Canada study admits dental fluorosis problem begins with infant formula.

Judy Ritchie
 CANADIAN GOVERNMENT REPORT QUESTIONS VALUE OF WATER FLUORIDATION

    New York, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Fluoridation probably does more
damage than good, says a Canadian government report. The best solution is to
cease fluoridation, the author suggests.
    Dr. David Locker, a University of Toronto dentistry professor, reports "No
Canadian studies provide evidence that water fluoridation is effective in
reducing (tooth) decay in contemporary child populations." Locker is author of
the 2001 "Benefits and Risks of Water Fluoridation," prepared for the Ontario
Ministry of Health and Health Canada.
    "Current studies support the view that dental fluorosis has increased in
both fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities (at)... rates of 20-75% in
the former and 12-45% in the latter," Locker reports.
    Dental fluorosis -- white spotted, yellow or brown permanently stained and
sometimes pitted teeth -- can only be hidden with expensive cosmetic dentistry
not usually covered by insurance.
    Current fluoridation studies are flawed, reports Locker. Fluoride's
alleged beneficial effects are topical; ingested fluoride causes fluorosis.
    Sodium fluoride and silicofluorides are added to 62% of U.S. and 40% of
Canadian water supplies to mimic the natural calcium-fluoride community water
sources like that of the Southwest U.S.A. where researchers, in the early
1900's, unraveled the epidemic of embarrassingly brown stained teeth, that
were curiously decay resistant. Fluoride, the villain that stained teeth, was
the assumed cavity fighting superhero.
    So, in the late 1940's, officials started adding artificial fluoride to
many U.S. drinking waters to improve America's dental health. A 1981 survey
hinted they were already on the wrong track. This National Institutes of
Health Survey reported that cavities were still lowest in the Southwest
region. Over thirty years of artificial fluoridation across the U.S. should
have leveled off decay rates. But it didn't then and it hasn't since.
    "We believe the calcium and other, now, well-known bone and teeth building
minerals in the water and soils, was responsible for lower decay rates -- not
the fluoride," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition
Opposed to Fluoridation.
    "Fluoridation is a huge dangerous mistake," says Beeber.
    "Silicofluorides were never tested for safety in humans or animals, either
alone or together with other water additives," says Beeber. "Astonishingly,
the silicofluorides are the fertilizer industry's waste product and contain
trace amounts of contaminants such as arsenic, mercury, lead and more."

    Other findings from the Canadian government report are:
    *  "Efforts are required to reduce (fluoride) intake among the most
       vulnerable age groups, children aged 7 months to 4 years..."
    *  "...data on the effect on health and well-being of the relatively small
       decrease in caries rates in children and adolescents currently achieved
       by water fluoridation is non-existent."
    * "Water fluoridation, infant formulas, fluoride supplements and fluoride
      toothpaste are risk factors of dental fluorosis...The simplest way of
      reducing the prevalence of fluorosis in child populations is to cease to
      fluoridate community water supplies."

    CONTACT:  Paul Connett, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, St. Lawrence
University, Canton, N.Y., [log in to unmask]; or Paul Beeber,
President of N.Y.S. Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, [log in to unmask]

SOURCE New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

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