A dentist’s perspective > (5 min.)
Fluoride is a toxic drug dispensed to 70% of Americans without a prescription, without dosage control and without informed consent.
It is as bad for your plants as it is for you.
SUMMARY
Over the last 40 years, dental health has steadily improved due to better dental care. Fluoride proponents point to that trend to support fluoridation of drinking water.
What is the reason fluoride is added to water? The claim is that it reduces tooth decay. Evidence shows otherwise.
Most countries, including in Europe, do not fluoridate. Comparing decay rates between populations exposed to fluoridated water and those whose drinking water does not contain fluoride, shows there is no significant difference in tooth decay. After decades of insisting otherwise, proponents now admit that drinking fluoride does nothing to protect the teeth anyway. Only topical (surface) application (using fluoride toothpaste, or by a dentist) makes any difference.
Unlike the fluoride added to toothpaste, the fluoride added to water in the USA is NOT pharmaceutical-grade. It comes from the unprocessed wastes of the fertilizer, nuclear, aluminum or pesticide industries. For example, the phosphate industry produces toxic gas as a by-product of the production of commercial fertilizer. In the past, the gases destroyed surrounding vegetation & crops and crippled livestock. Now, smokestack scrubbers remove the gases from the emissions. The residue sludge contains fluoride, arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals. It is considered a highly toxic pollutant, so it is not allowed to be dumped on the ground or in the ocean, lakes or rivers. In a bizarre twist of logic, by selling it as a product, all the rules about proper disposal or treatment are by-passed, and it is then put directly into our drinking water. In effect, your taxes and municipal water bill pay the disposal costs for the fertilizer plant, and you then dispose of the toxic waste by drinking it and storing it in your body. Such a deal.
Fluoride toxicity is about half way between lead and arsenic. If you have a fluoride toothpaste tube, the drug facts say “do not swallow”, and if you do you should contact poison control immediately. The pea sized recommended amount of toothpaste contains the same dose of fluoride as a glass of fluoridated water. (It is called a toxic drug–don’t swallow–in toothpaste, but not a word in water: drink as much as you like.)
A drug is a substance used to treat you for medical purposes. Adding drugs to water is a bad idea. Different people react differently to the same dose. In addition, the elderly are sensitive to overdoses, children require smaller doses, infants even less if any at all. [In 2006, the ADA finally recognized that babies should ingest NO fluoride, yet they hide that in the finest print on their website; most parents are unaware. Grocery stores carry bottled water labeled for infants, with fluoride added.] Adding fluoride to drinking water means everyone gets an unknown dose of a drug depending on how much water they drink.
Would you listen to a doctor who does not know you, who does not know your medical history, who has never examined you, and says take a prescription drug known to be toxic for the rest of your life, take as much or as little as you like and don’t think about side effects? Do you want someone who is NOT a doctor to force you, without your knowledge or consent, to take an unknown amount of that drug every day for the rest of your life? Never mind that you should only be able to get it with a doctor’s prescription. Pharmacology is all about getting the right dose to the right person at the right time.
Water fluoridation gives the wrong dose to everyone all the time.
Adding fluoride to water also affects other foods that use water (soup, coffee & tea, re-constituted juice, soda, beer & alcoholic beverages, anything where water is added during processing, etc.). Many bottled waters either add more fluoride, or are just filtered tap water with fluoride already in it. Anything cooked in water like pasta, grains, beans or vegetables will absorb fluoride. Baby food and formula will contain fluoride. Fluoride is readily absorbed through the skin during washing. If you use a swimming pool that is filled with city water: more fluoride. Many pesticides contain fluoride because it is so toxic. Residue remains on food–another source of fluoride.
Once fluoride is added to water it is very difficult to remove. A standard carbon filter does NOT remove fluoride.