FLUORIDE ALERT: Slowly Poisoning the Children? –Part 1

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Augie

Despite volumes of research and reports on serious health effects from fluoride toxicity and overload in children,  the Ohio Department of Health (and other states) has restarted programs in schools to have children rinse with fluoride and have teeth sealed with fluoride BPA-containing materials. They are  disposing of the EPA-designated toxic wastes in the trash, and drinking the school’s fluoridated water at the fountain, all without prescription or medical supervision and prescreening. As a result of this and more, children’s teeth are permanently stained and deformed. . . and worse.

Sylvia Onusic just returned from a national conference on fluoride sponsored by the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), www.fluoridealert.org,  and we are pleased to have her as a guest writer on this shocking original and exclusive expose on fluoride poisoning and overload in children. This article focuses on fluoride rinses conducted in schools and was prompted by Ohio’s fluoride rinse and sealant program now increasing rapidly—and in many other states as well. You will want to spread this article around and also take note on the ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN at the end of the article. David Michael, a Journal correspondent, will present more on this subject later this week.–Augie

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Sylvia P. Onusic holds a PhD from Pennsylvania State University and works in the fields of public health, health education and nutrition. She conducted research in the country of Slovenia under a Fulbright Grant awarded to her by the US Department of Education in the field of public health and later was appointed by the Slovene Government to a position at the Ministry of Health where she worked for six years. Currently she has been researching and writing about fluoride and is a member of the Fluoride Action Network. She regularly writes for Harkeisonline.com, of the Weston A Price Foundation, other online and written publications, and lectures on traditional foods, nutrition and health.

Fluoride Rinse Program Instituted in Ohio Schools

by Sylvia P. Onusic, PhD

Our kids are getting too much fluoride. It’s here, it’s there, it’s everywhere!  You might think, if a little is good, more is better. Not in the case of fluoride, which has no nutritional value in the human diet and is considered an extremely hazardous material which requires, by law, special transportation and disposal. Fluorine is the element, and all compounds of fluorine are called fluorides. Calcium fluoride occurs in nature but it is not calcium fluoride that is put into toothpaste, mouth rinse, drinking water, and other products. The fluoride added to US drinking water is considered a hazardous waste by EPA. Now it is purchased from China.  Remember the melamine in baby formula, the tainted dog food, the childrens’ toys and jewelry?

Before the 1950’s, fluoride was considered a poison by the American Dental Association and American Medical Association.  But after World War II, the American medical community flip- flopped, like some politicians, on their opinion of fluoride. In the 1950’s the American Public Health Service hired Edward Bernays, the grandson of Sigmund Freud, to sell fluoride to the American Public. He had previously done so with cigarettes, advertising that the best MD’s smoke Camels. After one study, which was not completed at Grand Rapids, Michigan, the US Public Health Service pronounced fluorides great for preventing cavities.  Since then fluoride chemicals have slowly made their way into many facets of our lives, our water, drugs, pesticides, toothpaste, mouth rinse, dental floss, and food products.

But according to a recent study completed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), all Americans, especially children, have too much fluoride in their lives. “There probably is excess exposure,” says Dr. Kit Shaddix, from the CDC’s Center for Disease Control, Division of Oral Health. The American Dental Association (ADA) has also published reports on American over- exposure to fluoride between 1996-2000.  These reports have had little media exposure but more and more information is making its way to the internet via YouTube.

Moderate Fluorosis

See more pictures of fluorosis from Google images

In the 1930’s a prominent dentist and president of the American Dental Association, Weston Price, traveled around the world, examining the teeth of many primitive civilizations in Canada, West Indies, Polynesia, Switzerland and other countries, and found that these people, eating their traditional diets, had almost no cavities. Price traveled back to visit these peoples years later and found that those who had changed their diets to “ foods of commerce” such as sugar, jams, white flour, and powdered milk, so called “missionary foods,” had developed within one generation or less, high rates of decay and tooth loss.  Children in these cultures developed dramatic cases of tuberculosis. When Price shared his findings with his colleagues, he was ostracized. Out with him!  Think what a world without cavities would do to the dental profession?

According to dental experts, the use of topical fluoride applications such as toothpaste, rinses, and mouth washes, as well as systemic treatments such as fluoridated water, only prevent cavities on  the smooth surfaces of the teeth (around the teeth) which means that the chewing surfaces (pits and fissures) are not affected by fluoride treatments. This is extremely significant for parents because it well known that 80 to 90% of cavities in children occur in the pits and fissures of the tooth, and that fluoride treatments are unable to prevent the great majority of cavities. So why use them?

“It is estimated that 84% of the caries experience in the 5 to 17 year-old population involves tooth surfaces with pits and fissures and fluorides cannot be expected appreciably to reduce our incidence of caries on these surfaces…”
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dental Association 1984; 108:448.

Most proponents now say fluoridation cuts the rate of tooth decay 18% to 25%. How much is that? Less than one tooth surface. “The absolute impact of 18% or even 25% is low,” says Stephen Levy of the University of Iowa, who supports fluoridation.

Elise Bassin, a doctoral student at Harvard, in her groundbreaking study, found a strong association between fluoride water consumption and osteosarcoma incidence in boys using data for a 15 year period, with cases from 11 hospitals throughout the United States.  Her results were published in 2006 Cancer Causes and Control. Osteosarcoma is a deadly form of bone cancer, which is diagnosed when the patient is approximately 15 years of age.

Over 23 published studies in China, comparing the IQ of children living in fluoridated versus non-fluoridated areas, show an IQ of 10 points or more lower in children exposed to fluoride at 0.88 to 9.4 ppm.   In 2006, an article in the British journal, The Lancet, reported that fluoride may damage a child’s developing brain. The Lancet review described fluoride as an “emerging neurotoxic substance” because of new evidence which links fluoride with lower IQs in children, and brain damage in animals.

“Newborn babies have undeveloped brains, and exposure to fluoride, a suspected neurotoxin, should be avoided,” notes Hardy Limeback, a member of a 2006 National Research Council panel on fluoride toxicity, and former President of the Canadian Association of Dental Research.

Despite reports from the top health organizations in the US that children are exposed to too much fluoride, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has restarted a fluoride rinse program in schools, adding more fluoride to overly fluoridated kids. According to the ODH website, kids will rinse with fluoride weekly at school. Because fluoride is a drug used to treat a disease, and drugs require a prescription to be dispensed by trained personnel, you would think that each child would need a prescription to receive the rinse administered by trained personnel, but not so in Ohio.

“Last year, the Ohio Health Department halted the fluoride mouth rinse program after state legislators passed a bill that required health professionals administer any prescription medications given to children. In May, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed the bill but exempted the fluoride mouth rinse,” according to Digital Journal.com.  Has the governor appointed an ombudsman or advocate for the children, to monitor their intake of the rinse? Have parents been advised that they can decline the program? NO to both questions.   Or will the little children be given a cup of fluoride and told to rinse and spit? Will they spit or will they swallow the tasty liquid?

According to the CDC, the overexposure to fluoride first shows up when the children’s permanent teeth develop mottled, thick, white patches, or white streaks, a condition called dental fluorosis. The CDC says that the patches are “cosmetic,” but yet, they cannot be removed by bleach or gentle abrasion, and must be remedied by expensive crowns or veneers. Science tells us that the mottling is caused by systemic overload of fluoride, because the body stores most of the fluoride in the bones first, then deposits it into it the teeth.

The CDC says that the fluorosis takes place when the teeth are just forming, and that children under six years are most at risk.

This overexposure in an indication that the child is ingesting too much fluoride.

Too much fluoride in childhood sets up the child for development of serious medical conditions later in life, such as arthritis, spinal defects, cancer, and possibly stroke.

About 50% of all fluoride taken into the body is stored in the bones and teeth, and some small amounts in other soft tissues. It also circulates in the blood. The other half is excreted through the kidneys. If the kidneys are compromised, less than 50 % is excreted, which further increases the body burden. The fluoride continues to stockpile in the body throughout a lifetime.

One of the most important problems with fluoride for children, is that ts interferes with the uptake of thyroid hormone, and is a causative factor in the development of hypothyroidism.  This condition is life-long, serious and cannot be cured. Synthroid, normally prescribed for hypothyroidism, is one of the best selling drugs in the US. Low thyroid function causes high cholesterol, fatigue, low immune function, problems with fertility, and many other problems.

The ADA has stated that dental fluorosis is on the rise, up to 65% in fluoridated areas, and 40% in non-fluoridated areas.  They do not recommend the use of fluoride mouth rinses in children younger than 6 years, because they may be more likely to inadvertently swallow the mouth rinse. Developmentally delayed and handicapped children, as well as autistic, ADD, and ADHD children, may not understand the meaning of “spit out” the toothpaste or rinse, and may swallow the fluoride time after time.

For children, teeth are an important part of physical appearance. Fluorosis is unsightly and an unfair burden to a young child to bear who is trying to make his way in the world. Remediation of affected teeth is expensive and involves crowns or veneers, is invasive and toxic.

The CDC also states that doctors are over-prescribing fluoride supplements for children. Young babies and children do not need fluoride vitamins or supplements or treatments.  Dr Shaddix from the CDC says the pediatricians and dentists routinely prescribe fluoride supplements in areas which are not supplied with fluoridated water. The problem is so serious that the CDC wants new labeling rules which call for manufacturers to list a product’s fluoride content.

The Food and Drug Act states that any substance used to treat a disease is considered a drug and must be regulated by the FDA.  Fluoride is a drug used to treat tooth decay and falls under these regulations, although the FDA exempts sodium fluoride, the fluoride commonly used in toothpastes, rinses, dentifrices, dental floss from regulation, because, they say that was in use before the law came into effect.  Sodium fluoride was in use, but as roach powder, as well as many pesticides, weed killers: Yes, it kills them dead!

The prevailing thought from the medical community is that cavities in children are a “done deal” and that you get them unless you use fluoride.  Yet communities that have been fluoridated for decades still have a high incidence of dental decay rates in children.  In fact, the Surgeon General of the US says that cavities are the most serious disease among children today.  Cavities are the result of diet containing too much sugar and processed foods that cause an unfavorable change in the saliva.

Processed foods can contain high amounts of fluoride and add considerable to the amount of fluoride stored in the body.  Some grape juice and teas contain more fluoride than fluoridated water, which usually contains 1 part per million (ppm).  Grape juice can contain as much as 1.7 ppm water but tea can contain between 2 and 10 parts per million of fluoride. Severe skeletal fluorosis has developed in heavy tea drinkers in Britain.  All canned and processed foods are usually prepared with fluoridated water.  Sodas and juices also add fluoridated water.

Foods containing fluoride include processed cereals, baby cereals, deboned chicken, canned fish and shellfish, all fruit juices, including apple, grape, and others, soft drinks of all kinds, teas and tea mixes, beers, wines, other alcoholic drinks, and cigarettes. More fluoride is now being applied to some fruits and vegetables before harvest.

Here are some facts on dental care products:

Childrens toothpastes contain  the same amount of fluoride as do adult versions (.243 % or 2430 parts per million),  only the children’s cost more and the tubes are decorated with princesses,  Bat Man, Big Bird, Superman, Spiderman, and other children’s favorites that are flavored with bubble gum, cherry, strawberry and other flavors. It is dangerous for children to regularly swallow toothpaste, yet these flavors would tempt them to do so.  Aquafresh Kids, Bubblegum Fresh, contains sodium monofluorophosphate.

Adult Colgate, Aquafresh, Pepsodent and Aim contain 0.24% sodium fluoride

Rinses contain Na F (Sodium fluoride)  at .05 %  concentration,  but the rinses for children with braces contain higher amounts of fluoride.

Kids Crest says on tube: ” Keep out of reach of children under six years of age. “

The back of the toothpaste tube contains a section, “Drug Facts”  as well as a warning to call the Poison Control Center if more than a pea sized portion of toothpaste is swallowed. Pea-sized, who ever used a pea-sized portion, yet alone read the back of the tooth paste tube?

Oragel Training Toothpaste for Toddlers contains no fluoride and states on the back of the package: ” Swallowing too much fluoride can cause fluorosis  or white spots on your child’s permanent teeth.” This is especially important for parents to know, especially if your child dosen’t have the skills to spit out all the toothpaste.

Pediatricians regularly prescribe children’s vitamins which contain fluoride, such as TriviFlor, PolyviFlor, and Vidaylin.

Something interesting:  Adult toothpaste with stannous fluoride 0.454% (4500 ppm) states on the tube: ” the product contains stannous fluoride which may produce surface staining of the teeth. Adequate tooth brushing may prevent these stains which are not harmful or permanent and may be removed by your dentist.”  Why would you use this product and what knucklehead came up with it?  This again involves another trip to the dentist: no wonder they support the fluoride!

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Much of Sylvia’s references are found at FluorideAlert.org and on the health effects.

See Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for comprehensive study on the toxicity of fluoride http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp11.pdf

ACTION THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN:

1.) Forward this article and post on social networks. Here is the short link: http://wp.me/phmll-1ae
If you have mainly a state-specific list or site, you can use a subject line as: COLORADO FLUORIDE HEALTH ALERT

2.) Call the local health department and make a complaint; send them this article. A complaint may be anonymous and they must register it and follow up on it. Do the same with your school board members and principals. Get two others who know about fluorides and attend the PTA meeting. Each one can state a fact from this paper and ask the PTA is prepare a memo to stop this program.

3) Call your dentist office and let the assistant know about this information.

4) Send in the school permission slip with a note about fluoride poisoning and this reference http://wp.me/phmll-1ae

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY FROM FLUORIDE OVERDOSE:
1) Parents should be told they have the right to choose their medications and vaccinations and be told the ingredients and known dangers. Parents have the right to question their dentist and doctor and to Just Say No.
2) Educate yourself before accepting any medication or vaccine. For fluoride, go to the links provided here, including the CDC report.
3) Avoid city drinking water. Most of it is fluoridated with hazardous materials from China, as shown in the picture of the bag above.
4) Learn the foods and drinks to avoid that contain Fluoride.