[caroline2]

I have been aware of the toxicity of fluoride since 1991, I remember it well when I attended a lecture on toxic chemicals. I was born and raised in fluoridated water and a mouthful of dental work and body full of arthritis to prove the toxicity of it all.

Today, and since our city started the rumbles of fluoridating our water in 2005, I became very involved in the "battle". We in the battle lost our battle and our city did the nasty in 2009. The 6 decade+ history is so deep and dark and mega profits have been made by industries.

Here is excellent info and this site has I think 4 sub links and asthma, COPD, thyroid, of course, IQ is mentioned. Think about it.

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/are-you-fluoridated

[EnglishDave]

A measured, scientific response, by the Campaign for Dental Health, addressing the main points raised in this article:

http://ilikemyteeth.org/fluoridation...s-of-fluoride/

Dave.

[caroline2]

Dave, there are 100's of links on the pros and cons of this toxic waste and yes it is just that -- it's not naturally occurring off the rocks... People can choose to believe what they shall but the battle has been going on for decades in the U.S. and momentum is growing as more and more are tuned in now thanks to technology.

One must decide who they choose to believe. I know I've made my decision on this.

[madisongrrl]

One of the PhD's that I work with used to work in public health and we have talked about fluoride extensively at work. She has pretty much read all the literature on fluoride. I'm not as well read on the topic, but I've read a fair amount.

The conclusions that we've personally drawn about fluoride are that it's likely not as beneficial as most people are led to believe. And it's also not as problematic as some like to believe. The data on fluoride is notoriously poor and comes from epidemiology. To my knowledge, there are no double-blind placebo controlled studies that have been performed.

Fluoride has been shown to help the teeth of children of a certain age range and socio-economic status. Fluoride may also harm joints, connective tissue, or bone density of a certain subset of adults. There are studies showing that fluoride may cause cancer in rats. You will find both pros and cons if you search on PubMed.

Fluoride is a industry waste product that we put into water system so we can get it to a small subset of children with low socio-economic status. The public health scientists calls this concept penetration.

I'm of the opinion that we really don't know enough about the long term effects of fluoride to put it into the water supply (precautionary principle). Instead of just getting topical exposure, we are exposing all our tissues to fluoride by having it in our water supply - and we have no vote in this matter. There are already plenty of topical products - mouthwash, toothpaste, and treatments at the dentist office. We need to think about better methods of getting topical fluoride to the small population that we think it actually helps. We need more long-term, well-done studies to fully understand the adverse events that fluoride can cause and if there are any actual benefits. Not to mention the fact that we endanger the engineers and chemists who have to work in water plants with giant quantities of these chemicals. Just my 2 cents.

[caroline2]

Many have no voice in this "practice" but many are now removing/rejecting it like Portland, Albuquerqe, Santa Fe, Honolulu, Fairbanks, Witchita, Santa Barbara said no in 1999, and so many more. Here is the update listing of those who do NOT fluoridate:

http://fluoridealert.org/content/communities/

There is so much info out there and it's true about handling this chemical in the water plants, transporting it, the cost and our city pays over $100K to add this to our water annually, etc. So much involved and yes, if people want to use fluoride, buy toothpaste with fluoride. I make my own toothpaste so as to get no chemicals in my own TP.

And then there is the dosing each person takes in. As I said I've been involved in the battle since 2005 due to my own city and I feel it's just a wrong practice forced on people. And it continues and we continue.

[kiwi33]

Thank you for a balanced response madisongrrl.

Like you I was surprised (a walk through PubMed) to see how few RCTs there are out there.

One point which may be relevant is that fluoridated tap water (usually in the range 0.5-1.0 mg/L) is not the only source of fluoride. For example, black tea, raisins and wine are all relatively rich in it, most other foods contain some and groundwater in volcanic and mountainous regions can have levels as high as 50 mg/L.

Because of this, sorting out the possible risks and benefits of fluoride will not be an easy job (lots of potential confounding variables to consider).

[caroline2]

I just waded thru the long dark history of fluorides and those who are responsible from the beginning Alcoa and Mellon, both these businesses are/were based in the town where I was born, Pittsburgh, PA. I was there from the first days of my life, being fluoridated.

http://ahealedplanet.net/fluoride.htm

If I was on the fence before I waded thru this history, I am off the fence. I get info from a pro fluoride group and they do everything in their power to make one think it's all OK. I'm sure they are paid by the fluoridationists.

Keep on a healing path as best you can.