equals mg per litre ie. at 1ppm one would drink 1 mg of fluoride

in 1 litre of water. In South Africa 0.5 - 0.8 ppm is being recommended for our

water. This variation takes local conditions, which affect the amount of water

one drinks, into account.

 

Fluoride can, however, be taken in through a number of sources. Cooldrinks

and other processed foods made in fluoridated areas contain high amounts. Plants

take up fluoride concentrating more in their outer parts with leafy plants

containing the most. Tea can contain 160 - 660 ppm averaging at 1 mg per 6 cups.

Insecticides sprayed on crops also contain fluoride as can tranquilisers (up to

1 mg per day if taken habitually). Other products containing fluoride which may

inadvertantly be swallowed are toothpaste (1000 ppm), mouthwash (4000 ppm) and

gel treatments (13000 ppm - half a teaspoon will poison a child)

 

Bearing in mind that people are individuals with differing sensitivities

to substances and differing patterns of consumption it is difficult to recommend

a safe level of fluoride for an entire population.

 

Each of us already consumes different levels of fluoride in our food and

drinks.

How much more is too much?

 

Does fluoride prevent tooth decay ?

Pro- fluoridators say that it does.

The evidence supporting this must be closely examined - often studies have

an insufficient sample size, look at age groups where decidous teeth are being

replaced by permanent teeth, have no control areas or compare neighbourhoods

where other factors influencing decay like nutrition, wealth, oral hygiene etc.

differ greatly.

 

A few studies of the many which show that fluoride

does not prevent decay are listed below :

 

 

a.. A study has been done of the dental records of 39 207 schoolchildren

aged 5 - 17 in 84 areas of the USA. These areas were divided according to not

fluoridated, partially fluoridated ( less than 17 years or some of the time )

and fluoridated. No statistical difference was found in decay rates of permanent

teeth or percentages of decay free children between the areas. The only group of

children which showed a difference were 5 year olds who had less decay in

decidous teeth in fluoridated areas. However, by age 6 this advantage disappears

leading to the conclusion that fluoridation causes a delay in tooth eruption.2

 

a.. R Ziegelbecker has made two studies by taking a random sample of all

available data on caries (decay ) prevalence. He selected 48 000 12-14 year

children from 136 communities in seven countries. No correlation was found

between caries or dental health and fluoride concentration.3

Further studies have shown that not only does fluoride not improve dental

health but it may cause decay.

 

 

a.. A study of 400 000 Indian schoolchildren from 1973 -1993 showed that

the higher the fluoride concentration in the water, the more caries ocurred.4

 

a.. A similar study of 22 000 Japanese schoolchildren showed that above

0.4 ppm the decay increased significantly. When the concentration was below 0.2

ppm it also increased . This was thought to be caused by a lack of calcium in

the water when fluoride was below 0.2 ppm.5

 

a.. A study of 26000 Tuscon elementary school children was performed by

Cornelius Steelink, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Chemistry, University of

Arizona. He compared tooth decay with the fluoride in the water. He found that

the more fluoride a child drank, the more cavities ocurred. On further

investigation it was also found that decay related to low family income, bad

diet and oral hygiene and lack of access to dental facilities.6

 

a.. The decline in DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth ) of 12 year old

children in the USA declined by 25% from 1974 - 1988. The USA is partially

fluoridated. Unfluoridated countries the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland had a

decline of 36%, 40%, and 47% respectively in 12 year olds for the same period.7

Some european countries that do not fluoridate their water recorded a

greater decline in tooth decay than America where water is mostly fluoridated

What effect does fluoride have on the body ?

Dental fluorosis : A defect in the formation of tooth enamel in children

which results in mottled teeth. This is not reversible and remains for life. It

is believed that when decay does set in these teeth are difficult to fill.

Dental fluorosis can occur from 0.4 ppm.

 

Skeletal fluorosis : Early symptoms are back stiffness, pains in the bones

and joints, sensations of burning, pricking, and tingling in the limbs, muscle

weakness, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal disorders, and reduced appetite.

X-rays show abnormal calcium deposits in bone and ligaments. Osteoporosis

develops in long bones and bony outgrowths may occur. Eventually the victim may

be crippled and the vertebrae fuse together.8

 

Fractures : Researchers at the University of Bordeaux in France studied

3578 people of 65 years or older living in South Western France. They reported

that the risk of hip fracture was significantly higher when water fluoride was

greater than 0.11 ppm.9

 

Immune deficiency : Dr. Sheila Gibson from the University of Glasgow,

showed that fluoride, at levels comparable to those found in the blood of people

living in fluoridated areas, decreased the migration rate of human white blood

cells (leukotaxis). [Also inhibits phagocytosis - another defence mechanism ]

This adversely affects the immune system. Dr. Gibson found that only a six-hour

exposure of white blood cells to as little as 0.1 parts per million fluoride

inhibits the white blood cell migration rate by 21 percent. One part per million

inhibits the white blood cell migration rate by 85 per cent and 2 ppm has a

conclusive 0 percent relative migration rate. This indicates that a continued

use of fluoride in the drinking water could result in the total destruction of

the immune response.10

 

Cancer : Cancer researchers have found a 17% rise in 16 yrs of cancers in

towns in the USA which are fluoridated in comparison with those which are not. A

rise in a rare bone cancer, osteosarcoma, was recorded in men under 20 in

fluoridated areas. This was confirmed in studies on rats in 1989 by the US

National Toxicology Program.11

 

General side effects : George L. Waldbott, founder and chief of allergy

clinics in four Detroit hospitals, reported treating at least 500 patients who

he concluded reacted negatively to fluoridated water. The symptoms included

muscular weakness, chronic fatigue, excessive thirst, headaches, skin rashes,

joint pains, digestive upsets, tingling in the extremities, and loss of mental

acuity. Waldbott used double-blind tests to determine whether fluoride was the

cause of symptoms in many of his cases. In each of these patients, the symptoms

disappeared when the fluoride was taken away without the patient's knowledge and

reappeared when it was given again.12

 

Other ailments include :13

 

a.. Destruction of about 60 enzymes including cytochrome C and

cholinesterase which handle oxygen.

b.. Genetic change in sperm and other cells.

c.. Downs Syndrome increase of 250% with 70% developing cataracts

d.. Infant mortality, spontaneous abortions and miscarriages increase

e.. Infant birth defects increase

f.. Goitre

How does fluoride effect the environment ?

 

Most processes which take raw materials from the earth's crust and subject

them to high temperatures liberate fluorides. Fluorine compounds are involved in

the production of aluminium, steel, uranium, beryllium, bricks, cement, pottery,

enamel, plastics etc. The aluminium industry produces the highly poisonous

by-product fluo-spar from aluminium slag. Hydrogen fluoride and elemental

fluorine are also used in the nuclear industry in uranium production. For many

of these industries fluorides present the biggest waste disposal problem. This

begs the question who will be making profit by selling fluoride to our

municipalities which would otherwise be very costly to dispose of ?14

 

Industries ( mostly steel and aluminium plants ) emmitting fluoride air

pollution have been blamed for destroying crops and laming cattle, corrosion of

steel bridges and killer smogs . In Donora, Pennsylvania from October 27-31,

1948 a fluoride rich smog from the town's zinc mill killed 20 people, numbers of

livestock and pets and caused a further 6000 people to become ill.15

 

Phosphate fertiliser factories have also caused fluoride damage to animal

and plant life in their vicinity. The application of phosphate fertilisers to

soil dramatically increases fluorides in the soil which results in uptake by

crops we later eat and contamination of drinking water through run off. In the

district of Aichi in Japan people were taking in as much as 11mg of fluoride a

day from foods they were eating.

 

What these examples indicate is that we are already exposed to high levels

of fluoride. By fluoridating our water we will increase the load, dispersing

fluoride further through the environment where it accumulates and finds its way

back into our food products. Albert Schatz calculated that fluoride toothpastes

alone were adding 116 000 pounds of fluoride to the environment in the 1970's.

 

 

 

 

 

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