Fluoride Is Poison, Says Dartmouth Doctor

New evidence seems to confirm that by fluoridating our water, we are poisoning our children.

By Tom Valentine

More than two years ago, the court-killed Spotlight wrote about George Glasser, a citizen researcher who blew the whistle on the use of highly-toxic fluorosilicic acid from rock fertilizer processing as the primary source of community water fluoridation.

Now, a massive study of young children who have been subjected to fluorosilicic acid fluoridation in their New York communities shows that the water additive does not improve kids’ teeth and could even be poisoning them.

Until that time, most people were under the impression that water fluoridation used sodium fluoride, rat poison, a by-product of aluminum manufacturing.

Glasser, however, pointed out that more than 75 percent of the U.S. water fluoridation communities have been using the even more toxic fluorosilicic acid since the late 1970s.

Glasser was the first to stress the excessive toxicity inherent in using the hydrofluorosilicic acid residue that is removed from the industrial pollution control “scrubbers” in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers.

The chemists refer to this material as silicofluorides and have now conclusively shown that the fluoridation material is linked to other heavy metal toxins that are found in drinking water—lead, arsenic, aluminum and cadmium for example.

In the March 2001 issue of the journal Neuro Toxicology, a team of researchers led by Dr. Roger Masters of Dartmouth College reported evidence that public drinking water fluoridated with fluorosilicic acid is linked to higher levels of lead in children.

After pointing out that since 1992 only about 10 percent of America’s fluoridated communities use sodium fluoride and 90 percent use fluorosilicic acid, the researchers stated that about 140 million Americans have this chemical placed in their water.

They also pointed out that sodium fluoride was tested on animals and approved for human consumption, but fluorosilicic acid had not been so tested and approved.

The research team studied the blood-lead levels in more than 400,000 children in three different samplings. In each case they found a significant link between fluorosilicic acid-treated water and elevated blood levels of lead.

In the latest study, the blood levels of about 150,000 children ranging in ages from infant to 6 were analyzed.

The samples were collected by the New York State Department of Children’s Health from 1994 through 1998.

Researchers concluded that the fluorosilicic acid-treated water was equal to or worse a contributor of blood-lead levels as old house paint.

Dr. Masters said these preliminary findings correlate the fluorosilicic acid water treatment and behavior problems that are due to known effects of lead on brain chemistry.

Additionally, a study in Germany showed the fluorosilicic acid water (SiFs) may inhibit the enzyme cholinesterase which plays a key role in regulating neurotransmitters.

“If SiFs are cholinesterase inhibitors, this means that SiFs have effects like the chemical agents linked to Gulf War Syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and other puzzling conditions that plague millions of Americans,” Masters said. “We need a better understanding of how SiFs behave chemically and physiologically.”

Last March, Dr. Masters testified before New Hampshire legislators in favor of the Fluoride Product Quality Control Act. The bill would put the SiFs to a series of tests, and perhaps further research on neurotoxicity and behavior.

“If further research confirms our findings,” Masters said, “this may well be the worst environmental poison since leaded gasoline.”

The EPA admits it has no data on the health and behavioral effects of SiFs.

Dr. Masters asked: “Shouldn’t we stop intentionally exposing 140 million Americans to an untested chemical until the risks are extensively and objectively evaluated by independent researchers?”

And, the final insult: There is no conclusive evidence that fluoridation of drinking water significantly improves the teeth of children at all. ™