Tapping into the fluoride debate: How an industrial-grade chemical is taking over our water and why we should take note

Friday, June 28, 2013 by: Nanditha
Tags: fluoride, water supply, chemical waste

(NaturalNews) A 1950s-style, archaic approach to public health safety has taken over. Fluoridation of water has an overwhelmingly large body of evidence that states it is not only unnecessary, but downright unethical, ineffective and unhealthy. The purported benefits of fluoridated water are more in the general imagination than in reality because fluoride's action on the body is purely topical, not systemic. However, the negative impact of fluoride is purely systemic, and could well be topical as well. Fluoridation belongs to an era when hazardous chemicals were used under the erroneous belief that they somehow helped humanity - DDT, leaded petroleum, asbestos and PCBs, effluents being passed off as vanilla essence and BPA-laced plastics that were considered food grade among plastics.

Fluoridation is bad medical practice

Rightly so. Any outdated system of en mass medication ought to be. As a water treatment process, fluoridation is a failure because it treats the one consuming it rather than the water. The FDA accepts that fluoride is a drug, not a nutrient and hence the water that is fluoridated is actually medicated water, not nutritionally enhanced in any way or form. Many developed nations across Europe, and Japan have rejected water fluoridation because these nations are unanimous in their agreement that the public water supply is no place to be putting drugs. Toothpaste can serve us better, if fluoride is what we are after.

What then is the most important reason not to fluoridate?

Simply that it is not a safe practice. Fluoride has toxic effects and can do more harm than good, especially if one is already vulnerable due to a certain illness or health condition. Far from being the panacea to a lack of dental health, water fluoridation is causing a condition amongst children that discolors their teeth. This condition is called dental fluorosis. Diseases of the bones, such as brittle bones in the elderly or in patients with advanced forms of kidney disease are also one of the dangers of ingesting fluoridated water.

Fluoride, consumed excessively, as can be the case with fluoridated water, leads to its accumulation in the pineal gland, severely slowing down the production of melatonin, an essential hormone for optimal functioning of the body, including sleep regulation. It is also known to accumulate in other parts of the body, thereby rendering them unhealthy. Fluoride can also cause bone cancer in young men, thyroid malfunction, and arthritis in otherwise healthy humans, to name only a few.

And here's one more good reason to not fluoridate: Severe dental crises cannot be prevented by fluoridated water and this is where is starts to become a civil rights issue. The point is our water supply is under siege and it is not safe to drink from the kitchen tap anymore.

How then, can many economically backward communities afford to repair damage when they can barely afford proper health care, let alone cosmetic or systemic repair, in a day and age when even good drinking water is scarce?

Say "No" to fluoride. Now.

And as if all this is not enough, there is no agency keeping track of the side effects related to fluoride consumption. Most alarming of course, is the fact that according to sources, "there has never been a single randomized controlled trial to demonstrate fluoridations effectiveness or safety". And worst of all, fluoride remains an unapproved new drug according to the FDA.

And this, we are told, is only the tip of the iceberg.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.fannz.org.nz/

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/fluoride.cfm

http://www.fluoridealert.org/studies/caries04/

About the author:
Nanditha Prasad Ram is a consumer and health journalist and a practicing holistic therapist.
Her blog is available at http://www.bindumandalayoga.blogspot.in