I would be very careful about tea consumption---flouride danger

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Green Tea, Fluoride, and the Thyroid

 

(From Dr. Mercola’s Newletter at Mercola.com)

 

I am writing this letter with the intent to inform on various issues associated with the use of fluorides, especially as it relates to green and black teas, and to voice our concern about the continued promotion of green tea as a drink "beneficial to one's health" on your radio show "Current Health Issues".

Tea is very high in fluoride content. Fluoride in tea is much higher than the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) set for fluoride in drinking water.

Tea leaves accumulate more fluoride (from pollution of soil and air) than any other edible plant (1,2,3). Fluoride content in tea has risen dramatically over the last 20 years, as has tea consumption (4).

While in 1976 a Belgian analysis showed content of between 50 and 125 ppm fluoride in 15 varieties of tea (3), a Polish study in 1995 found fluoride content of up to 340 ppm in 16 varieties of black tea (5). A major Canadian study published in 1995 reports average fluoride content in tea to be 4.57 mg/l in the 1980's.(6)

A website by a pro-fluoridation infant medical group lists a cup of black tea to contain 7.8 mgs of fluoride (7), which is roughly the same amount as if one were to drink 7.8 litres of water in an area fluoridated at 1ppm. It is well known that fluoride in tea gets absorbed by the body similarly as the fluoride in drinking water (1,8).

Some British and African studies from the 1990's showed a daily fluoride intake of between 5.8 mgs and 9 mgs a day from tea alone.(9,10,11)

In order to understand a dose/concentration relationship properly, one needs to realize that the level of fluoride at 1 part-per-million (ppm) = 1 mg/l was set in the 40's when TOTAL intake was considered to be only about 1 mg/day in areas with fluoridated water. It was thought that the fluoridation of water supplies at 1 ppm (1 mg/l) would duplicate this intake, assuming that people would drink 4 glasses of water a day. However, average current total intake of fluorides is approaching the 8mg/day range, according to the last official data available from the US PHS (1991) and other publications (12).

TOTAL intake from ALL sources is the amount to be considered for any adverse health effect evaluation. (13,14,15)

The fact that fluorides accumulate in the body is the reason why a MCL for fluoride content in water needs to be set by the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) - by law under the US Surgeon General. This is to be done specifically to avoid a condition known as Crippling Skeletal Fluorosis (CSF).

The MCL is set so as to only avoid the third and crippling stage of this disease. It is set at 4ppm => 4mg/liter, assuming that people will retain half of this amount (2mg), and therefore be at a "safe" level. The EPA scientists, whose job and legal duty it is to set the MCL, declared that this level was set fraudulently by outside forces, and that 90% of the data showing the mutagenic properties of fluoride were omitted. (16)

Virtually every company selling green tea advertises it's high fluoride content as "beneficial" in preventing cavities, promulgating the misleading and false data supplied for the last 50 years by the ADA/CDA and other dental health trade organizations, as well as various public health agencies. There are NO double-blind studies anywhere proving the efficacy of fluoride as a caries preventative (17). There ARE double-blind studies proving adverse health effects, at the level of 1ppm (1mg/l) in water.(18) There are no studies documenting safety at any intake level..

Thyroid Medication

Drinking a cup of tea with fluoride content as mentioned above (7.8mg) would mean a fluoride intake much higher(!) than amounts which were actually given as medication to treat hyperthyroidism (-> over-functioning thyroid) for numerous decades - in several countries - specifically to reduce thyroid activity! [(2 -10 mg NaF/day => 0.9mg - 4.5mg F-)] (19,20,21,22)

In the 1930's May reported having _successfully_ treated 1,158 hyperthyroid patients within 6 years with either sodium fluoride or fluorothyrosine, given per mouth. Among products later released on the market were Pardinon and Tyrosin (23, 24). Checking an older Merck Index will verify this information.(25) Gorlizer von Mundy treated patients for more than 30 years in baths containing HF (30ccHF in 200 l water). Later fluorides were deemed not "reliable enough" to be recommended as an antithyroid (26).

RE: CANCER AND GREEN TEA

While there can be no doubt as to the beneficial effects of individual antioxidants found in green tea, the same cannot be said about green tea as a beverage. Existing studies tend to concentrate on active ingredients of green tea, such as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a compound that belongs to a family of antioxidants known as polyphenols. EGCG and other polyphenols are constituents of tea - especially of green tea.

However, no studies exist investigating the effects of fluorides on these anti-oxidants. Existing studies involving other antioxidants and fluoride compounds give evidence that fluorides can adversely affect the action of antioxidants(27). Thus, while isolated antioxidants may slow down the development of some forms of cancer in experimental studies, their effect may be annihilated in their complex natural environment (as a sum of the action of all the substances present).

Several reviews of available data seem undecided in their conclusions as to the inhibition of carcinogenesis in experimental animals by tea or tea compounds. Data reviewed by Blot et al. (28) suggest "at most a modest benefit, since there is considerable international variation in tea consumption but generally small differences in cancer rates...More relevant case-control and cohort studies show mixed results."

Other epidemiological and human studies have also shown varying results. In a review by Bushman (29) thirty-one human studies and four reviews were examined. Among five studies reporting on colon cancer, three found an inverse association and one reported a positive association.

For rectal cancer, only one of four studies reported an inverse association; increased risks were seen in two of the studies. An inverse association was suggested for urinary bladder cancer in two of two studies.

While lung cancer studies have shown an inverse effect with Okinawan tea, a tentatively increased risk was shown in another study, clearly indicating that more research into this matter is needed. In a recent study on Finnish men, published in 1998 by Terryl Hartman and others, again a positive correlation between colon cancer and tea intake was found. Colon cancer occurrence increased with higher intake (30).

Many available green tea/cancer studies last only a few months, and do not take into account the cumulative effects of fluoride, which is a known cancer promoter, and has the ability to transform healthy cells into cancerous ones. (1,17,35,36) For any conclusive evidence to be obtained this must be considered, for long time fluoride ingestion has been shown to _cause_ cancer, especially osteosarcomas and uterine cancer. (31,32)

Dean Burk, for many decades Chief Chemist at the National Cancer Institute, testified at congressional hearings in 1981 stating that over 40,000 cancer deaths in that year were attributable to fluoridation (33). He has said that no chemical causes as much cancer, and faster, than fluorides (34). Public health officials are quick to say that this data is not verified, which is entirely untrue, for international research as well as congressional hearings and court proceedings HAVE verified this information. (1,2,16,17,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38)

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