Do you think Albany should have its water fluoridated?
This is a no-brainer. The answer is YES YES YES. Physicians I speak to are shocked that a city of Albany’s size doesn’t have fluoridated water. They say, “No fluoride is something we usually associated with impoverished rural communities.” Moreoever, by keeping fluoride out, we’re making things *by far worse* for the poorer families, who cannot afford fluoride supplements for their kids.
Children need dentists and you want to remedy this by throwing some fluoride chemicals at them. Get Real. Most dentists refuse to treat the children with the most tooth decay THAT’s the real problem.
Fluoridation is a smokescreen that enables organized dentistry to give the illusion they are actually trying to remedy the problem
Tooth decay is just as rampant low income children who live in fluoridated areas such as in Buffalo, Rochester and New York City.
In fact, according to NYS Department of Health statistics, tooth decay is not lower in fluoridated NYS counties and fluoridation has not reduced the gap in cavities between haves and have nots.
The following chart was made using NYS Department of Health data
Since fluoride is ubiquitous in the food supply, present as air pollution and available in dental products, there is no evidence that any Albany child is fluoride-deficient. But you have loads of evidence to show that Albany children are dentist-deficient.
Of course this is a no brainer – Fluoride will not fix your problem
Besides fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth. Poor diets create poor teeth. Who among us has a perfect diet. 95% of Americans have had tooth decay by the time they become adults.
the only difference is low-income folks can’t afford dentists.
the chemicals used by over NINETY PERCENT of U.S. fluoridating communities are silicofluorides, a lead and arsenic laced waste product of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing. It’s an acid dumped unpurified into the water and then, often, a neutralizing chemical such as sodium hydroxide must be added to lower the acidity of the water. The fluoride has to be monitored daily to insure that a Toxic overdose doesnt slip into the water supply by mistake – which has happened many times in the U.S.
Fluoride is odorless and tasteless. So you wouldn’t be aware of the overdose until gastrointestinal symptoms appear.
Leave the water along. It makes no sense to treat the water supply when it’s low-income children who need to have their cavities filled.
I do believe dentists mean well in this approach; but I fear they haven’t kept up to date on the recent science behind fluoridation showing it’s ineffective, harmful to health and a waste of money.
For more info
When ever there is a political issue in doing the right thing there is never an argument that has an agreement init. We as a city and a comunity need to take are part in things as with everything that arises. With floride in the water and we as parents teaching better habits there is a way. I my self beleive in children knowing from an early age what is right and what is not. All these kids eating chips soda, cakes candy fast food and brushing there teeth once a day or not at all left to there own devices, is saying alot for us as a community. With better hygine education for the adults and kids along with the floride in the water system would be imporvement. Like they say though, “you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink” .
Watch out Albany. They asked the City I live in, the same question. Some bright star stood up and asked this question. HOW MUCH ??? We do not have the chemical in our water. Who drinks out of the faucet anymore, anyway ? Most folks are walking around with a fashionable bottle of water, and if you don’t trust your water, just boil a big pot of it, and pour it in a bunch of bottles. Watch the old pocketbook my fellow Albanians. I can say that. I grew up there, and would be there if I could.
Fluoridation … the World’s Most Wasteful, Costly, Dosage unControlled ‘Medicant’ Delivery System! Why?…because it’s a published FACT that “Less Than 1% of all Utilities treated Waters are actually consumed (e.g. swallowed) by humans…”… and the rest of the treated waters go to Habitats in our environments. Silicofluorides, a ‘potential environmental pollutant’ classified by US EPA as ‘Hazard Waste’ was lobbied decades ago as the major ‘elixar’ to put fluoride into drinking waters. A ‘entrenched error’ is that Silicofluorides have never been tested for for SAFETY to humans as delivered in their Drinking Waters by any government agency, nor ever approved by FDA in Health Claims as a ‘Medicant’ for ‘Better Dental Health’.
99% of Silicofluorides in our drinking/tap waters end up POLLUTING OUR Habitats…what a waste of Water RatePayers’ millions of dollars in USA paid extra for so called ‘fluoridation’.
Dental Education for families ‘at prebirths training’, later–early in schools or earlier by neighborhood PTA classes run by volunteer Dentists, and FREE Clinics by ALL Dentists volunteering a couple days per year towards their local neighborhoods is a Better Way To Prevent Cavities, or oral problems. Free tooth brushes, toothpaste, and training is miniscule Cost as compared to any Cities hundreds of thousands spent on so called ‘Fluoridation’.
Finally, Read this recent 540 pg, 3-1/2 yr National Science Council of the National Academy of Science Report published March 2006 that essentially indicates current maximum dosage and practices of ‘fluoridation’ are NOT Protective and thousands of published ‘peer reviewed Scientific Studies’ point out multiple, specific Health Problems caused by ‘cumulative’ Fluoride ingestion or Absorption.
No public water system should be fluoridated. About 1% of the population is sensitive to fluoride just as some are sensitive to penicillin. Others have medical conditions that leave them more vulnerable to fluoride toxicity, e.g. poor kidney function, poor nutrition. The CDC in their August 2001 Morbidity & Mortality Report on Fluoride concedes that fluoride’s action is topical not systemic as previously thought. Take the link to the chart in #2 above and it is clear that cavity rates do not decline as the rate of fluoridation increases. There is no correlation at all. In fact for the low income they actually increase slightly. So the primary reason for not fluoridating – it’s not safe for everyone and it’s not effective. The mission of public water systems is to provide water that is pure and safe to drink – not to treat diseases or deficiencies.
fallenriver misunderstands what’s involved with fluoridation when s/he writes: “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” With fluoridation you’re forcing the chemical down the throat of the horse (whether he likes it or not) and the same with every member of the population.
I really don’t know if the dentists who are pushing fluoridation mean well, but they certainly are not medical experts. Fluoridation is contrary to all medical principles — it goes against the Hippocratic oath (first, do no harm), against the patient’s right to refuse medicine, against modern pharmacology, against modern toxicology, and so on.
Really, fluoridation is sheer lunacy dressed up as a public health measure. The reality is that there are very few medical doctors who are actively promoting fluoridation, but those few are in very powerful positions (in the CDC, the WHO, etc.), and their reputations are inescapably linked to fluoridation. So they’re not about to admit that fluoridation is lunacy.
Consumers need to stand up for themselves and say firmly: “No thanks, I don’t want that poison in my water.”
I agree that this is a no-brainer: Fluoride should NOT be added to our drinking water!
In recent years, two prominent dental researchers who were leaders of the pro-fluoridation movement (Dr. Hardy Limeback, head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry for the University of Toronto and president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, and Dr. John Colquhoun, former Principal Dental Officer for the Department of Health in Auckland, New Zealand) announced reversals of their former positions because they concluded that water fluoridation is not an effective means of reducing dental caries and that it poses serious risks to human health.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), found that “existing data indicate that subsets of the population may be unusually susceptible to the effects of fluoride and its compounds. These populations include the elderly, people with deficiencies of calcium, magnesium and vitamin C, and people with cardiovascular and kidney problems.” (http://www.nofluoride.com/presentations/Susceptible%20Populations.pdf)
In addition, according to a UNICEF Water, Environment, and Sanitation (WES) document, “It has long been known that excessive fluoride intake carries serious toxic effects. But scientists are now debating whether fluoride confers any benefit at all.” (http://www.unicef.org/wes/fluoride.pdf)
There are also civil-liberty issues raised by suggesting forced mass medication of the population when alternative means of reducing cavities are readily available, such as tooth-brushing and individualized fluoride-treatment programs. These options provide precise methods of distribution and more cost-effective use of our tax dollars than fluoridation of drinking water.
Our freedom of choice must be maintained. The addition of fluoride to our drinking water forces us to consume a prescription drug, with its accompanying side effects, without our permission.
The newly released U.S. government-mandated fluoridation report which studied the toxicity of naturally occurring fluoride compounds, primarily “moderately toxic” calcium fluoride, states that the permissible amount of 4 ppm is too high to protect the public. Since the compound added in over 90% of fluoridated water systems, the “extremely toxic” hydrofluorosilicic acid, is 25 TIMES more toxic than calcium fluoride, it would suggest that the 1 ppm permissible amount for this fluoride compound should fall by a corresponding factor. This would bring it more in line with the amount of fluoride found in mother’s milk. Mother nature knows best: when in doubt, leave it out!
Dr. Charles Gordon Heyd, MD, a past president of the American Medical Association said it best: “I am appalled at the prospect of using water as a vehicle for drugs. Fluoride is a corrosive poison that will produce serious effects on a long range basis. Any attempt to use water this way is deplorable.”
Water fluoridation is NOT the way to approach the problem of cavities.
Tooth decay has never been caused by the lack of fluoride. It’s about time that the dental profession tells it plain and simple. Sugar and poor dental hygiene are the root cause. Medicating for any reason via
the public water supply is wrong. And make no mistake about it, fluoride is medication. You need a prescription to buy it at your pharmacy. Children probably drink the least amount of water, and adults, who may be suffering with various ailments such as kidney disease are the ones who will be harmed by adding fluoride to the public water. Fluoride accumulates in the body and drinking this poison every day of your life is criminal. Think about this..is there any medication that can be injested by everyone, everyday for the rest of their life, SAFE? Rational people, with no special interests will always say no. And Albany should say a BIG No to fluoridation.
You asked for your readers’ response to the idea of fluoridating Albany’s water. My answer is a resounding NO. Let me explain why.
If you had asked me that question about 10 years ago I might have said yes. Since then as a Professor of Chemistry at St. Lawrence University (specializing in environmental chemistry and toxciology), I have researched the issue of fluoride’s toxicity very thoroughly, and it appalls me to think that anyone would want to put this highly toxic substance into our water at levels (1 ppm) which are 250 times higher than the level found in mothers milk (0.004 ppm, NRC, page 23) and only 4 times lower than the level where the EPA requires it to be removed.
Also, as the Executive Director of the Fluoride Action Network, I have followed the politics of this issue as well, and I have to say it is one of the saddest examples of the misuse of government regulatory power that I have ever witnessed.
This sorry misuse began in 1950 when the US Public Health Service (PHS) endorsed fluoridation before one single trial had been completed. It wasn’t scientific then and it isn’t scientific now. But with the US PHS endorsement, came a sring of endorsements from other organizations – with little independent review of the literature. It quickly became the “sacred cow” of dentistry and the public health community. Meanwhile, fluoride has become industry’s most “protected pollutant” (see Chris Bryson’s brilliant book The Fluoride Deception for the collusion between govenment and industry on this issue.
Two US regulatory agencies have played dispicable roles in the promotion of fluoridation, one – the FDA – by ommission and the other – the CDC – by commission.
Incredibly, the FDA has never subjected the use of fluoride as an ingested medicine (whether it be taken as a tablet or in the water) despite the fact that it is the most prescribed medicine in US history (over 150 million Americans get dosed with this stuff daily in their water). The reason for this massive dereliction of duty, given by the FDA, is that fluoride was in use before 1938, so it was grandfathered in. However, its use before 1938 was as a rodenticide. Yes you read that correctly: the FDA does not believe that fluoride should be subjected to the clinical trials for side effects or benefits, needed by any other drug, because it was once approved as a rat poison!
The CDC actively and aggressively promotes fluoridation across the US, to the point of supporting MANDATORY statewide fluoridation bills. In 1999, the CDC called fluoridation “one of the top ten public health achievements of the twentieth century”. However, inspection of the review on which this was based, shows the arguments, for both effectiveness and safety, to be pathetically shallow (see our critique at http://www.FluorideAction.net/cdc.htm). In fact, the CDC was six years out of date on the health literature when they made that statement, but that doesn’t stop people citing it nearly every day somewhere in the world.
Within six days of the publication of a massive review (450 pages, over 1000 refernces) of fluoride’s toxicology in water by a panel appointed by the National Research Council (NRC), which recommended that the EPA’s safe drinking water standard (goal) should be lowered from 4 ppm, the CDC argued that this was “consistent with the safety of water fluoridation at 1 ppm.” Any toxicologist reading the NRC review would have to admit that there is no adequate margin of safety between 4 ppm (or less) and 1 ppm. This is because once put into water you cannot control the DOSE people get because you cannot control how much water they drink or the fluoride they get from many other sources.
The policy is absurd, and even moreso, when one finds out that even leading dental researchers – as well as the CDC (1999, 2001) – now concede that fluoride’s benefit occurs TOPICALLY not SYSTEMICALLY. In other words, it works from the outside of the tooth, not from inside the body. Swallowing fluoride makes as much sense as swallowing sunblock!
This concession might well explain why it is that data, from a recent NY Department of Health study, shows no relationship between tooth decay in third graders by county and the percentage of the county drinking fluoridated water. If these two indices are plotted, the curve is flat – there is no relationship! However, if you plot the same tooth decay rates against level of income, there is a very strong inverse relationship. In other words there is a far greater relationship between poverty and tooth decay than you will ever find with fluoride ingestion.
The policy is a myth and shame on those who continue to promote it. In my experience those who do so have not studied the primary literature on either health effects or effectiveness and instead are content to operate with second hand endorsements from others. That is why after 10 years of speaking out on this issue not one leading proponent of fluoridation has been prepared to debate me in public, even when invited to do so by the American College of Toxciology and the US EPA. But let me test this out one more time: I would be happy to come down to Albany and debate any proponent on this issue, if one can be found with the courage of his or her convictions. I trust the Times union will let your readers know if this happens. Meanwhile, those who want to view the whole range of arguments against this foolish policy, please go to http://www.FluorideAction.net and see the “50 reasons to Oppose Fluoridation.”
Dr. Paul Connett,
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry,
St. Lawrence University,
Canton, NY 13617
Fluoride Action Network
Most cities water is already chlorinated anyway.This is to kill germs, or most of them anyway. Like I said, flouride in water is not going to help a mouth full of rotten teeth in our children, or anything else. lets think about the Candy, Soda Pop, and many other sweets that we think is cute for our children to have. What did the children, and some adults do this past Halloween? They gathered gobs of candy, and what the kids didn’t scoff, the parents did. Nothing is going to substitute regular brushing, flossing, and regular trips to the Dentist. There are no shortcuts to dental health. If we don’t do the things mentioned above, we will get a mouth full of plaster to measure up for Dentures, or lets just call them, FALSE TEETH. Brush three times a day. Floss once a day, or if you feel anything between your teeth, and stay away from that candy, as much as you can. Also, I have used coca cola to burn the build up on my cars battery posts. You can put a nail in a jar of coke, and in time it will rot the nail. Just my opinion.
Well now, Doctor. I think you have said it all, and you certainly have the credentials to back up what we all should think about flouride in any water systems. Thank You for your expert opinion.