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LETTER TO EDITOR: Is Fluoride and Water Fluoridation Safe and Effective?

This week I heard an ad on the radio that promoted fluoride for pregnant women and infants to prevent tooth decay before the child has teeth.  Then today, I received a flyer in the mail promoting fluoride for children and people of all ages.  Both of these were messages from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Since 1945, it’s been claimed that adding fluoride to drinking water is a safe and effective way to improve the public’s dental health.  Since then, many have bought into this fallacy hook, line and sinker, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

There have been over 300 animal studies and 60 humans done.  One very important study was done in 2017 called the Bashash Study.  It was an international study led by professor Howard Hu, who at the time of the publication was at the University of Toronto.  The lead author was Mortez Bashash, Ph.D.  The team also included researchers from McGill, Harvard, Mount Sinai, Michigan, Indiana and the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico.  Funding for this research came from the U.S. National Institues of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the EPA.  The results of this study were published in the September 2017 issue of Environmental Health Perspective.

Dr. Paul Connett, Ph.D., a toxicologist and environmental chemist said this about the results of the study:

“It was a 12-year study. It was funded by the U.S. government. We had top researchers and topnotch methodology. They controlled for every conceivable factor.” 

“They found a strong relationship between the level of fluoride in pregnant women’s urine and the subsequent IQ of their offspring. Individual measurements of exposure … is important because it’s independent of the source of fluoride. 

It doesn’t matter if the fluoride came from water, from salt, from pollution or [any other source]. [They measured] the total dose … Sure enough, they found lowered IQ in the offspring at 4 years of age, and then again between 6 and 12. The higher the fluoride levels of the urine of the women, the lower the IQ of the children.”

Other scientific investigations have revealed fluoride is an endocrine-disrupting chemical, and have been linked to the rising prevalence of thyroid disease, which can then cause other health problems.

Fluoride has also been identified as a developmental neurotoxin that impacts short-term and working memory, and contributes to increasing rates of attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). 

Fluoride has also been linked to neurobehavioral deficits such as impaired visual-spatial organization and impaired fetal brain development.

Webster’s Encyclopedia Una-bridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989 edition says the definition of fluoride is: “(1) a salt of hyrofluric acid consisting of two elements, one of which is fluorine, as sodium fluoride, NAF; (2) a compound containing fluorine, as methylfluoride, CH3F.”

“Fluorine, the most reactive nometal element, a pale yellow, corrosive toxic gas that occurs combined, esp. in fluorite cryolite, phosphate rock and other minerals.”

“Fluorosis, poisoning by fluorides.”

Most people have not heard of the dangers of fluoride. I hope that you will do your own investigation into this chemical.  And please don’t let Ava add fluoride into our water system.  We have very good well water without added chlorine and other chemicals.

For more information you can check mercola.com and fluoridealert.org.

Peggy Churchill