Fluoride's Link to Kidney Disease is 100 Years Old, Researcher Reports

A new study by Mt. Sinai School of Medicine researchers reports fluoride may diminish kidney function; but that’s not new.  A review of nearly 100 years of research shows excess fluoride leads to kidney damage and dysfunction was  published in Human and Experimental Toxicology, by  RW Dammarane in 2018.

Dammarane lists 45 studies which show with certainty that there are toxic effects of excess fluorides on animal kidneys and 21 studies confirm the toxic effects of fluoride on human kidneys.

Dammarane writes, “In humans, fluoride intake of more than 6 mg per day can lead to retention of fluoride in the kidneys.”

Alarmingly, studies already show adults can reach 6.6 mg/day from all sources when their water is fluoridated at “optimal” (0.7 to 1.2 mg/L) levels, according to a  US Health and Human Services 1991 report.  Brewed tea, alone, can contain up to 6 mg/liter of fluoride. (National Academies 1997)

Governments purposely add artificial fluoride chemicals  (e.g. hydrofluosilicic acid, sodium fluoride), at great expense, into drinking water in a failed attempt to reduce tooth decay, especially in the poor.  Despite 74 years of fluoridation and soaring rates of fluoride overdose (dental fluorosis or discolored teeth) “Disparity  has doubled in the past 2 decades”

Children retain more fluoride than adults. They are vulnerable to fluoride as low as 2 parts per million (ppm)  in the drinking water and more prone to develop a sick kidney in adulthood, Dammarane explains. Kidney disease can go undetected until it is very advanced. The US EPA allows fluoride to contaminate public water supplies up to 4 ppm.

Fluoridation protectionists claim the concentration of fluoride chemicals added to drinking water is too low to damage the kidney.  Ignored is that kidney impairment is caused by total fluoride intake from all sources – not just water - and that the kidneys accumulate more fluoride than any other organ in the body.

Fluoride is present in virtually all foods and beverages from pesticide residues and because fluoridated water is used in the processing. Some are naturally high in fluoride e.g. tea and ocean fish.  Fluoride content of some foods are listed here by the USDA.  There is no dispute that too much fluoride damages bones and children’s teeth and children’s intake should be monitored; but it never is.

For decades, government and private agencies express concern for fluoride’s kidney effects but fail to adequately notify the public.

The National Kidney Foundation withdrew its support of water fluoridation citing the 2006 National Research Council fluoride report indicating that kidney patients are more susceptible to fluoride’s bone and teeth-damaging effects.

The American Dental Association reports in its Fluoridation Facts booklet “decreased fluoride removal may occur among persons with severely impaired kidney function who may not be on kidney dialysis.”

A 1990 New York State  Department of Health report alerted bureaucrats that “individuals with renal insufficiency who consume large volumes of naturally fluoridated water at 2 to 8 mg/1 are possibly at increased risk of developing skeletal fluorosis. Studies on the effects of fluoride in individuals with renal insufficiency are needed.” But they haven’t been done.

“Certain populations, such as patients with kidney disease, may be especially sensitive to fluoride exposure,” according to Toxicological Profile for Fluorides, Hydrogen Fluoride and Fluorine, (US Department of Health and Human Services 2003)

US Centers for Disease personnel privately express concern about fluoride’s kidney effects, according to Freedom of Information requests.

In 1980, a Virginia Department of Health toxicologist  wrote in his ignored (and oddly lost report) “Where the kidney is concerned persons with impaired kidney function may suffer from acute fluoride toxicity when consuming water containing as little as 2 ppm fluoride.”

 “The National Kidney Foundation in its ‘Position Paper on Fluoride - 1980’ as well as the Kidney Health Australia express concern about fluoride retention in kidney patients. They caution physicians to monitor the fluoride intake of patients with advanced stages of kidney diseases,” according to “Fluoridation of Drinking Water and Chronic Kidney Disease: Absence of Evidence is Not the Evidence of Absence,” by Schiffli,  published in  Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2008

 “A number of prominent scientists including Nobel Prize winners too have warned about inhibition and poisonous activity of fluoride on the kidney and other enzymes, based on their chemical and enzymological research,” Dammarane writes.

Fluoride isn’t a nutrient or required for healthy teeth.  Consuming a fluoride-free diet doesn’t cause tooth decay.  But there is no dispute that ingesting too much fluoride can damage bones and children’s teeth and now possibly kidneys. 

Journalists must stop being fearful of providing their readers with the truth about fluoride’s toxic effects to some people instead of protecting fluoride, fluoridation and fluoridationists,

Further, it’s clear that water fluoridation concentration has nothing to do with an individual’s fluoride dose from all sources. There is no dispute that too much fluoride is health-damaging Fluoridation is an outdated public health blunder that needs to stop

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