Fluoride Concerns

Fluoride Concerns Finally Taken Seriously?

By Dr. Mercola

Open, honest debate is crucial to furthering knowledge, resolving controversies and moving forward on important questions of public interest.

Debate as a form of reasoning and education can be traced back to ancient times, when philosophical debates were held in ancient Greece. To be successful, there must be integrity on both sides as well as respect.

Name-calling and disrespect have no place in a debate of matters relating to public health, but in the case of water fluoridation, this has been the standard procedure of fluoridation promoters for many decades.

So imagine everyone's surprise when in a recent Dallas city council meeting, three council members not only held back such insults but actually agreed that it was time to open up an honest discussion about the city's water fluoridation practices.

Dallas City Council Members Agree with Anti-Fluoridation Activist's Plea

Despite the fact that anti-fluoridation activist Regina Imburgia had spoken to the Dallas city council several times before with no response, a meeting earlier this month was different. Three of the 15 members finally agreed with Imburgia's message that water fluoridation in the city deserves a closer look.

Suddenly, area reporters, who had previously refused to air the "other" side to the fluoridation debate, featured the news, though not all was in a favorable light.Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd wrote a scathing column engaging in the unacceptable behavior that has become so commonplace in the fluoride debate.1

With no shortage of name-calling, she called those speaking out against fluoride dangers "cranks" and described the message as "conspiracy paranoia" from the days of "Howdy Doody and coonskin caps."

Fortunately, the Dallas Observer covered the issue at length, in both column and blog formats, not only citing a new concerning study about fluoride health risks (see below) but also calling Floyd out for her unprofessional lashing out:2

"…it's absolutely wrong to think we can afford to shut down the debate on fluoride or any other neurotoxin because of a cultural association with people who worry about neurotoxins. This isn't coonskin caps and anti-communism. This is all new, powerful and urgent. Not worrying about it would be the crazy thing."

What we have here is the gradual beginnings of change. We have made great strides with GMO understanding and victories. Fluoride is following close behind the pattern and hopefully will achieve the same success GMO labelling has in the last three years.

More and more commentators are accepting that anti-fluoride supporters are not quacks but concerned citizens citing science. The fluoride debate is changing, and fast, reminding me once again of the words of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who, 200 years ago, said all truth goes through three stages:

• First, it is ridiculed
• Then it is violently opposed
• Finally, it is widely accepted as self-evident

Fluoride Added to List of 11 Chemicals Known to Harm Brain Development in Children

In 2006, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants.

This included unquestionable poisons like lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since then, they've documented six additionaldevelopmental neurotoxicants and have added them to the list of what are now 11 known industrial chemicals that harm brain development in human fetuses and infants.3

One of the recently added neurotoxicants is fluoride, and one of the study's authors has previously said:4

"Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain… The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us."

The debate over the dangers of fluoride has been ongoing for more than six decades, despite the fact that study after study has confirmed that fluoride is a dangerous, toxic poison that bio-accumulates in your body while being ineffective at preventing dental decay.

Worse yet, when you consider the fact that there are 37 human studies linking moderately high fluoride exposures with reduced intelligence and 12 human studies linking fluoride with neurobehavioral deficits. There are also three human studies linking fluoride exposure with impaired fetal brain development,5 the idea of continuing to fluoridate drinking water is a shockingly bad idea. Approximately 100 animal studies have also linked fluoride to brain damage. This includes such effects as:6

Reduction in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors	Damage to the hippocampus	Formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain abnormality in Alzheimer's disease)
Reduction in lipid content	Damage to the Purkinje cells	Exacerbation of lesions induced by iodine deficiency
Impaired antioxidant defense systems	Increased uptake of aluminum	Accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland

One particularly striking animal study published in 1995 showed that fluoride ingestion had a profound influence on the animals' brains and altered behavior. Pregnant rats given fluoride produced hyperactive offspring. And animals given fluoride after birth became apathetic, lethargic "couch potatoes."7 As was reported by the Dallas Observer, brain damage is far more difficult to detect than outwardly physical damage, which perhaps is part of the reason why fluoride continues to slip by under the radar:8

"One problem is that compared with gross physical birth defects caused by chemicals, developmental brain damage is barely on public health radar, according to the [Lancet study] authors. They say: 'David P. Rall, former director of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, once noted that, 'if thalidomide had caused a 10-point loss of I.Q. instead of obvious birth defects of the limbs, it would probably still be on the market.''"

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