Government recommends lowering fluoride levels in U.S. drinking water

[harvey007]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are recommending changing for the first time in nearly 50 years the amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water because of an increase in fluorosis -- a condition that causes spotting and streaking on children's teeth.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/07/fluoride.recommendations/?hpt=T2

---

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/01/07/132735857/feds-lowering-fluoride-limits-in-water-to-avoid-damaging-kids-teeth

[arikara]

1. They should get rid of it altogether

Its another one of those really bad ideas.

[CountAllVotes]

2. agree

I've made what some would consider to be a drastic effort to avoid fluoride. I have managed to pretty much stay away from this substance for almost 25 years now.

I rarely have cavities.

Fluoride is a neurotoxin, that much is known.

Luckily, the water where I live is not fluoridated. If it was, I'd have to spend a lot of money for a water filtering system that removes fluoride from the water.

:kick:

[arikara]

4. Me too, I have very good teeth

and thankfully it isn't fluoridated here either. But I was told by a dental hygienist who was miffed that I wouldn't accept their fluoride treatment that it really didn't matter because its in all bottled liquids anyhow, from sodas to reconstituted juices and plain bottled water. I thanked her very much for the info and added more to my avoid list.

My daughter is 39, she's never had a single cavity and we've been avoiding it since she was a young child.

[CountAllVotes]

9. good for you!!

Needless to say I do not blame you one bit. :thumbsup:

I'll look out for these other substances you mention. I rarely buy bottled liquids myself.

The last time I was at the dentist (who is now history) they put something on my teeth and told me not to attempt to remove it. I believe it was some sort of disgusting fluoride treatment. As soon as I got home I attempted to rinse it off. I would not come off easily. Finally after about 1/2 hr. of brushing my teeth, I got it off.

:mad:

[provis99]

31. plus fluoride is a commie plot. The John Birch society said so.

And I will no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

[slackmaster]

3. "Make me a drink of grain alcohol and rainwater, and help yourself to whatever you'd like."

[PurityOfEssence]

30. Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?

Well, I can't say I have...

[MannyGoldstein]

5. I suspect that fluoride is causing significant health problems

Fluoride binds to the same receptors as does iodine, but it doesn't have the same important physiological effects. I suspect that many Americans suffer from what is effectively an iodine deficiency because of the competition from fluoride. Low iodine, in turn, causes thyroid, breast, prostate, and many other problems.

For more info, here's a good article: http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/13/2/116.pdf

[defendandprotect]

6. Fluoride is a by-product of the production of aluminum?

www.fluoride-history.de/p-aluminum.htm - Cached

Fluoride - Toxic Chemicals In Your Water
Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of aluminum, is a common ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, anaesthetics, hypnotics ...
ccpurewater.org/Fluoride.html - Cached

Fluoride: Highly toxic waste byproduct of "aluminum" - Assata ...
What Is Fluoride Fluoride is a pollutant – a by-product of copper, iron and aluminum manufacturing. The problem of how to legally dispose of fluoride was solved in the ...
www.assatashakur.org/forum/breaking-down-understanding... - Cached

Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of...
Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of aluminum, is a common ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics ... ( 4 comments )
www.answerbag.com/q_view/1437161 - Cached.

[abqmufc]

7. Flouride, Teeth and the A-bomb.

This article rocked my world when I first read it. Since then I've worked with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in Northern NY (near the site which the article describes) and it is depressing. I've researched this issue for years after reading this article and can honesty say this is all true.......

Earth Island Journal, Winter, 1997 by Joel Griffiths, Chris Bryson

The following article was commissioned by the Christian Science Monitor in the spring of 1997. Despite favorable comment from the editors, the story has remained unpublished. investing more than a year on research and believing that this information should be withheld no longer, the authors have released their report to Earth Island Journal.

"Some 50 years after the United States began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth, declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still-controversial public health measure, and revealing a surprising connection between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age.

The government's hidden motives behind promoting fluoride as "safe" have not been revealed to the general public, nor to civilian researchers, health professionals or journalists -- until now.

Since the days of WWII, US public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for children's teeth. Today, as a consequence, two-thirds of US public drinking water is fluoridated. But that safety verdict should now be re-examined in light of hundreds of once-secret WWII documents obtained by the authors -- including declassified papers of the Manhattan Project, the US military group that built the atomic bomb.

The papers reveal that fluoride was a key chemical in atomic bomb production. Millions of tons of fluoride were needed to manufacture bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. One of the most toxic chemicals known, fluoride rapidly emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the US atomic bomb program -- both for workers and for nearby communities.

Medical researchers who have reviewed these recently declassified documents fear that Cold War security considerations may have prevented objective and scientific evaluation of fluoride's true impact on public health."

<CUT> full article at:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6393/is_n1_v13/ai_n28697324/

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. Newburgh, NY was the very first town to test fluoride in the water supply on.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Wrong, it's naturally occurring in texas water. Hence 'texas teeth'.

[fleabert]

17. Yup! I have them.

it sucks. people have actually said to me: 'you have dirt on your teeth'
like i ate a mud pie or something.

whitening does make it better, but not too much. thank goodness for the more minor 'burns', those are white!

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Yeah, it's a pretty bad thing, and can't be un-done really.

I think we'd get more mileage out of the FDA regulating flouride in food products. Normally the water doesn't give us flourosis, but things like grape juice and cranberry juice can have 5-8x as much flouride in it, not to mention other foods.

Anything where phosphates are used as fertilizer, probably has flouride in it. So the recommended dose in water becomes moot, and people get overdoseages, leading to flourosis of the teeth and other problems.

[CountAllVotes]

11. thanks for this info.!

Thank you!!

:kick:

[harvey007]

21. Thanks for posting the Earth Island Journal article

I'm starting to educate myself about this very important health issue.

Even the ADA is starting to pull back on its endorsement -- especially where children are concerned.

Studies show drinking fluoridated water affects children's intelligence. No wonder the U.S. is so "dumbed down!"

http://www.casociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/fluoride-research-report-china.pdf


I'm switching to fluoride-free toothpaste for sure.

I certainly don't think the government should add products like this to the water system.

http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2751&Itemid=1189

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/22814488/detail.html

[Locrian]

10. wtf?

He said that in the 1960s, when fluoridating water began, air conditioning was much less common. So children in hotter regions drank more water and needed lower levels of fluoride to protect their teeth, while children in colder climates drank less water and needed higher levels.

"Now since air conditioning is so common," the official said, "you don't see those differences in consumption, and that's why they're getting rid of the range and recommending one level."

huh? So the previous range of 1.2 to 0.7 is now being reduced to 0.7. But it "used to be higher" because "while children in colder climates drank less water".

And now it's lower......

Does anyone else think the guys "explanation" is full of shit?

[AtheistCrusader]

20. Flies all over it.

Oh yeah.

[MissB]

27. The range was ambient air dependent.

So folks in Florida were getting fluoride in their water at the 0.7 range - because the health authorities 50+ years ago made the assumption that kids in warmer climates may be more active than kids in colder climates and therefore would drink more water. Kids in Minnesota were probably getting fluoride in their water at the 1.2 range, because they lived in a climate with colder ambient air.

What they're saying is that due to various circumstances today - be it that kids are more couch potato-like, or that most people have air conditioning in warmer climates - kids across the US are drinking about the same amount of water.

People get fluoride from more products now - toothpastes, rinses, dental applications - than they were 50 years ago.

And just fyi, not directed at you in particular, fluoride occurs naturally in many waters. There are limits on the amount of fluoride allowed in water because like many other substances, too much of it isn't a good thing.

[abqmufc]

13. Fluoride public health and environmental destruction the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in Northern New York has dealt with fluoride poisoning for decades due to an Alcoa plant (see post about Fluoride, Teeth and the A Bomb). I've met many elders whose bones are rotting due to fluoride poisoning.


Here are some of the Tribe's sites with data on fluoride levels as well as article on the impacts of fluoride on the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.

Fluoride Vegetation:
http://www.srmtenv.org/index.php?spec=vegetation

Vegetation Injury caused by Fluoride November 1998:
http://www.srmtenv.org/index.php?spec=injury

St. Regis Syndrome:
http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Pollution/Aluminum-Industry/The-St.-Regis-Syndrome

St Regis Mohawk and Fluoride a conference topic (article)
http://www.whollywater.com/Fluoride/Mohawk.Nation.htm

2010 US EPA National Tribal Science Forum (conference) - document has brief synopsis of an air quality session focused on SRM Tribe and fluoride from Alcoa plant. Page 21. Contact presenter for more info.
http://mail.scgcorp.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.epa.gov/osp/tribes/natforum10.htm

[fatbuckel]

14. Check out the MSDS for the three kinds of flouride found in drinking water...

http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Sodium_fluoride-9927595

http://www.pelchem.com/pdf/H2SiF6-MSDS.pdf

http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/msds/sodium.fluorosilicate.solvay.pdf

Would you put this stuff it your mouth??? After reading the dangers of these chemicals,think of all the illnesses they may be causing.

[abqmufc]

15. B-I-N-G-O

Netwon's Third Law of Motion. "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." We pollute the sky, water and land (along with ourselves) and eventually things will reject the toxins.

This is the first migratory season since the BP oil spill...and people wonder why birds and fish are dying in the southern portion of the USA?

[MissB]

28. So the LDL is 71 mg/kg?

(lethal dose low, oral route)

How much would a 150 lb woman have to ingest to kill herself in one sitting? What if it was in water at a dose of 0.7 mg/L?

[RobinA]

16. I Don't Have a Problem

with fluoride necessarily, I have a problem with using the water system as a drug delivery method. Especially for preventing tooth decay. If people want to take fluoride they can, it doesn't HAVE to come from drinking water, and it's not a scourage of humanity neccessitating passive dosing.

[Quantess]

23. I agree.

Why mess with the drinking water?
I use flouride in toothpaste and mouthwash, and an occasional topical flouride treatment. But I like the idea of spitting it out afterward, not ingesting it.

[Psephos]

18. Just in the nick of time! A new sense of purpose for all the bummed out anti-vaccine people. :) n/t

[MissB]

22. Lol!

Spot on

[CreekDog]

25. is the head of the ADA (Dental Assn) an anti-vaxxer?

"This is a superb example of a government agency fulfilling its mission to protect and enhance the health of the American people," said ADA President Dr. Raymond F. Gist.

just wondering. :eyes:

only the most superficial reading of the issue could lead you to make no distinction between this recommendation by the government and the reflexively anti-vaccination crowd.

[MissB]

26. I actually get what he is saying (better than you may ever know)

They are doing the right thing here. However, it does tend to bring out the wackos who think that fluoridation of water is some government conspiracy to dump radioactive waste into the ground through our unknowing bodies (or other wacky idea - that's only one of them).

Some people freak out because some fluoride is processed in the fertilizer industry - it's a by-product in that case. It doesn't mean they're going to be ingesting fertilizer-tainted fluoride with their iced tea. Science, frankly, confuses and scares people. What they don't understand, they're scared of even if they're otherwise perfectly sensible and educated people.

The CDC and the EPA have decided that kids get more fluoride in other products, adolescents are showing more signs of teeth staining/pitting of teeth, and the temperature-based recommendations across the country are no longer sensible because people have either air conditioning or their kids are leading sedentary lifestyles. They're recommending lowering the 50+ year old suggested levels in parts of the country, not eliminating it. And yet we'll see a huge anti-fluoride contingent scream "poison!!!!" because the CDC/HHS/EPA have decided to make one level the standard instead of a range of levels.

The federal register filing on the proposed change is an interesting read. It goes through the studies behind the decision to go to one standard.

[CreekDog]

32. you sure do!

:hi:

[CreekDog]

24. that's not what this is

:eyes:

[Psephos]

29. Of course it's not, but it will be like ooh shiny-shiny to the fluoride conspiracy loonies. n/t

[CreekDog]

33. true

though not all opposed to flouridation subscribe to the conspiracy theories, some are mainly concerned with childhood cancers associated with it.

i am not an expert on the flouridation issue, but i will say as an observer of standards through the years, the trend in almost all things is to continually tighten standards because the more we find out the more risky things seem.

but thanks to technology, we can actually reduce use of them and still live lives with as much of what we want as we had before.

:hi:

[LostinNY]

34. No fluoride here

I live in a county that never fluoridated it's water supply. I can literally see across the river to the next county, which fluoridates it's water. My dentist serves both areas. My area definitely sees more cavities, and has for the last 40 years. Which is worse for me, my fillings in my back teeth or the fluoride? I will say no one in my extended family in this county has ever had cancer, which is a small miracle in itself, but who knows why.