What Is Fluoride?
NOTE:
The atomic symbol for the negatively charged halogen, known as fluorine, simply is "F" or "F-".
When the negatively charged ions--or anions--of fluorine gas combine with another element, a fluoride compound
is formed. If the "F" combines with sodium (Na), for instance, the compound would then be known as sodium fluoride,
or NaF. If it combines with calcium (Ca), the compound formed is calcium fluoride, or CaF.
If it combines with arsenic, it becomes AsF, and so on.
Fluoride is a trace element in nature, but man-made fluoride compounds have become very abundant, partly as a result of the development of the A-Bomb in World War II.
In the process of uranium becoming a nuclear weapon or a reactor fuel, it needs to be “enriched.”
So, uranium is enriched with fluoride and the result is called uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ).
In her book The Battle of Darkness and Light, Mary Sparrowdancer traces the beginning of uranium fission in the late 1930s by German scientists. Not surprisingly, the Nazis put on a big push to develop an A-Bomb.
She also notes the Nuremberg Trials, which had as one of their goals the reaffirming of the sanctity of life and human rights. In the trials, the atrocities of Nazi human experimentation were addressed and condemned.
“As the world breathed a sigh of relief in knowing that the Nazi health officials' experimentation on human beings had been halted in Germany, 1945 marked the year that ‘public health officials' in America began their experimentation on human beings with water fluoridation.” Why does she write “experimentation?" —Because it is a very toxic chemical and little or no testing of its long term effects had been done.
NOTE: Fluoride is more toxic than lead, and only slightly less toxic than arsenic.
“In what would turn out to be the biggest human experimentation in history, sodium fluoride—NaF—was added into America 's drinking water in selected communities under the medical claim that the ‘F' would prevent dental caries (cavities) in children. Those receiving this experimental, medicinal treatment in their drinking water received it then as they do now. They are forced to ingest it, inhale it, bathe and shower in it, whether or not they want, or even need, this toxic chemical in their bodies.” (The Battle of Darkness and Light, Mary Sparrowdancer, p.8)
Those individuals who have severe allergic reactions to, for example, penicillin, poison ivy, or peanuts are able to largely avoid these substances. Unlike these items and unlike any other medicinal compound in history, over 60 percent of Americans are unable to avoid fluoride.
The pushers of water fluoridation, depending on their level of knowledge, function from some mix of ignorance, deception, or denial. First, there are those who have not questioned what they have been told; they may have done some reading, but it is almost totally on the proponent's side; they have uncritically accepted what the “public health” people have said about the opponents being unlearned extremists who see a boogeyman behind most government projects. Then there are those who understand that there is very real, very serious controversy, and yet publicly deny that any legitimate controversy exists. Their M.O. is to deny, avoid debate, and label opponents as wild-eyed extremists. They will not admit to any side effects; their public pronouncements are lies.
Pushers of fluoridation have even said that fluoridating the water is just adjusting upwards the natural fluoride content that is already there. This is a lie.
NOTE: Calcium fluoride (CaF) is found in trace amounts in some underground water sources. Although too much CaF is harmful, compared to the silicofluoride (SiF) that is actually added, CaF is benign.
See Fluoridation, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, by Kenneth M. Howard, for information on cases of CaF harm in Texas communities.
The side effects of fluoride are now well documented; side effects so severe that even previously approved medications containing high-grade fluoride compounds have been removed from the market by the FDA. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Looking at the beginning of the campaign to fluoridate drinking water, we can and should assume good intentions on the part of some or many of the original researchers and proponents. Some complexity comes into this picture when we find out much of the early research was funded by Alcoa Aluminum Company, who had fluoride waste to sell—and recently released records show the military was anxious to put a positive face on fluoride. Problems were arising because of health damage to the A-Bomb workers and also livestock near the production plants.
The imperatives of producing an A-Bomb before the Nazis led to a devious expediency.
Understandably, an attitude of acceptable risk carried the day. This was understandable in light of the survival/defense posture created by the Japanese attack and Germany 's design for world domination. Also, there was the fact that in spite of crippled cows, etc. near the involved plants, there was the theory that fluoride in the body did not accumulate; rather, it broke into other elements which were then eliminated from the body.
NOTE: One central theory was that fluoride broke down into harmless parts and passed out of the body. Part of the complexity here is some fluoride compounds break down better than others. Calcium fluoride, found naturally in some water sources, is much less harmful than the silicofluorides used in over 90 percent of the fluoridated water systems. These types of compounds do not effectively break down, that is disassociate, but are accumulated in the body.
No one doubted the heavy toxic results of fluoride at the concentration levels in the plants and surrounding areas, but the hope was that the fluoride compound being used to fluoridate drinking water would be okay. The sad part is that the testing experiments were terminated early and water fluoridation was whitewashed. Subsequent testing was short term and used a different compound than what was being used, ultimately, in over 90 percent of the fluoridated water systems.
Higher grade sodium fluoride was used in “virtually all the extensive laboratory research on the biological properties and effects of fluoride in water…” instead of testing the silicofluorides coming from the fertilizer industry's contaminated waste products. (6) Also, for more details, see Fluoridation, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Without the money and “ostrich-like behavior” of the political heads of the agencies charged with protecting health, this kind of bait and switch science would be blasted into oblivion. The money bought research, funded grants, propaganda, and career security.
Because of a much lower cost and because of the early gross misconception and miscalculation that all fluoride compounds break down or disassociate, almost all of the fluoridated water systems use the SiF compound, which as stated, comes from the fertilizer industry and is sometimes used as the killing element in insecticides.
NOTE: Only 2 percent of Europe remains fluoridated,
and in 2003, Belgium outlawed fluoride except under a doctor's care.
Silicofluorides are some six times as potent as sodium fluoride; fluoridated toothpaste uses pharmaceutical grade sodium fluoride. Still, the toothpaste label carries a warning to not swallow the toothpaste. Yes, it is true that the fluoride in toothpaste is highly concentrated, and the silicofluorides in drinking water are highly diluted (1ppm).
This dilution greatly slows down the toxic effect of the fluoride (without getting rid of it completely) so that, as the Belgium Health Minister labeled it, it is a “slithering poison .” Its effects usually take years to show up. The effects are so subtle, that it's only after years of use that scientists have been able to connect the use of fluoride to illness and disease.
The fluoride used in over 90 percent of the fluoridated water systems is a contaminated industrial waste product—contaminated with trace amounts of lead, arsenic, mercury, etc; it is so injurious that the EPA won't permit it to be dumped on the ground or in the ocean; it is used in rat poison and in insecticides; it has been unanimously voted against by the EPA Water Safety Scientists; and it is now obvious that it slowly accumulates in the body.
All of this, plus the EPA admits it has NO long-term , chronic type studies on the safety of this water additive (SiF). The short-term tests that have been done were done with pharmaceutical grade sodium fluoride, not SiF. It is hard to overstate the level of scientific corruption this manifests.
In the beginning, some could honestly hope and believe that highly diluted fluoride would not be a health hazard to those who drank it. Yet even then, some knew better, and others should have exercised the restraints that good science demands. But today, for the proponents of water fluoridation to not recognize the serious, serious downside of fluoridated water is an unconscionable act; some are like ostriches, “hide and maybe it will go away, and I can save face.”
SiF is an industrial waste product. Because of the toxic nature of this compound, the SiF being added to drinking water would otherwise have to be disposed of by the industry that created it, and it would have to be disposed of according to the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HAZMAT). Disposal of Toxic substances under HAZMAT regulations is expensive.
This costly disposal dilemma was expertly summed up in a 1983 letter written by the EPA's Rebecca Hanmer, (formerly the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water), who stated that adding SiF to drinking water provides “…an ideal solution to a long standing problem. By recovering by-product fluorosilicic acid from fertilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized and water authorities have a low-cost source of fluoride…” (7)
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Information Services
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1. Cases, O et al, “Aggressive behavior and altered amounts of brain serotonin and norepinephrine in mice lacking MAOA.” Science, June 1995. (12/2003) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=npg&cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7792602&dopt=Abstract
2. Kaplan,JR et al, “Demonstration of an association among dietary cholesterol, centrol serotonergic activity, and social behavior in monkeys.” Psychosom Med., Nov-Dec 1994. (12/2003) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7532867&dopt=Abstract
3. http://neuropschiatryreviews.com/apr03/npr_apr03_serotonin.html
4. CNN, Halsey, Eugenia, “Obesity Drug Takes Big Step Toward Final FDA Approval,” Nov. 1995. (12/2003) http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9511/obesity_drug/
5. FDA – Fen-Phen page, “Questions and answers about Withdrawal of Fenfluramine (Pondimin) and Dexfenfluramine
(Redux).” Sept. 1997. (12/2003) http://www.fda.gov/cder/news/phen/fenphenqa2.htm
6. Masters PhD, Roger; Coplan PE, Myron, “Silicofluorides and Fluoridation,” Fluoride Journal, Vol 34, No 3., 161-164. 2001. (12/2003) http://www.fluoride-journal.com/01-34-3/343-161.pdf
7. Hirzy PhD, J William, Vice President of EPA Scientist Union, Testimony before Senate subcommittee. June 2000. (12/2003) http://www.fluoridealert.org/testimony.htm
