Israel Bans
Fluoride
September 09, 2014
tory at-a-glance
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The Ministry of Health in Israel lifted the mandatory
requirement for water fluoridation that was put in place in
1970; there is now a nationwide ban on water fluoridation in
Israel
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Adding fluoride to water is a medical treatment, and a forced
one at that because this substance is difficult to remove from
your water
-
Fluoride was recently added to a list of 11 known industrial
chemicals that harm brain development in human fetuses and
infants
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Despite fluoride’s known developmental risks, the American
Academy of Pediatrics issued new recommendations for the use of
fluoridated toothpaste in infants and children
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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set the so-called
“safe” level of fluoride in drinking water at the ridiculously
high level of 4 ppm (mg/L) in 1986. We are still living with
this standard even though the National Research Council
recommended it be lowered in 2006
-
The EPA is expected to complete its review of this standard in
2016, meanwhile it is clear that American children are being
over-exposed to fluoride
By Dr. Mercola
Adding to a growing global movement to acknowledge the serious
health risks associated with
fluoride exposure, as of August 26, 2014, the Ministry of Health
in Israel lifted the mandatory requirement for water fluoridation
that was put in place in 1970.
There is now a nationwide ban on water fluoridation in Israel, a
decision Israeli Health Minister Yael German said “would allow
Israeli parents and doctors to decide on their own whether to
provide fluoride to children, in what doses, and in what manner.”1
While the debate over water fluoridation has many layers, the
most fundamental is that adding fluoride to water is a medical
treatment, and a forced one at that because this substance is
difficult to remove from your water. As Professor Arnon Afek,
director-general at the Health Ministry, told the Jerusalem Post:2
“Individuals have the right to decide if they want it
[fluoride] or not… We cannot force people… The ministry
supported it for over 40 years, but this is a new era. The world
has changed, and we can educate parents.”
This new era has ushered in many similar decisions from countries
and communities around the globe seeking to protect their citizens
from this avoidable neurotoxic poison.
Since 2010, over 150 communities have either stopped water
fluoridation or rejected new proposals. Canada has dropped from
about 60 percent of the population drinking fluoridated water down
to about 32-33 percent.
Victories have also been logged in New Zealand, Queensland,
Australia, and across the US. Dr. Paul Connett, director of one of
our partner organizations the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), said:3
“We congratulate [Health Minister] Yael German for
resisting the bullying tactics of fluoridation proponents… She
has offered the international public health community the model
to follow on the fluoridation issue... We would dearly like to
see the same integrity from health officials in countries that
continue this outdated, unethical, and reckless practice.”
Did You Know Fluoride Exposure Is Linked to Reduced Intelligence?
The debate over the dangers of fluoride has been ongoing for more
than six decades, despite the fact that study after study has
confirmed that fluoride is a dangerous, toxic poison that
bio-accumulates in your body while being entirely ineffective at
preventing dental decay.
In 2009, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added
fluoride to a list of “chemicals with substantial evidence of
developmental neurotoxicity.”4
Recently, it was also added to a list of 11 known industrial
chemicals that harm brain development in human fetuses and infants,5
compiled by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. So what exactly does
fluoride do to your brain?
There are at least 39 human studies linking moderately high
fluoride exposures with reduced intelligence and 12 human studies
linking fluoride with neurobehavioral deficits. Shockingly, there
are also three human studies linking fluoride exposure with impaired
fetal brain development,6
and approximately 100 animal studies linking it to brain damage.
This includes such effects as:7
Reduction in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors |
Damage to the hippocampus |
Formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain
abnormality in Alzheimer's disease) |
Reduction in lipid content |
Damage to the Purkinje cells |
Exacerbation of lesions induced by iodine deficiency |
Impaired antioxidant defense systems |
Increased uptake of aluminum |
Accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland |
So Why Is the American Academy of Pediatrics Recommending Fluoride
Toothpaste for Children?
While Harvard researchers added fluoride to their list of
chemicals that harm brain development in infants, the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), going starkly against the precautionary
principle, issued a new recommendation encouraging the use of
fluoridated toothpaste for all children, starting at tooth eruption
(and regardless of tooth decay risk).8
It would be interesting to hear an explanation from AAP as to why
it is, if indeed fluoride was needed by babies, that the level found
in mothers’ milk is so extremely low (0.004 ppm). Instead of
encouraging parents to give babies more fluoride, they should be
warning parents not to bottle-feed their babies with formula made up
with fluoridated tap water. Those babies so fed get about 200 times
more fluoride than nature intended.
AAP also recommended fluoride varnish in the primary care setting
every three to six months starting at tooth eruption. Young children
will obviously be swallowing much, if not all, of the toothpaste, so
they will be getting a twice-daily exposure to fluoride, in addition
to any fluoride in their drinking water. It is surprising that AAP
does not appear to have reviewed the extensive animal and human
studies on fluoride’s ability to damage the brain.
I don’t recommend fluoridated toothpaste for adults,
much less for infants and children. There is not a single process in
your body that requires fluoride, but swallowing this toxin has been
found to damage your soft tissues (brain, kidneys, and endocrine
system), as well as teeth (dental fluorosis) and bones (skeletal
fluorosis).
It’s also known that over time fluoride accumulates in many areas
of your body, including areas of your brain that control and alter
behavior, particularly your
pineal gland, hippocampus, and other limbic areas.
Animal studies have shown, for instance, that fluoride ingestion
had a profound influence on the animals' brains and altered
behavior.9
Pregnant rats given fluoride produced hyperactive offspring. And
animals given fluoride after birth became apathetic, lethargic
"couch potatoes." Other research has linked fluoride toxicity with
the wide-ranging problems listed below.
Increases lead absorption |
Disrupts collagen synthesis |
Increases manganese absorption, which is also linked to
lower IQ in children |
Crippling skeletal fluorosis and
bone fractures |
Genetic damage and cell death |
Increased tumor and cancer growth |
Disrupts immune system |
Inhibits antibody production |
Brain damage and lowered IQ |
Dementia |
Arthritis |
Severe eye problems, including
blindness |
Impaired
thyroid function |
Bone cancer (osteosarcoma) |
Inactivates 62 enzymes |
Muscle disorders |
Parents, Know the Facts About Fluoride’s Supposed Benefits
The health risks of fluoride ingestion are far too great to be
justified, even if fluoride helped prevent tooth decay. But to add
insult to injury, it doesn’t. It's often said that fluoride helps to
re-mineralize your teeth and make them stronger, but a
groundbreaking study published in the journal Langmuir
uncovered that the fluorapatite layer formed on your teeth from
fluoride is a mere six nanometers thick.10
You'd need 10,000 of these layers to get the width of a
strand of your hair! Scientists now question whether this ultra-thin
layer can actually protect your enamel and provide any discernible
benefit, considering the fact that it is quickly eliminated by
simple chewing. They wrote: "…it has to be asked whether such
narrow… layers really can act as protective layers for the enamel."
Fluoride advocates also often claim that the reduction in tooth
decay that's occurred since the 1950s is a benefit of fluoridated
water, but the facts just don't add up. For example, in 1999, the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed that dental
caries declined precipitously during the second half of the 20th
Century. But what they failed to mention is that tooth decay rates
"precipitously declined" in ALL Western nations, regardless of
whether or not fluoridation was used – and most of those countries
did NOT fluoridate!11
According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, the US, which
fluoridates about two-thirds of public water supplies, actually has
higher rates of tooth decay than many countries that do not
fluoridate their water, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium,
and Sweden.12
Furthermore, if fluoride were effective in preventing caries, you
would expect to see an increase in tooth decay when fluoridation is
stopped. Yet, this is not what we see! The following demographic
studies and fluoridation trends make it clear that fluoridation has
very little to do with whether or not you develop cavities:
- In Japan, fluoridation has been virtually nonexistent since
the 1970s, yet rates of dental caries have declined since that
time.13
- In the town of Tiel in the Netherlands, water fluoridation
was discontinued in 1973, and by 1993, rates of dental caries
had declined.14
- In the town of Kuopio, Finland, water fluoridation was
stopped after 1992. In 1995 and 1998, dental caries had either
decreased or stayed the same.15
- In two towns in former East Germany, a significant fall in
the prevalence of dental caries was seen in the 20 years
following cessation of water fluoridation.16
- In Canada, "the prevalence of caries decreased over time in
the fluoridation-ended community while remaining unchanged in
the fluoridated community."17
Maine Drinking Water Found to Contain Dangerously High Levels of
Fluoride
One of the risks of adding fluoride, a known poison, to public
drinking water supplies is what may happen if the dosing is off. A
study published in Scientific American revealed that nearly
38 percent of wells tested in Maine contained fluoride at levels
above the state’s maximum exposure guideline.18
In this case, the source wasn’t municipally added fluoride but
rather fluoride leaching out of granite and into the groundwater.
Maine’s suggested fluoride limit of two milligrams per liter is
already half of the EPA’s limit, yet experts are calling for Maine
residents to have their well water tested and take steps to filter
out fluoride if necessary.
In 1986, the US EPA set the enforceable regulation for fluoride –
the maximum contaminant level (MCL) -- at 4 mg/L or 4 ppm. But this
standard was based on an end point of crippling skeletal fluorosis
and is hopelessly out of date. In 2003, the US EPA asked the
National Academies to review this standard, and in 2006, the
National Research Council concluded that the enforceable standard of
4 ppm was unprotective of health and recommended the EPA perform a
risk assessment to determine a new standard (MCL) and goal (MCLG).
After 8 years, the EPA has still not produced a new standard even
though much more research indicates that there are far more
sensitive end points than crippling skeletal fluorosis including the
IQ studies discussed above. It now appears that the EPA’s
reassessment will not be completed until 2016. It’s not only
naturally sourced fluoride in well water that’s a risk, of course.
Last year, in one Australian town, a suspected electrical fault
allowed fluoride levels to reach nearly double the guideline amount
in local drinking water.
Routine daily monitoring revealed the elevated fluoride levels,
which reached 2.8 milligrams per liter (the Australian Drinking
Water Guideline is 1.5 mg/L), may have remained elevated for several
days. The fact is that there is a very real possibility of other
equipment faults mistakenly dosing populations with dangerous levels
of fluoride, and fluoride exposure can easily reach toxic levels.
Many more communities are catching on and removing this poison,
often in keeping with public demand. In Philadelphia, for instance,
Bucks Co. Water Supply Agency (BCWSA), which serves 385,000 people
stopped buying Philadelphia’s fluoridated water, noting on its
website:19
“BCWSA has heard your request and is happy to announce
that our customers have a choice to use fluoride or not through
your dentist instead of being mandated through your water
supply. The new source does not have fluoride added to it.”
Take Action Against Fluoridated Drinking Water
In addition to the 4 ppm enforceable standard, in 1986 the EPA
also set a non-enforceable recommended guideline of 2 ppm (mg/L),
which is intended to protect against “cosmetic” issues like dental
fluorosis. But that guideline does not seem to be working because,
according to the CDC, 41 percent of American adolescents now have
dental fluorosis—unattractive discoloration and mottling of the
teeth that indicate overexposure to fluoride. Clearly, children are
being overexposed, and their health and development put in jeopardy.
Why? At least when it comes to topical application, you
have a choice. You can easily buy fluoride-free toothpaste and
mouthwash.
But you're stuck with whatever your community puts in the water,
and it's very difficult to filter out of your water once it's added.
Many do not have the resources or the knowledge to do so. Stay
tuned, as the Fluoride Action Network has a game plan to END water
fluoridation, both in the US and Canada. Clean pure water is a
prerequisite to optimal health. Industrial chemicals, drugs, and
other toxic additives really have no place in our water supplies.
So, please, support the anti-fluoride movement by making a donation
to the
Fluoride Action Network today and consider joining its new
campaign Parents Against Fluoridation by contacting FAN’s campaign
manager Stuart Cooper at stuart@fluoridealert.org.
From September 7th -13th we launch the fourth
Mercury-Free Dentistry
Week. We set aside an entire week dedicated to ending the use of
dental amalgam -- a primitive, pre-Civil War, pollutant that leads
to cracked teeth -- for three reasons:
- The new Minamata Convention on Mercury is the game-changer
for dental amalgam. Each nation that signs this comprehensive
treaty against mercury pollution – now numbering 100, including
the United States – commits itself to scaling down dental
mercury without delay.
- Consumers for Dental Choice, who spearheads the campaign
against amalgam, brings the Minamata Convention home.
Commissioning a Zogby poll, they issued a scathing indictment of
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for covering up
amalgam's mercury from American parents and consumers – and for
putting the US government out of compliance with the pledge it
made at Minamata.
- Your financial support for Consumers for Dental Choice is
now needed. Working with talented environmental, consumer, and
health leaders, Consumers for Dental Choice is launching phase
out campaigns in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Resources to Help You Find a Biological Dentist
The following organizations can help you to find a mercury-free,
biological dentist:
Together, Let's Help Charlie Brown and Consumers for Dental Choice
Get to the Finish Line
This is the week we can get Consumers for Dental Choice the
funding it deserves. I have found few NGOs as effective, and none as
efficient, as Consumers for Dental Choice. Its small team has led
the charge on six continents -- including ours!
So I am stepping up with the challenge. For the fourth year in a
row, I will match the funds you give. In 2012 the match was up to
$50,000 -- and you did it! In 2013, I upped the ante to $75,000 --
and you did it again! This year, I believe a $100,000 match is the
right thing to do. Please give, and all dollars received up to
$100,000 will be matched by Natural Health Research Foundation,
which I founded.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All
Rights Reserved.
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