Fluoride folly in Florida

PREGNANT WOMEN: If you can't breastfeed, be advised: The American
Dental Association says babies shouldn't receive the poison fluoride -
you shouldn't reconstitute infant formula with poisoned/"fluoridated"
water.

FLUORIDE FOLLY IN FLORIDA

St. Petersburg Times
Via http://www.sptimes.com/letters/

To the Editor,

St Petersburg reporter Will Van Sant (Jun4) made no mention of the key
fluoridation issue: Fluoridation is forced medication - and forced
medication - even forced medication with good medicine - is a CRIME -
battery.

Van Sant also failed to mention that the Florida Supreme Court
rubberstamped QUILES - a lower court's bizarre decision that the mass
fluoride poisoning isn't forced medication because faucets - not
people - are being medicated.

See AAP was opposed to fluoridating infants 'some 6 years ago'?
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.m...bcc01b6d82a841

Did Tom Nocera forget to mention these things to Van Sant?

Or did Van Sant just regard them as not worthy of publication?

Dr. Gastaldo
Hillsboro, Oregon
USA


----- Original Message -----
From: Henry Morgan
To: FREEDOM FORWARDS
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 5:15 AM
Subject: [FLUORIDE] FW: Fluoride, a longtime blessing, now a curse?
snip

-----Original Message-----
From: ]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 6:40 AM
To:
Subject: Fluoride, a longtime blessing, now a curse?

This St. Petersburg Times (http://www.sptimes.com) story has been sent
to
you from:

Fluoridation article in today's times.

Fluoride, a longtime blessing, now a curse?
By WILL VAN SANT
Published June 4, 2007

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/04/Ta...ongtime_.shtml

null

Few noticed in November when the American Dental Association alerted
its
members via e-mail of a possible problem with giving babies
fluoridated
water:

The ADA, long among fluoride's biggest advocates, wrote that parents
of
infants younger than a year old "should consider using water that has
no or
low levels of fluoride" when mixing baby formula.

Public health agencies in some states, like Vermont and New Hampshire,
responded by issuing warnings through the media based on the ADA e-
mail.

But it would be four months before Florida's Department of Health
would
relay the ADA's message on its Web site along with its own seemingly
contradictory footnote: "Mixing formula with fluoridated water poses
no
known health risks."

Neither Hillsborough nor Pinellas counties' water utilities - both of
which
use fluoride additive - passed along the warning.

So is fluoridated water safe for infants? It depends on whom you ask.

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The issue for the ADA and for babies is fluorosis, a condition caused
by
too much fluoride that damages the enamel of teeth. In its milder
forms,
fluorosis causes white specks or streaks to appear. More severe cases
involve dark staining and pitting of tooth enamel, which can increase
the
likelihood of decay and infection.

Both sides in the fluoride debate agree severe cases are rarely seen
in
those whose water is fluoridated at recommended levels. Mild fluorosis
is
more common and fluoride backers have argued for years that such cases
are
cosmetic and not harmful.

Yet some scientists warn even mild to moderate cases may lead to more
significant problems.

Two things led the ADA to issue its e-mail, said Daniel Meyer, the
group's senior vice president of science and professional affairs. One
was
an October announcement by the Food and Drug Administration allowing
health
claims on bottled fluoridated water - except when marketed to infants.

The other was a report released in March 2006 by the National Research
Council, which had been asked by the Environmental Protection Agency
to
evaluate the federal safety limits for fluoride that naturally occurs
in
drinking water. The safety limit: 4 parts per million.

The report found that the EPA limit is too high and associated with
harmful
dental effects and an increased risk of bone fractures. Not addressed
in the
report was the safety of treated water supplies - which have much
lower
concentrations. Pinellas and Hillsborough counties average around 0.8
parts
per million.

The report also concluded that additional research was warranted
because of
previous work that had suggested links between fluoride and lowered
IQs in
children and bone cancer. And it raised questions about the connection
between baby formula reconstituted with fluoridated water and
fluorosis.

In light of the report and the FDA's new rule, the ADA's Meyer said a
decision was made to send the e-mail, but he made clear that his
group's
overall position supporting fluoridating water supplies was unchanged.

"The overwhelming evidence, " Meyer said, "is that at the proper
levels,
fluoride is very effective and very safe."

That some should treat the ADA e-mail with more gravity than others is
not
surprising. Adding fluoride to drinking water to prevent tooth decay
has
been a public health staple for 60 years. Yet skeptics have claimed
the
practice does more harm than good.

The rhetoric can be extreme. Supporters have been slammed as lapdogs
for
the chemical fertilizer industry that benefits by selling its waste to
water
suppliers as a fluoridation agent. And critics are often derided as
deluded
fearmongers blind to the support fluoridation has from the scientific
community.

With a 6-1 vote of the Pinellas County Commission in 2004, about 600,
000
residents joined the estimated 170-million people nationwide whose
water is
fluoridated.

St. Petersburg, Dunedin, Gulfport and Belleair were already adding
fluoride to their water. Pinellas supplies water to all other county
residents. Hillsborough County, Tampa and Temple Terrace also
fluoridate.

After learning of the ADA e-mail last year, Pinellas Utilities
Department
director Pick Talley said he contacted the state Health Department and
the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to gauge the seriousness of
the
threat. No public outreach was warranted, Talley said he was told, so
his
department was silent.

"We kind of follow the mainstream medical advice on fluoridation, "
Talley
said. "There are a lot more serious issues that mothers need to know
about
when it comes to their infants."

Similarly, Hillsborough County utility officials stayed mum, doubting
the
significance of the ADA e-mail.

That attitude infuriates Tom Nocera, a Clearwater resident who has
blasted
Pinellas County for its decision to fluoridate.

"They are trying to protect policies that have been in place for a
number
of years, " said Nocera, 58, a federal government employee who works
in
disaster relief. "They don't want to be proven wrong."

Kathleen Thiessen, one of the NRC report's 12 authors, is sympathetic
to
Nocera's view. A scientist who specializes in assessing toxic risks,
Thiessen said studies done overseas have associated mild to moderate
fluorosis with lower IQs, endocrine system problems and skeletal
damage.

Thiessen, who along with two other authors of the report have gained
reputations as fluoride skeptics, said the ADA's e-mail should be of
particular concern to poor parents enrolled in the federal
government's
Women, Infant and Children Nutrition Program.

For the most part, parents can use WIC checks to buy only powdered or
condensed formula, which must be mixed with water.

Neither the ADA e-mail nor the NRC report has led to a groundswell of
skepticism about fluoridation. But they have been affirmation for
former
Pinellas County Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd, who cast the lone
vote
against adding fluoride to the water supply.

"The very things that I feared are now the things that are showing up,
"
Todd said.

'Fast Facts:'

'What goes in your water?'

Like much about the fluoride debate, fluorosilic acid can be made to
appear better or worse simply by how it's described. The acid is
what's
added to water supplies to fight tooth decay.

Critics of the process call the acid an industrial waste product.
Supporters prefer industry byproduct.

Whatever it's called, the major portion of the fluorosilic acid added
to
the nation's water supply comes from Florida's phosphate fertilizer
industry. Here's how:

Florida's phosphate rock is about 3.5 percent fluorine. To make
phosphoric
acid for fertilizer, the rock is mixed with sulfuric acid. The mixture
produces a gas called silicon tetrafluoride. The gas is sent through
ductwork and a water scrubber to create fluorosilic acid, a clear
liquid
that in high concentrations is toxic. The acid is what fertilizer
companies
sell as a fluoride additive. It's diluted to what's considered a safe
level
when pumped into water supplies.

Source: Florida Institute of Phosphate Research

 

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