Fundraising Update
Since Monday, we’ve raised $1,985 from 15 supporters. With the last of the $5,000 doubling challenge included, our current total stands at $27,730 from 182 donors towards FAN’s 2024 operating budget. THANK YOU ALL!
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FAN is the only organization keeping and maintaining an archive of fluoride news and research from around the world. This is important because media outlets remove stories from the internet–especially about fluoridation spills and accidents–after a year or two. It’s important we preserve these stories so the world has an accurate picture of what occurred during the “fluoridation era” of civilization.
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No Consensus on Water Fluoridation in Latin America
There appears to be little enthusiasm for water fluoridation in Latin America, as fifteen of eighteen countries don’t use it, with many not even considering it as a policy.
“There is no consensus on the policies in Latin American and Caribbean Countries (LACC) to reduce sugar consumption and for the use of fluoride. A few policies and guidelines were applied in isolated countries, with a variety of strategies and standards,” wrote the authors of a recent survey of “policymakers, dental professionals, civil society organizations and individuals committed to improving public oral health,” published October 23 in Brazilian Oral Research.
Seven of the eighteen countries have a policy on the use of fluoridated table salt.
The report’s authors express no interest or concern over the substantial body of evidence that prenatal fluoride exposure has a neurotoxic effect on children’s developing brains even though Mexico has conducted much important research on this topic.
They only noted, “A concern about the use of a community-based method to deliver fluoride is the occurrence of dental fluorosis. However, studies have shown that, at the appropriate concentration, the risk of developing dental fluorosis was outweighed by its effectiveness in preventing caries.” Writing in the dental tradition, the authors see dental fluorosis as simply a cosmetic concern rather than a visible manifestation of systemic fluoride poisoning.
The authors recommend, “collaboration and knowledge sharing among LACC to exchange best practices, successful policy implementations, epidemiological data, and research findings.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-3107bor-2023.vol37.0121
British Dental Journal Says Repeatedly Asking People to Use Fluoride is “Authoritarian”
A commentary in the British Dental Journal on December 8th sees dentists who repeatedly ask caregivers of children to adopt the use of topical fluoride application as “authoritarian.”
Commenting on a report in the Journal of Dental Research Clinical & Translational Research, Paul Hellyer notes that the researchers concluded that “Insisting on fluoride application – even when requested not to ask again, [and] asking at every visit” was found to be “authoritarian and pleading.”
In contrast, “Leaving decisions entirely to the caregiver – to avoid conflict, but still recommending its use,” was described as “reductionist and low engagement.”
Hellyer notes, “The authors suggest that most of these approaches are not evidence-based, and that there is a need for education in communication skills. Dental students should be exposed to evidence-based patient provider communication strategies and be able to demonstrate them.”
Ironically, advocates of water fluoridation repeatedly attempt to impose the policy on the public, a tactic seen as quite negative when applied to individual patients.
Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6622-y
Fluoride Used to Create Animal Models of Alzheimer’s Disease
Since the cause of Alzheimer’s disease is unknown, researchers use fluoride and other chemicals to induce a comparable neurotoxic effect in the brains of laboratory mice, according to a report from the Central University of Punjab published on December 11th in Laboratory Animal Research.
“Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial, rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disorder. As the exact cause of the disease is still unclear, the drug development is very challenging,” note the authors.
“None of the existing AD models wholly resemble the pathophysiology of AD therefore, the majority of research is conducted to develop models that actively manipulate animals to mimic the disease’s symptoms completely,” they report.
In summarizing research results on fluoride’s use in these animal models they write, “In a study when rats were administered with 15 mg/L of sodium fluoride (NaF) in drinking water for 45 days it induced cholinergic deficits and oxidative stress. In addition, acetylcholine levels were found to be decreased in the brain areas involving hippocampus, cerebrum and cerebellum. It has also been reported that when pregnant rats were exposed with 5 and 10 mg/L of fluoride, offspring have motor deficits. Similar to AD patients the antioxidant activity of the AD model brain is compromised leading to oxidative stress and AD progression.
The authors do not comment on the possible effects of chronic exposure to lower levels of fluoride, noting only, “Foods, water, air, additives, industrial effluents, pesticide residues, and some medications are contributors of fluoride ingestion.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42826-023-00184-1
Dental Researchers Recommend Heavily Fluoridated Milk for Children
While acknowledging the benefits of low-fluoride breast milk, dental researchers recommend packaged fluoridated milk that contains as much as a 200 times the level of fluoride in breastmilk.
In a survey of fluoride content in beverages for children, scientists from several Latin American countries write, “A child’s primary source of nutrition in the early stages of life is breast milk, which contains 0.005–0.01 mg/L of fluoride. This is the most effective means of safeguarding the health of both mothers and infants, fostering their robust growth and development.”
Despite this endorsement of very low fluoride levels, the authors write, “Fluoridated milk is an additional food that has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in infant feeding. Fluoridated milk is distributed in 200 mL containers containing 5 ppm of fluoride, which corresponds to 1 mg of fluoride in the container [55]. The utilization of milk as a means to introduce fluoride into dental public health initiatives is highly compelling. To begin with, milk fluoridation has proven to be a thousandfold more cost-effective than water fluoridation, as demonstrated by the outcomes of a cost comparison study. This is particularly significant for developing nations like Chile.”
The authors’ only concern for fluoride’s adverse effect is dental fluorosis, noting, “The prevalence of dental fluorosis has increased worldwide due to increasing levels of fluoride exposure. In countries such as Ecuador, Tanzania, Thailand, Mexico, China, the United States, and Chile, prevalence rates of 63.7%, 89.7%, 53.4%, 30.5%, 35.6%, and 53.31% have been reported among children aged 6 to 12 years, respectively. This increase has predominantly affected milder forms of fluorosis in communities exposed to fluoride. It is important to emphasize that this does not pose a significant health risk to individuals. Instead, it underscores the critical need for strict control measures in water, salt, and milk fluoridation programs, especially in regions where the use of drinking water as a fluoride carrier is not possible.”
In recent years, highly acclaimed researchers from numerous countries have found that prenatal and early childhood exposure to fluoride from water containing 0.7 mg per liter of water can damage children’s developing brains.
Source: https://doi.org/10.3390/children10121896
Official Government Data Shows Fluoridation Provided No Benefit to Hastings, NZ
The Hastings District Council is expected to reintroduce water fluoridation for the first time in over seven years, making it the only district in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand to adopt the policy.
The change coincides with an analysis of national data that shows a continued decline in tooth decay in Hastings after fluoridation was stopped in 2016.
Fluoridation advocates there worry that a lack of fluoride leaves teeth unprotected, but a former dental professor notes that the incidence of decay has declined in both fluoridated and non-fluoridated towns like Hastings.
“Basically, no one under the age of 7 in our communities has had the benefits of fluoride strengthening the enamel as the teeth have been forming. Teeth are still forming up to 8 years old, so kids as old as 14 may have been negatively affected from the lack of fluoride in their tooth enamel,” dental hygienist Rachel Perrott told Hawkes Bay Today Dec. 3.
However, Dr. Neil Waddell, former Professor of Dental Materials at the University of Otago School of Dentistry has recently noted that tooth decay was declining at the same rate as the unfluoridated areas of the Hawke’s Bay before fluoridation ceased and has continued to decline at the same rate as those areas since fluoridation ceased. So why the hysteria about reintroducing it?”
“Similarly, in Taranaki, tooth decay was declining at the same rate in the fluoridated areas as the unfluoridated areas before New Plymouth ceased fluoridation in 2011. It has continued to decline at exactly the same rate in New Plymouth and the other unfluoridated areas as the communities that continue to fluoridate their water. Again, proof of no benefit, in this case with a statistical certainty of 10,000 to 1,” Waddell noted in a statement posted on the Voxy NZ website December 10.
•• Michael Dolan can be contacted at <mdolan.ecsn@outlook.com>
•• The archives of The Fluoridation Review are available at: https://
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