The following article is made up of excerpts taken from a document prepared by the Citizens Committee Against Fluoridation of Lacrosse, Wisconsin, U.S.A. This powerful attack helped the committee to block the attempt to introduce fluoridated drinking water into the city of Lacrosse. Reprints of the complete document may be had by writing to the National Committee Against Fluoridation, Inc., 1311 G Street N. W., Washington 5, District of Columbia, U.S.A.
1. What is fluoridation?
Fluoridation is the adding of a deadly cumulative poison to drinking water for the scientifically-unproved purpose of helping children's teeth resist cavities. When sodium fluoride is added to municipal water supplies, this procedure becomes mass medication of the populace without regard to health, age, sensitivity, or individual need of the citizens drinking this doctored water.
2. Is sodium fluoride a cumulative poison? Will it store up in your body?
Definitely so. Bulletin 130 of the Utah State Agricultural College entitled, "Fluorosis", on page 5 states: "Fluorine is a cumulative poison and long continued consumption of relatively small quantities causes fluorisis..."
Dr. Paul H. Phillips, biochemist at the University of Wisconsin says: "It is an accumulative poison which accumulates in the skeletal structures including the teeth when the body is exposed to small daily intakes of this element. In this respect it is like lead accumulation in the bone until saturation occurs and then lead poisoning sets in."
Dr. Charles T. Betts. D.D.S. Toledo states: "Fluorine is a poison which is cumulative in the body similar to radium; no antidote is known."
Dr. Charles A. Brusch Director Brusch Medical Center Cambridge Mass., says: "The main thing to remember about Fluorides is that they are protoplasmics poisons; that they have never been medically approved, only venturesome doctors using same."
3. Are not naturally-fluoridated and artificially-fluoridated waters the same?
Absolutely not! The fluorides found naturally are usually organic calcium fluorides which are in combination with other natural elements serving to inhibit and neutralize the toxic effects of fluorine, and which can be assimilated by the body; the artificially fluoridated water is obtained with sodium fluoride which is an inorganic, cumulative poison 85 times more toxic than calcium fluoride, and cannot be assimilated by the body, and which when added to water makes hydrofluric acid, an extremely active and dangerous poison used chiefly for etching glass.
4. What effect does fluorine have upon the dentine of the teeth?
University of New Mexico Bulletin referred to above states on page 19: "Although it is true that the enamel of adult teeth is unaffected by fluorine, the dentine which receives nutrients from the blood stream continually and whose composition is subject to change, will suffer."
5. Does artificially-fluoridated water have an effect on the brain and the nerve cells?
Dr. A. L. Miller, M. D., reports in the Congressional Record of March 4, 1952, that a lessened mental reaction is seen in rats and mice who have had fluorides. It is natural to suppose the same would be true in humans.
According to all reports, a marked increase in mental disturbance has been causing great concern in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of the first cities to be fluoridated (1945), and this has been the subject of special conference by "mental experts." Also the children of that city give increasing evidence of mental retardation, with failure to make the grade in school.
6. Why can promoters of fluoridation state that medical science is ignorant of any bad effects from fluoridated water?
Simply because the experiments have not been going on a long enough time to demonstrate these cumulative effects. The American Journal of Chemistry states that fluorine may tend to accumulate within the body so that the symptoms of fluorine poisoning may take as long as ten years to appear. However, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, after 8 years of fluoridation, the little children who were fed this drugged water in their nursing bottles began to show the first signs of chronic fluorine poisoning mottled teeth.
7. Has either the American Dental or American Medical Association done any original scientific research in regard to the effects of artificially-fluoridated water upon the teeth or the organs of the human body?
There is no record in scientific literature of their having done so. They seem to be merely echoing the opinions of a group of public health officials from the United States Public Health Service who, likewise, have done no conclusive research.
8. Who is behind fluoridation and who stands to profit?
Oscar Ewing, attorney for the Aluminum Company of America, which has sodium fluoride as a waste product, gave the fluoridation movement its big push when he became Federal Security Administrator. He left $750,000 a year with the Aluminum Company, to take $ 17,500 a year as F.S.A. head. In 1951 his agency asked for two million dollars for fluorine propaganda alone. He also had millions of dollars to give out to dental and medical colleges, state departments of health, as money grants. Of course, these money grants are given only to those dental and medical colleges and state health departments which foster, and promote the programs of the U. S. Public Health Service. It all fits together like a glove! Thus, the price of sodium fluoride jumped from 1½ cents a pound when sold as rat poison up to as much as 15 cents a pound when sold for human consumption in drinking water, and chemical firms, therefore, have a very real financial interest in the promotion of the sale. Equipment firms, also, which supply feeding machinery, are profiting hugely, and we find in some instances that the promoters of fluoridation are relatives of the heads of these equipment companies.
9. Are many cities rejecting fluoridation?
About 1,100 communities in the United States have rejected fluoridation so far, with more being added all the time. Cities such as Seattle, Cincinnati, Talahassee, San Diego, Detroit, Columbus, and Greensboro, to name only a few, have turned thumbs down on fluoridation after studying the pros and cons. Likewise, foreign countries, such as Sweden, Switzerland, France, England and West Germany have rejected it as a dangerous practice.
10. Why are so many doctors and dentists favoring fluoridation?
It seems to be a matter of association control. Medical and dental colleges, as well as state health departments, receive large grants of money from the U. S. Public Health Service, which is promoting fluoridation. These money grants are given on the condition that the programs of the USPHS are fostered. Furthermore, it is considered unethical for an individual doctor or dentist to publicly oppose a program which his association has endorsed. However 123 of the 151 dentists of Worcester, Massachussets, in 1953, petitioned and demanded that the approval of fluoridation by the Worcester District Dental Society be rescinded. Also, 83 doctors and dentists in Michigan joined in protest to the Governor of the State on March 31, 1955, against what they termed, "the relentless promotional activities of the Michigan State Health Department" for fluoridation. It should be noted also that medical association are slowly waking up and refusing to endorse fluoridation, namely the Texas Medical Association, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Other are reconsidering their previous approval, such as the Multnomah County (Oregon) Medical Association.
11. Has anything beneficial been proved to be due to fluoridation?
Nothing in scientific literature can be found which shows fluorine, the "wildcat" or "villain" of the chemical world, to be a beneficial agent to human biology. Even the delay in dental cavities which is attributed to the ingestion of fluorine has been said by Dr. Paul Manning, D. M. D, to be a "pathological or diseased effect" of fluorine. And Mr. K. K. Paluev, an experienced analyst of experimental data, Fellow of the American Institute of Engineers, states that any apparent benefits, as claimed by the promoters of fluoridation are due to delays in detection of dental defects and to errors in statistical calculation. He says, "A short delay in the appearance of tooth decay was mistaken for a radical and permanent reduction in the number of afflicted teeth."
12. Can the people who want fluoride obtain them without having the city water supply fluoridated?
Yes, there is a tablet now available at drugstores, which when dropped in a quart of water or milk will give the exact proposed ratio of 1 ppm of fluoride.