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WELCOME TO THE FLUORIDE FREE AUSTIN READING ROOM
This page is intended as a
clearinghouse for accurate, up to date information about water fluoridation. It combines
original content, including local news, with dozens of links. Think of the links as books
in a library, ranging from massive tomes to news stories to scientific papers, to
information-packed websites. Curl up with the National Research Council's 2006 report,
study ADA propaganda, read recent science, follow current political battles. We hope
you'll spend some time exploring our reading room.
Water Fluoridation in the United StatesThe long, sordid story of water fluoridation
begins in the 1940's, during WW II. Our factories were running 24 hours a day to produce
the steel, aluminum and enriched uranium that would defeat the Nazi war machine. But a
worrisome problem loomed. Fluorspar (calcium fluoride), a raw material crucial to the
smelting and uranium enrichment processes, was destroying the health of workers while
creating fluoride-laden toxic waste in need of disposal. Meanwhile, in rural Colorado and
Texas, a handful of dentists had made a discovery - or thought they had. They believed, incorrectly,
that fluoride was good for teeth. The captains of industry took up their claim and
promoted it. The rest is history.
Today, about two thirds of our municipal water systems have been fluoridated, often
against the residents' express wishes. Behind the crusade to fluoridate 100% of America's
drinking water supply are the enormous financial and political resources of the American
Dental Association, the Centers for Disease Control and other comparably powerful
corporate-bureaucratic entities. As these players advance their agenda, using everything
in their toolbox: money, propaganda,
pressure and threats,
we may well ask ourselves why a group of health professionals should so relentlessly push
a forced mass medication scheme which, if it truly worked, would put them out of business.
Indeed, there is much to wonder about concerning the fluoridation issue. The following Q
& A will provide some answers.
Fluoridation Q
& A
Q1: What is fluoride?
A1: Fluoride is the name given to any compound of fluorine, an extremely toxic and
reactive element that occurs in several forms, both natural and artificial.
Q2: Where does fluoride come from?
A2: The fluoride used for water fluoridation is a manmade industrial waste product
called fluorisilicic acid. Most of it
comes from the smokestack scrubbers of phosphate
fertilizer plants in Florida; some from China. Natural fluoride occurs as calcium
fluoride (fluorspar) in many
parts of the world.
Q3: Why do we add fluoride to our drinking water?
A3: Ostensibly, as a tooth decay preventative for children, especially poor
children. In reality, our public water supplies have been used as toxic waste disposal
systems since 1945.
Q4: What are the benefits of drinking fluoridated water?
A4: There are none. Even the Centers for Disease Control has admitted that any
fluoride benefits come from topical application (as
in brushing), not ingestion. And both the Surgeon
General and the Texas Dental
Association report an "epidemic" of oral disease among the the same low
income groups water fluoridation was supposed to help.
Q5: Are there health risks associated with drinking fluoridated water?
A5: Fluoride is one of the most reactive and toxic elements known to man (it lies
between lead and arsenic in toxicity). By replacing necessary nutrients like calcium and
iodine, it damages the body's many systems, including:
teeth
bones
thyroid
kidneys
brain
pineal gland
In 2006, the National
Research Council's groundbreaking report, Fluoride in Drinking Water,
based on the review of hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers, enumerated in detail
fluoride's adverse affects on human and animal health.
Q6: How could the FDA approve such a toxic substance?
A6: Fluoride has never received FDA approval for human consumption. The FDA has
approved fluoride for use in rat poison and other pesticides.
Q7: Are some people more at risk from drinking fluoridated water than others?
A7: Yes. Infants, children, members of low income and minority groups, diabetics,
kidney patients, and people who consume more than average amounts of water like athletes
and construction workers are all at especially high risk for fluoride-associated health
problems.
Q8: Drinking fluoridated tapwater doesn't seem to bother me. How do I know it's
hurting me?
A8: Fluoride is a cumulative toxin, building up in the body over years. Its effects
vary widely - from bone cancer and osteoporosis to underactive thyroid - and when symptoms
develop, their cause may not be recognized.
Q9: How much fluoride is in our tapwater?
A9: The US Public Health Service recommends 1 part per million - 66 times the EPA's
permissible limit for lead.
Q10: Do other countries fluoridate their water?
A10: Only the United States, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand widely fluoridate
their drinking water. The rest of Europe, Israel and Japan either never adopted the
practice or have abandoned it.
Q11: How does dental health in the United States stack up against that in
non-fluoridated western countries?
A11: They are comparable.
Q12: My dentist swears by fluoride. Why would family dentists support a product
that doesn't work and has serious side effects?
A12: Every dentist trained in the United States within the past 50 years has
attended a school committed to promoting fluoride in all its forms. Many believe the
claims. And individuals who openly disagree risk disciplinary action by the American
Dental Association.
Q13: Why do our top health bureaucracies - (CDC, FDA, EPA, state health
departments), professional organizations (ADA, AMA), universities, dental schools and
research organizations cling so tenaciously to a long-discredited program?
A13: Fear of litigation - of the avalanche of ruinous lawsuits that would follow an
admission of error - is the likely main reason, followed by fear of losing face. An
unwillingness to part with long-held beliefs and sheer inertia contribute their share to
the resistance as well. http://www.orgsites.com/tx/fluoridefreeaustin