PEW Routinely Deceptive about Fluoride Safety

Launched in 2008, the Children’s Dental Policy arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts is using its political clout and money, coupled with misinformation and untruths, to promote fluoridation initiatives and preserve existing schemes in many cities and states.

According to Pew’s fluoridation promoter Matt Jacob (Ref 1), Pew’s outreach to states for community water fluoridation (CWF) included the following:

Arkansas: “Funded a poll and offered other assistance to pass a state mandate in 2011.”

California: “Provided assistance to a successful campaign to secure CWF in San Jose.”

Kansas: “Assisted oral health advocates in Wichita pass a fluoridation policy.” 

Mississippi: “Provided message training for oral health field staff.”

Montana: “Assisted successful effort to preserve CWF in the city of Bozeman.”

New Hampshire: “Helped defeat a statewide ban on CWF.”

 

Oregon: “Offering funds and research for a campaign in Portland."

Wisconsin: “Provided research and technical assistance to preserve CWF in Milwaukee.” 

Pew loses in Wichita and Portland However, PEW’s PR, money and devious tactics lost big time to common sense and truth in Portland Oregon and Wichita Kansas when voters rejected fluoridation in referenda in both towns with a margin of 60% to 40%. 

Buying votes In Portland the pro-fluoridation team –aided by PEW - outspent citizens opposed to fluoridation 3 to 1 and gave at least $143,000 to local minority groups who supported fluoridation. These five groups each received $20,000: Urban League of Portland, the Latino Network, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, Center for Intercultural Organizing, and the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization. The Oregon Latino Health Coalition got $5,000, while the Native American Youth and Family Center received $37,810. The Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who opposed fluoridation, received nothing (Ref 2). 

Pew hires Willam Maas In an effort to sway voters and decision makers, Pew has hired as its fluoridation adviser, dentist William Maas, former head of the CDC’s Oral Health Division. Those credentials may look impressive on paper but not in person. When grilled by the Sedgwick (KS) County Commission, he looked nervous and admitted that the so-called “mild” fluorosis (in this category 50% of the enamel of the affected teeth is impacted) occurs even in children who live in non-fluoridated communities, and then he actually claimed fluorosis is attractive.  (Watch the hearing – Maas speaks at 31:00 minutes).
This remark angered a Sedgwick Commissioner who says others may not find it so attractive. The Sedgwick Commissioner was right. Studies have repeatedly found that children find teeth with so-called “mild” fluorosis to be objectionable – a point that even the CDC, Maas’s old boss, has conceded.

The Sedgwick Commissioner added:

 “If I found on my daughter’s teeth a substance that is abnormal, caused by chemicals introduced in our water supply … I’d be beyond irritated,” Skelton said. “I would wonder what internal effects would be going on, what kind of white spots is she going to have on her bones, etc. That’s a symptom of something larger, sir (Ref 3).” 

Pew spokesperson Bill Maas insults opponent but won’t debate
In another appearance in Wichita a citizen asked Maas if he would debate the head of FAN, retired environmental chemistry Professor Paul Connett. He refused saying that Connett was a brilliant debater and he (Maas) had only given about 6 public presentations. But then he added that Connett was “the leader of misinformation on this issue in the country.” This didn’t sit well with citizens at the meeting, most recognizing that you shouldn’t insult someone if you are not prepared to take that person on in public when challenged. 

Pew continues to mislead the public on the Harvard IQ study
In the Pew Children's Dental Campaign October 2013 letter to Des Moines Water Works (Ref 4) Shelly Gehshan, Director, Children’s Dental Policy continues to misrepresent and misreport the fluoride/IQ studies conducted by a Harvard team (Choi et al., 2012) even though FAN and others have corrected her misrepresentations in media release. Gehshan wrote the essentially the same misinformation in a July 2013 letter to The Dalles (Oregon)


Pew’s Gehshan confuses concentration and dose
Ms. Gehshan writes that the “levels of fluoride in the water” (i.e. concentration) in the IQ studies were at least “four or five times higher than the level used to fluoridate water in Des Moines” (Ref 4) thus continuing to confuse the difference between concentration (measured in mg of fluoride per liter) and dose (measured in mg fluoride ingested per day). The latter depends upon how much water people drink and how much fluoride they get from other sources. 
According to Paul Connett, “An above average water drinker in a fluoridated community, and also getting fluoride from other sources, could easily get more fluoride than a below average water consumer in several of the Chinese studies.”

The need for margin of safety ignored by Gehshan Connett adds, “To make matters worse Gehshan’s simplistic comparison ignored the larger concern for the need to apply a margin of safety to a dose that has been found to cause harm in order to protect the most vulnerable children in a large population. For this a safety factor of 10 is usually chosen. The job of people in regulatory agencies is to make sure they are protecting everyone not just the average person. Gehshan should know that.”

A false charge Gehshan also repeated the false charge that “the Harvard researchers [Grandjean and Choi] publicly distanced themselves from the way that anti-fluoride groups were misrepresenting these IQ studies.” In actual fact Choi and Grandjean tried to distance themselves from comments made by a Wichita journalist who claimed that the Harvard team thought the study was irrelevant to U.S. populations.

The truth, Grandjean writes, is that "only 4 of 27 studies" in the Harvard review used had high water fluoride levels, and "clear differences" in IQ "were found at much lower exposures."

In his new book, "Only One Chance: How Environmental Pollution Impairs Brain Development, Grandjean says fluoride is a brain-toxic chemical that may lower the intelligence of generations of children.

More distortion by Pew in Portland

One of the first tactics of fluoridation promotion, as advised by Pew’s PR fluoridation specialist Matt Jacob, is to identify a problem and lead with a need.   So Portland fluoridation promoters claimed that non-fluoridated Portland has more tooth decay than fluoridated portions of Oregon.  An  ABC-TV investigative reporter looked into this claim and found it to be untrue.  In fact, non-fluoridated Portland children actually have less tooth decay than those in fluoridated areas.

Pew sullying its reputation For many people who have respected the Pew Charitable Trusts on other issues, its cavalier disregard of the possibility that a practice that Pew is advocating – in the name of improving children’s health - may actually be lowering children’s IQ is very disturbing. Especially so since this Foundation claims on its website:

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.

 

Where are they now?

Pew hired Salter Mitchell a PR firm to teach them strategy and created this website http://www.ilikemyteeth.org/ but this site is now under the umbrella of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Matt Jacob is now with the Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) https://www.cdhp.org/team/matt  Hopefully, the CDHP will be more careful about what Jacob says in their name about fluoridation. 

In conclusion The problem when advocates - with a lot of money to spend - hire a PR firm to present their side of the story is that truth and honest science go out of the window. Winning is everything. That’s what the PR firm is paid to do. That is what Pew is trying to do. But citizen power is capable of beating this “machine” when the truth is on their side and they are prepared to organize as the citizens in Wichita and Portland did. FAN was pleased to help.

Carol S. Kopf, Media Director Fluoride Action Network

www.FluorideAlert.org

 

Please help FAN to help more communities. Donate today!

 

Reference:

1. Jacob, 2012. Matt Jacob. A Prevention Agenda to Improve Children’s Oral Health, Florida Oral Health Conference, August 23, 2012. The Pew Center on the States. PowerPoint, page 33. 2. The Tooth Fairy: Minority groups backing Portland’s pro-fluoride measure have received $143,000 in payments from the campaign, by Nigel Jaquiss, Williamette Week (Portland), April 24, 2013.
3. Health aspects of fluoridated water debated at Sedgwick County meeting, By Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle, October 17, 2011.
4. Shelly Gershan. 2013. Letter to Des Moines Water Works, Iowa. October 15.

Fluoridation Fails; America’s Cavity Crisis Escalates, by Carol S. Kopf, BS, MA

Fluoridation Fails as America’s Cavity Crisis Escalates, by Carol S. Kopf, BS, MA

Tooth decay is a growing US epidemic (1) despite almost 7 decades of water fluoridation reaching record numbers of Americans and despite fluoridated toothpaste occuping 95% of the market.

While fluoride-overdose symptoms (discolored teeth or dental fluorosis) escalate fluoride isn’t doing much to prevent cavities. The CDC reports that up to 60% of US adolescents are afflicted with dental fluorosis. Yet,  51% have cavities, even though 41% of them have sealants.

Unrelated to and despite fluoridation, tooth decay is clearly a disease of poverty and malnutrition. In fact, new research indicates that people living in areas with fluoridated water and/or using fluoride toothpaste still get cavities and that, when less than 10% of total calories in the diet is made up of free sugars, there are much lower levels of tooth decay.

Fluoridation was implemented to preserve teeth, save money and put dentists out of business.  But none of that happened. Only politics and money keeps fluoridation alive. Science doesn’t.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, employment of dentists is expected to grow by 21 percent from 2010 to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations.

Over a quarter (28%) of US 2-5 year-olds have tooth decay - a 15% jump from a decade earlier (2) Fluoridation even fails to protect low income children – 48% of preschoolers from low-income households experienced tooth decay and 35% had untreated cavities (compared to 11.4% and 6% of preschoolers from higher income households, respectively) (1b)

An astounding 44% of all five-year-olds have cavities (3)

To compare, only 25% of England’s five-year-olds have cavities (4) yet, only 11% of England’s water supplies are fluoridated and children’s toothpaste is sold at half the fluoride concentration of US brands.

In Japan, children's tooth decay is falling sharply where both the water and toothpaste is not fluoridated and fluoride supplements are not prescribed.

In Ireland, where fluoridation is mandated country-wide, "Irish dental surgeries are 'brimming' with children showing signs of irreparable tooth decay because of their intake of sugary drinks and treats.

The US lags behind 10 other, mostly non-fluoridated, peer countries in cavity rates, according to WHO statistics. (4a) And, a state of decay flourishes among older Americans, according to a report by Oral Health America. (1a)

In Connecticut, the 4th richest state, fluoridation is state-mandated since the 1960’s. Yet, 35% of white children, 50% of African American and 50% of Hispanic children have cavities – even though 42%, 35% and 49% have dental sealants, respectively. Up to 57% of low-income third graders have tooth decay, 18% untreated, despite an increase in Medicaid utilization. (4b) The CDC gave the state of Connecticut a $1.5 million grant to improve dental health in September 2013.

In Minnesota, where fluoridation is also state mandated, 72% of low-income third-graders have tooth decay compared to 46% of non-poor. Between 2007 and 2010, Minnesota reported $148 million in emergency charges for preventable, non-traumatic dental care.  (4c)

In Oregon, 52% of first, second and third graders in fluoridated areas had one or more cavities but only 48% in the non-fluoridated Oregon city of Portland. (4d)

Published research shows that Kentucky, the most fluoridated state (99.9%) exceeds the US average for dental health problems as 13% of adults aged over 18 years are missing all of their teeth, compared to 6% nationally, placing Kentucky as the nation’s highest percentage of toothless persons.  

Forty-three percent of Kentucky’s under five-year-olds have severe early childhood dental decay. And, 50% of second graders and nearly 75% of 15 year olds in Kentucky have cavities.

In fact, after fluoridation was state mandated in Kentucky, tooth decay rates doubled.

The New York Times reported that dentists across the US say they are seeing more preschoolers at all income levels with 6 to 10 cavities or more (5)  CBS reported that "More preschoolers are showing up to dentists with 10 cavities or more.” (5a)

“’We have had a huge increase in kids going to the operating room,’ said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist in Augusta, Me., and a spokesman for the American Dental Association. ‘We’re treating more kids more aggressively earlier,’” reported the NY Times.

In fact, the more highly fluoridated New York State counties have a greater number of 3- to 5-year-olds making tooth decay emergency department visits when compared to non-fluoridated counties. (See Below**)

Dental-related hospital emergency care more than doubled from 2000 to 2010, from 1 million to 2.3 million, and that doesn’t include seniors 65 and older (National Center for Health Statistics).(7)  The highest number were for 18-44 year-olds.

The Pew Foundation estimates that preventable dental conditions were the primary diagnosis in 830,590 visits to ERs nationwide in 2009—a 16 percent increase from 2006. (8 )

Between 2000-2008 there were 61,439 hospitalizations for tooth infections in the US, an increase of 41% from 2000 to 2008.  Sixty-six died; 89% occurred on an emergency/urgent basis; average age - 37 years-old.(Journal of Endodontics) (9)

Average annual out-of-pocket costs for dental services in the U.S. rose 26% from 1996 to 2010. (9a)

General Accounting Office (GAO) reported in 2008, “Extent of Dental Disease in Children Has Not Decreased, and Millions Are Estimated to Have Untreated Tooth Decay.” GAO estimates that 6.5 million children aged 2 through 18 in Medicaid had untreated tooth decay.

Tooth decal crises are occurring in all fluoridated cities and states. Americans are fluoride-overdosed and dentist-deficient. 

TOOTHLESS IN AMERICA

The most highly fluoridated US states are home to residents with the fewest teeth. For example,

Nationally, 16% of low-income non-elderly American adults (aged 18-64) lost six or more teeth, according to The Commonwealth Fund report, (10)  

The report, ”Health Care in the Two Americas," found big gaps between the lowest- and highest-performing states. For instance, low-income adults in 92% fluoridated West Virginia are far more likely to lose six or more teeth to decay or disease compared to 11% fluoridated Hawaii and 33% fluoridated Utah.(11)

Thirty-four percent of low-income older adults (65-74) lost all their teeth compared to 13% of non-poor. (National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief No. 104, August 2012) (12) Not counting wisdom teeth, 71% of adults, age 45-64, don’t have a full set of teeth. This includes 81% of Hispanics, 89% of Blacks and 65% of whites. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings introduced legislation addressing this dental crisis. The bills – which would expand dental coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the Department of Veterans Affairs and increase the dental work force – were filed one week after a new government study documented skyrocketing costs and limited access to dental care. (13)

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that Americans spent about $108 billion on dentists in an inflation-adjusted increase from $64 billion in 1996. Forty-two percent of adults with tooth or mouth problems did not see a dentist in 2008 because they did not have dental insurance or could not afford the out-of-pocket payments.  And 4 million children did not obtain needed dental care because their families could not afford it.(14)

GAO's analysis showed that average annual dental out-of-pocket payments increased 26 percent, adjusted for inflation – 21% for the privately insured and 32% for the non-insured.  

In 2007, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver’s death from an untreated cavity, that festered and grew to attack his brain, first brought this dentist-deficiency to the nation’s attention. About two dozen dentists refused to treat him and $250,000 in public funds and a two week hospital stay couldn’t save his life. We’ve now learned that at least 66 Americans died in hospitals because of untreated tooth decay.(15)

Fluoridation Wastes Time and Money

Despite way too many money- and time-wasting conferences, congressional hearings, meetings, symposiums, reports, press conferences, studies and coalition-building among and between government agencies,  industry and organized dentistry including hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on fluoridation schemes throughout the country, very little has alleviated America's rotting teeth and rotting dental care industry.

Organized dentistry peddles more fluoride, making their corporate sponsors wealthier. But they continue to lobby against viable solutions such as Dental Therapists, which are to dentists what physicians’ assistants are to physicians.  Dental Therapists have worked successfully for decades in other first world countries with two years’ training. Only a well-funded persistent dental lobby keeps them from working more extensively in the US.

   

Fluoridation began in the 1945 when it was virtually the only fluoride source. Now fluoridated toothpaste is 95% of the market and is a multi-billion dollar international money-maker for powerful corporations. A myriad of fluoride dental products is on the market.  So it’s no wonder that the US Centers for Disease Control now reports that up to 60% of adolescents are fluoride-overdosed and afflicted with dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth. Yet, 51% of them still have tooth decay.

                                                                                          

*92% of West Virginia is fluoridated;  92% of Tennessee; 80% of Alabama; 55% of Mississippi, and 99.9% of Kentucky)

**In 75% fluoridated New York State, 66 per 10,000 tooth decay emergency department (ED) visits were made by 3-5 year olds.  But, in the non-fluoridated counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Rockland, the rate is much lower (23, 45 and 25 respectively) ED visits per 10,000 (ages 3-5) in highly water fluoridated counties, Monroe, Erie, Chemung, Broome, Wayne, and Ontario is 102, 66, 69, 182, 92, and 82, respectively.

Reference:

1)     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/americas-hidden-epidemic_b_3964228.html

1a) http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/2013/10/a-state-of-decay-flourishes-among-older-americans-according-to-oral-health-report.html?cmpid=EnlProdOctober92013

2)  http://www.cdhp.org/system/files/3.%20CDHP%20Issue%20Brief%20Early%20Childhood%20Caries%20Trend%20Upward.pdf

3) http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2012/11_0219.htm

4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24162248

4a) http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13497&page=61

4b) http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/oral_health/pdf/oral_health_ct_2012_rev.pdf

4c) http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/chp/oralhealth/oralhealthplan.html

4d) http://www.katu.com/news/problemsolver/Before-you-vote-Fluoride-and-kids-teeth---what-does-the-data-show-204717991.html

  

5) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/health/rise-in-preschool-cavities-prompts-anesthesia-use.html?scp=1&sq=dentaquest%20institute&st=cse&_r=0

5a) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57391527-10391704/more-preschoolers-showing-up-to-dentists-with-10-cavities-or-more-says-report/

6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22207670

7) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6238a8.htm?s_cid=mm6238a8_e

8) http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/A%20Costly%20Dental%20Destination(1).pdf

9) http://www.thedentalelf.net/2013/08/26/study-suggests-an-increasing-number-of-americans-are-being-hospitalised-with-periapical-abscesses/#sthash.PQys2EUW.dpuf

9a) http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=314421

10) http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Fund-Reports/2013/Sep/Low-Income-Scorecard.aspx

11) http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/097723e8446247a28628335b0dadd7c1/WV--Low-Income-Health-WVa

12) http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db104.htm

13)  http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-cummings-introduce-bills-to-address-dental-crisis

14) http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-754

15) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/deamonte-drivers-dental-care_b_831705.html

16) https://iadr.confex.com/iadr/2007orleans/techprogram/abstract_93552.htm

Pew Foundation Misleads Legislators about Fluoride

A 7/2/2013 letter signed by Shelly Gehshan of the Pew Foundation to The Dalles, Oregon, Mayor and City Council contains many falsehoods. The most egregious is her dismissal of  Harvard research showing a link between fluoride and lower IQ.  Gehshan wrote the following:

“anti-fluoride groups claim that fluoride causes lower IQ scores in children, but many of the studies they cite were from areas in China, Mongolia and Iran in which the natural fluoride levels were at least four or five times higher than the level used to fluoridate water in The Dalles.  One study including fluoride levels that reached as high as 11.5 milligrams per liter – a concentration that is roughly 10 times higher than the level that is used to fluoridate American communities. In addition, the Harvard researchers who examined these IQ studies found that each of the studies “had deficiencies, in some cases rather serious, which limit the conclusions that can be drawn.” 17 Furthermore, the Harvard researchers publicly distanced themselves from the way that anti-fluoride groups were misrepresenting these IQ studies.18  Anti-fluoride groups also ignore historical evidence that undermines their claim – between the 1940s and the 1990s, the average IQ scores of Americans improved 15 points while fluoridation steadily expanded to serve millions of additional people 19.”

When Gehshan writes, “the Harvard researchers (Grandjean et. al)  publicly distanced themselves from the way that anti-fluoride groups were misrepresenting these IQ studies,” she uses an error-laden Wichita KS newspaper article as a reference which some believe was ghost-written by Pew’s fluoridation Public Relations employee.  

The truth is that Harvard scientist, Philippe Grandjean, MD, states the newspaper never "checked their information with the authors, even though statements were attributed to them."

Dr. Philippe Grandjean, the senior scientist on the Harvard team, criticized the Wichita paper for deceptively attributing its own conclusions on fluoridation to the Harvard scientists. Fluoridation's potential to produce "chemical brain drain," Grandjean writes, is an issue that "definitely deserves concern."

Grandjean also takes objection to the Wichita paper's claim that the Harvard review only looked at studies that used "very high levels of fluoride." The Wichita paper conveyed this impression by focusing on a single, cherry-picked study (Hu 1989) that was never published, nor even included in the Harvard review.

The truth, Grandjean writes, is that "only 4 of 27 studies" in the Harvard review used the high levels that the Wichita paper described, and "clear differences" in IQ "were found at much lower exposures."

Grandjean identifies fluoride is one of 213 known brain-toxic chemicals that may lower the intelligence of generations of children, in his new book, “Only One Chance: How Environmental Pollution Impairs Brain Development,”

EPA lists fluoride as having “Substantial Evidence of Developmental Neurotoxicity.”

When environmental chemicals affect developing brains, children risk cognitive deficits, learning disabilities, mental retardation, ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, and other disorders that will remain for a lifetime, says Grandjean. 

“Fluorides are known to cause brain toxicity and neurological symptoms in humans,” Dr. Grandjean says. He laments that vested interests often manipulate brain-drain research and manufacture uncertainties to wrongly discredit scientists’ conclusions and credibility.

 

Vested interests caused decades to pass before children were protected from the brain-damaging effects of lead exposure reported in the literature. We unnecessarily lost a generation to lead-induced brain damage, reports Grandjean.

When Grandjean’s research team published a careful review of studies (meta-analysis) linking fluoride to children’s lower IQ, worried fluoridation promoters and regulators immediately and incorrectly claimed that only excessive exposures are toxic, the effect is insignificant, decades of fluoridation would have revealed brain deficits (although nobody looked, yet), and that it was probably lead and arsenic that lowered IQ, not fluoride.  Example here

“When such a misleading fuselage is aimed at the authors of a careful meta-analysis of 27 different studies, what would it take to convince critics like that,” asks Grandjean.

Thirty-seven human studies now link fluoride to children's lowered IQ, some at levels considered safe in the US. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/articles/iq-facts/ and that no research on fluoride’s human brain effects have ever been conducted in the US

We don’t understand why Pew continues to distort the truth. 

Fluoride – A Review of Year 2012

Fluoridation, the addition of fluoride chemicals into public water supplies, began 68 years ago promising to eradicate tooth decay, lower dental bills, and put dentists out of business.

Instead, tooth decay rates and dental bills are rising, more dental professionals were created, more dental schools opened, both fluoridated dental products and tooth decay have become multi-billion dollar international industries. And fluoride-overdose, dental fluorosis, is the new epidemic facing America’s children, along with UNtreated tooth decay.

The following fluoride-related stories occurred in 2012 adding to the alarming body of evidence proving fluoridation is not safe, not effective and not wanted:

-- Wichita Kansas voters Rejected Fluoridation, 60% to 40% despite a well-funded, stealth lobbying campaign by fluoridationists.

-- Portland, Oregon residents halted the ill-advised, secretly-planned fluoridation mandate after collecting over 40,000 valid petition signatures in one  month to force a May 2013 referendum instead (Portlanders defeated fluoridation in 2013)

-- Windsor, Ontario, Canada stopped 51 years of fluoridation.  The number of people drinking fluoridated water in Canada has dropped by about 25% since 2008.

-- New Hampshire Passes First State-Wide Fluoride Warning Law  “if your child under the age of 6 months is exclusively consuming infant formula reconstituted with fluoridated water, there may be an increased chance of dental fluorosis.”

-- Arsenic in fluoridation chemicals costs society $1 – 6 billion in medical

costs, according to research published in Environmental Science & Policy

-- Dr. Yolanda Whyte, a primary care pediatrician, explains why she no  longer supports water fluoridation in this Fluoride Action Network (FAN) video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iu9HzaVbWQ

-- FluorideGate – An American Tragedy by David Kennedy, DDS - This new documentary exposes the scientific fraud behind the promotion of water fluoridation

-- "fluoridation rates were not significantly related to the measures of either  caries or overall condition of the teeth for urban or rural areas." ((West Virginia University Rural Health Research Center, 2012 )

-- 37 studies link fluoride to reduced IQ in human populations. FAN located obtained, and — in many cases — translated these studies.  FAN also identified dozens of other studies which correlate fluoride exposure with

impaired learning and memory, altered neurobehavioral function, fetal brain damage, and altered thyroid hormone levels.

-- Harvard researchers’ review of fluoride/brain studies “support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children’s neurodevelopment.” (Environmental Health Perspectives). Co-author Grandjean says, “Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain.”

Fluoridationists continually misrepresent this research. So, Grandjean corrects them on his own blog, “Chemical brain drain should not be disregarded. The average IQ deficit in children exposed to increased levels of fluoride in drinking water was found to correspond to about 7 points – a sizable difference. To which extent this risk applies to fluoridation in Wichita or Portland or elsewhere is uncertain, but definitely deserves concern.”

-- Vandenberg et al. include sodium fluoride in a list of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) with low-dose effects. They noted the EDC action of sodium fluoride as: “Inhibits insulin secretion, PTH, TH.” [parathyroid hormone, thyroid hormone]

-- Crescent City, California stops fluoridation partially because no fluoridation chemical manufacturer or distributor could provide required safety studies. They join fluoridation-free Poughkeepsie, NY; Selmer, Tennessee and the Carroll-Boone Water District employees, Arkansas in asking for but failing to receive this necessary documentation.

-- Nidel Law Re-files Case For Injury From Fluoridated Drinking Water

-- “the average number of decayed, missing or filled teeth in 12-year-olds was higher in the United States than in 11 peer countries (and three nonpeer countries)” behind 13 countries that do not fluoridate public water supplies according to a National Research Report .

-- Dentists are trained to use politics and not science to promote water fluoridation, according to a Journal of the American Dental Association article. The authors write: "Studies of dentists' attitudes about water fluoridation suggest that a lack of knowledge and preparedness are barriers to discussing the topic ... more than one-half of the respondents believed they needed more information and training on the issue…Dentists’ lack of self-efficacy with respect to critically evaluating scientific literature may help to explain their reluctance to promote fluoridation”

-- Public Relations fluoridation-promoter strategist, Matt Jacob paid by the Pew Foundation, teaches fluoridationists to focus on teeth and not health. “Opponents are likely to win if the dialogue is trapped” on Harms and Risks, he says.

-- New York City Fluoridation Opposition Rally held by Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. on city hall steps. Local school children studied the issue and protest the continued addition of fluoride chemicals into their bodies via NYC’s water supply without their consent.

-- At least Four New Jersey County legislatures passed resolutions opposing NJ’s proposed but abandoned fluoridation mandate bill

-- ABC-TV, Durham NC reports How Safe is Fluoride in Your Water?

“As the I-Team dug into the science behind the fluoride controversy, we found study after study dating back to the 80s from respected academic and scientific institutions that connect fluoride to health dangers.”

-- Exposure to fluoride suppresses the production of certain cells that resorb bone, and account for osteosclerosis, an increase in bone density, the major clinical manifestation of skeletal fluorosis, according to a report in the journal Fluoride  (Vol. 45, No. 2, 2012)

-- Postmenopausal women drinking water with 2.0 parts per million fluoride suffered significantly greater oxidative stress on their bones than women drinking water in a village with a low amount of fluoride, researchers reported in the same issue of the journal Fluoride (pp. 108-115).

--- “Some infant foods/drinks, when reconstituted with fluoridated water, may result in a F intake in infants above the suggested optimum range and therefore may put infants at risk of developing dental fluorosis”  Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology,

-- Captive New Zealand zoo frogs living in ponds of fluoridated water (0.94 ppm) suffered increased rates of bone disease, “consistent with skeletal fluorosis” and mortality according to published research 

In 2012, the following joined hundreds of communities that stopped or rejected fluoridation:

U.S.A.

St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin  

Balsam Lake, Wisconsin   

Pine Island, Florida

Milton, Florida        

Bradford, Vermont  

Romulus, New York          

Pulaski, New York

Wichita, Kansas

Harvard, Nebraska  

Crescent City, California    

Lake View, Iowa

Cassadaga and Lily Dale, New York

Santa Fe, New Mexico      

Argos, Indiana        

Walkerton, Indiana  

North Liberty, Indiana        

Lakeville, Indiana    

Bassett, Nebraska  

Palisade, Colorado

Pevely, Missouri

Albuquerque, New Mexico

West Manheim, Pennsylvania      

Bourbon, Indiana              

Bolivar, Missouri     

Myerstown, Pennsylvania

O’Fallon, Missouri

Smithville, Missouri

Canada

Windsor, Ontario, (includes LaSalle and Tecumseh )

Kirkland Lake, Ontario

Orillia, Ontario

Rosetown, Saskatchewan

Okotoks, Alberta,

Amherstburg, Ontario

Becancour, Quebec

Wynyard, Saskatchewan

Australia

Burdekin, Queensland

Bundaberg region, Queensland

Cairns, Queensland,

North and South Burnett, Queensland

Blackbutt, Queensland

Nanango, Queensland

Kingaroy, Queensland

Wondai, Queensland

Murgon, Queensland

Cunnamulla, Queensland

Fraser Coast, Queensland

Tablelands, Queensland

Carnavon

Domadgee

New Zealand

Waipukurau, New Zealand

         

Curacao       (The entire country)