A Poison By Any Other Name

by Scott Tips

Editor of Health Freedom News
Board Member and Legal Counsel for NHF

March 2006

Oft-quoted Shakespeare long ago wrote “A rose is still a rose by any other name.”  Fluoride, a toxic waste product that has been dumped into and pumped through our water supply and into our bodies for decades, is a shakespearian case in point.  Our supposed healthcare guardians can call fluoride the best thing for teeth since sliced bread, but Shakespeare’s reality is that toxic fluoride is still toxic fluoride no matter what pretty name the health authorities hang on it.

Our governments - the health “authorities” supposedly charged with protecting our health and safety - have been prettifying this toxic chemical for decades.  Even now, you can see disgusting pictures of trusting, innocent children dutifully taking their daily dose of fluoride.  But despite generations of pro-fluoride propaganda, fluoride’s pretty façade – under our and others’ relentless attacks – is finally crumbling.  And the momentum is on our side, I would be surprised if fluoridation is not eliminated as a major public health threat within a decade or less.

School children in Bangor, Maine take their daily dose of fluoride.

(Photo by John Clarke Russ, permission of Bangor Daily News and thanks to NHF Life Member Dr. Marc Chase, who alerted us with his apt statement "I couldn't believe what I saw in my morning paper.")

Eleven unions representing over 7,000 environmental and health professionals at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have called for a moratorium on drinking-water fluoridation programs throughout the United States.  Many States such as Hawaii, Nebraska, Oregon, Kansas, and just recently Massachusetts have rejected mandatory water fluoridation programs.  And since last November, fluoridation has been made illegal in the United Kingdom.  Following this lead, a shire council in Victoria, Australia changed its vote from one barely approving fluoridation to one solidly denying approval.

While more victories for pro-health forces loom ahead with water-fluoridation votes in Washington and Colorado states, major media stories have been appearing with increasing frequency about the fluoridation controversy.  Both Time magazine and ABC World News have been among those covering fluoridation votes in city councils and State halls.

In fact, the evidence has been adding up:  People in fluoridated and even non-fluoridated communities are ingesting too much fluoride, which they consume through fluoride-treated water, toothpaste, and their general diet.  Yet, fluoride is a corrosive waste product that is so toxic that there are warnings on the bags that the water-department personnel handle when they add the product to your water supply.  These warnings can also be found on the material safety data sheets as well as more limited warnings even on fluoride toothpaste tubes and packaging.

The danger is more profound than even most realize.  Studies strongly suggest that fluoride, like lead, accumulates in bone and soft tissue such as liver and kidney.  Recent Canadian findings show that fluoridated water actually results in higher rates of hip fractures and arthritis.  And very alarmingly, after a reported attempt at suppression, research has surfaced from Harvard University that shows a risk of osteosarcoma (a rare bone cancer) in boys drinking fluoridated water.

Add this accumulating evidence of harm to the already existing record that shows it to damage the central nervous system, cause behavioral changes, increase reproductive problems, and possibly adversely impact the developing brain.  (See www.thenhf.com/fluoridation)  Even mainstream authorities have been joining us in a building chorus of voices demanding that fluoridation be stopped.

Among them, Dr. Ludwig Grosse, Chief of Cancer Research at the U.S. Veterans Administration, has said, “The plain fact that fluorine is an insidious poison harmful, toxic and cumulative in its effects, even when ingested in minimal amounts, will remain unchanged, no matter how many times it will be repeated in print that fluoridation of the water is ‘safe.’”

With all of the other environmental toxins also threatening us and our children, it is imperative that we all keep the pressure on our politicians and health authorities to remove fluoride from the water supply.  By now, more and more officials are being forced to realize that the deliberate injection of such a known poison into our environment is suicidal.  At long last, the death knell for fluoride is within our grasp, if we will just keep at it.

If you live in a fluoridated-water community, then contact your city officials demanding that they stop fluoridating the water.  Use a well-reasoned letter supported by the existing research to make your case.  The Federation will be happy to help; just contact us or go to our website for further information.  We have the fluoridators on the ropes, let’s finish the job and show them the way out of the ring.