"Second Thoughts about Fluoride," reports Scientific American

New York - January 2, 2008 -- "Some recent studies suggest that over-
consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting
teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland," reports Scientific
American editors (January 2008). "Scientific attitudes toward
fluoridation may be starting to shift," writes author Dan Fagin.

"Fluoride, the most consumed drug in the USA, is deliberately added to
2/3 of public water supplies theoretically to reduce tooth decay, but
with no scientifically-valid evidence proving safety or
effectiveness," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State
Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.

Fagin, award-wining environmental reporter and Director of New York
University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program,
writes, "There is no universally accepted optimal level for daily
intake of fluoride." Some researchers even wonder whether the 1 mg/L
added into drinking water is too much, reports Fagin.

After 3 years of scrutinizing hundreds of studies, a National Research
Council (NRC) committee "concluded that fluoride can subtly alter
endocrine function, especially in the thyroid - the gland that
produces hormones regulating growth and metabolism," reports Fagin.

Fagin quotes John Doull, professor emeritus of pharmacology and
toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who chaired the
NRC committee thusly, "The thyroid changes do worry me."

Fluoride in foods, beverages, medicines and dental products can result
in fluoride over-consumption, visible in young children as dental
fluorosis - white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth. We can't
normally see fluoride's effects to the rest of the body.

Reports Fagin, "a series of epidemiological studies in China have
associated high fluoride exposures with lower IQ."

"(E)pidemiological studies and tests on lab animals suggest that high
fluoride exposure increases the risk of bone fracture, especially in
vulnerable populations such as the elderly and diabetics," writes
Fagin.

Fagin interviewed Steven Levy, director of the Iowa Fluoride Study
which tracked about 700 Iowa children for sixteen years. Nine-year-old
"Iowa children who lived in communities where the water was
fluoridated were 50 percent more likely to have mild fluorosis... than
[nine-year-old] children living in nonfluoridated areas of the state,"
writes Fagin. Levy will study fluoride's effects on their bones.

Over 1200 professionals urge Congress to cease water fluoridation and
conduct Congressional hearings because scientific evidence indicates
fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. Support
them; write your representative he

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o...aign_KEY=21960

(or http://www.FluorideAction.Net )

"(G)enetic, environmental and even cultural factors appear to leave
some people much more susceptible to the effects of fluoride," writes
Fagin

"What the [NRC] committee found is that we've gone with the status quo
regarding fluoride ... for too long... and now we need to take a fresh
look," Doull says, " In the scientific community, people tend to think
that its settled... But when we looked at the studies that have been
done, we found that many of these questions are unsettled and we have
much less information than we should, considering how long this
[fluoridation] has been going on. I think that's why fluoridation is
still being challenged so many years after it began, In the face of
ignorance, controversy is rampant."


Fluoridation 101
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof

http://www.FluorideAction.Net

NYSCOF News Releases:

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