Once upon a time in 1943 in Deepwater, N.J., the high-quality peaches destined for the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York were burning up. Cows were grazing on their bellies and chickens died.

Local farmers started looking for the bad witch who might be poisoning these apples in their Snow White-type community. A few miles away, DuPont aluminum was churning out millions of pounds of fluoride for making atomic bombs.

The bomb-makers needed to prove fluoride was not the cause of the sickness and decided to test it in the water of Newburgh, NY. From 1945 to 1956, researchers based at the University of Rochester gathered and analyzed blood and placenta tissue from Newburgh citizens, unknown to them, but with cooperation of the state health department.

Results were classified by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for reasons of “national security.” Farmers who lost their peach orchards could not sue. Some were given a mere $200, although they wanted $400,000.

Some 50 years later in the 1990s, the secret documents were released, but missing were pages of a 1946 notebook, hundreds of reports and a transcript of files in the National Archives and Records Administration. Just what were the results of those blood tests with fluoride?

This fluoride history starts in 1909 when dentist Frederick McKay found children in Colorado Springs with teeth stained as brown as chocolate but cavity-free. In the 1930s, it was learned other towns with the same situation had fluoride in their water.

On Nov. 15, the Santa Clara Valley Water District voted unanimously to fluoridate the 79 percent of Santa Clara County water not fluoridated at a cost of up to $9.5 million to decrease cavities in East San Jose children. County studies say 48 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds have cavities, compared with 18 percent nationwide. A New York Times article on March 5 reported that cavities are on the rise, quoting dentists from four fluoridated areas in the U.S.

Cavities result from toddlers sucking on bottles of milk, juice and even Cokes. These acids eat away at tooth enamel. Fluoride helps prevent cavities by slowing the breakdown of enamel and speeding up the re-mineralization process, but it “does not prevent cavities alone,” according to the California Dental Association’s website. One needs a proper diet and toothbrushing as well.

Too much fluoride shows up in fluorosis on the teeth, which half of U.S. teens now have. Pediatric bone specialists now express alarm about an increase in stress fractures in this group.

Today, fluoride is present in two-thirds of U.S. water, but only 5 percent of world water. A safe daily recommendation for adults is 1 mg, but their estimated intake is 3.5 mg a day.

For a 1998 Congressional investigation on types of fluoride used in water, the House Committee on Science asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for scientific data on silicofluorides, the type of fluoride then used in 63 percent of water. No data could be found. Until 2011, there have only been two studies that have dealt with the continued use of hydrofluorosilicic acid. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has never tested it.

In a Dartmouth College news report in Jan. 22, 2010, professor Roger D. Masters called for an immediate ban on silicofluorides now used in 90 percent of water. He says they have never been tested for safety.

This type of fluoride is linked to poor impulse control, higher absorption of lead levels in children, and reduction of use of dopamine, which controls behavior–all associated with learning disabilities and higher crime rates.

A Chinese study, the 24th of this nature, found the higher fluoride in children’s blood, the lower their IQs. It also found a diet of only 1.9 ppm fluoride can do this. Three studies totaling 400,000 children in Germany, New York and Massachusetts all find higher lead in children’s brains where water has this type of fluoride.

Most countries in Europe do not fluoridate water, believing it is unethical medication of persons without prior consent. Fluoride in toothpaste applied topically is believed to cause the reduction of cavities in Europe. Low-income children around the world do not respond to fluoride in drinking water.

A study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2005 found that children under 9, except 2-year-olds, do not drink even half the water they should.

Here in the heart of Silicon Valley, where brains are the most prized in the world, our Valley Water board, supported by many local medical and children’s groups, needs to find $9.5 million to put an industrial poison that lowers IQs in our water.

Sadly, this is not a fairy tale. Perhaps you want to contact the Valley Water board at 408.265.2600 or email board@valleywater.org.

Sunnyvale resident Arlene Goetze is an advocate against toxins for children and the former director of communication for the Diocese of San Jose. She can be reached at photowrite67@yahoo.com.

Correction

A guest column titled “Against fluoride in our water” in the April 6 issue inaccurately stated that 48 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds in the county have cavities, compared to 18 percent nationwide. The 48 percent figure, according to a 2001 Santa Clara County dental survey, pertains to 2- to 4-year-olds in the county’s Head Start program.
Silicon Valley Community Newspapers
Posted: 04/12/2012

Print PDF