Water Fluoridation
- by: Carole Allen
- recipient: Mayor Netts, Palm Coast, FL
TAKE ACTION TO END FLUORIDATION!
Ending fluoridation is as easy as turning off the spigot at your local water works, but to turn off that spigot requires political will. This is not easy without the help of the mainstream media, but it can be done and we are doing it. Since 1990, over 300 communities in the United States and Canada — representing millions of people — have ended the practice of water fluoridation in their communities.
WATER FLUORIDATION IS THE PRACTICE OF ADDING INDUSTRIAL-GRADE FLUORIDE CHEMICALS TO WATER FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING TOOTH DECAY. ONE OF THE LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT THIS PRACTICE IS THAT THE UNITED STATES, WHICH FLUORIDATES OVER 70% OF ITS WATER SUPPLIES, HAS MORE PEOPLE DRINKING FLUORIDATED WATER THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED. MOST DEVELOPED NATIONS, INCLUDING ALL OF JAPAN AND 97% OF WESTERN EUROPE,
DO NOT FLUORIDATE THEIR WATER.
In Europe, only Ireland (73%), Poland (1%), Serbia (3%), Spain (11%), and the U.K. (11%) fluoridate any of their water. Most developed countries, including Japan and 97% of the western European population, do not consume fluoridated water.
In the U.S., about 70% of public water supplies are fluoridated. This equates to approximately 185 million people, which is over half the number of people drinking artificially fluoridated water worldwide. Some countries have areas with high natural fluoride levels in the water. These include India, China and parts of Africa. In these countries measures are being taken to remove the fluoride because of the health problems that fluoride can cause.
Fluoridation is a bad medical practice
1) Fluoride is the only chemical added to water for the purpose of medical treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies fluoride as a drugwhen used to prevent or mitigate disease (FDA 2000). As a matter of basic logic, adding fluoride to water for the sole purpose of preventing tooth decay (a non-waterborne disease) is a form of medical treatment. All other water treatment chemicals are added to improve the water’s quality or safety, which fluoride does not do.
2) Fluoridation is unethical. Informed consent is standard practice for all medication, and one of the key reasons why most of Western Europe has ruled against fluoridation. With water fluoridation we are allowing governments to do to whole communities (forcing people to take a medicine irrespective of their consent) what individual doctors cannot do to individual patients.
Put another way: Does a voter have the right to require that their neighbor ingest a certain medication (even if it is against that neighbor’s will)?
3) The dose cannot be controlled. Once fluoride is put in the water it is impossible to control the dose each individual receives because people drink different amounts of water. Being able to control the dose a patient receives is critical. Some people (e.g., manual laborers, athletes, diabetics, and people with kidney disease) drink substantially more water than others.
4) The fluoride goes to everyone regardless of age, health or vulnerability. According to Dr. Arvid Carlsson, the 2000 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology and one of the scientists who helped keep fluoridation out of Sweden:
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