– Compiled and edited by Mike Dolan, PhD.
Missouri Botanical Garden Recommends Avoiding Fluoridated Water For Plants
In response to plant owners’ concerns that their Dracaenas, Easter and peace lilies, spider plants and prayer plants are experiencing browning of their leaf tips, the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the leading plant researcher centers in the USA, has posted a notice that the cause of the browning may be fluoridated water.
In the comment in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Home Gardening noted that such leaf damage was due to environmental insult rather than insect damage, and cited temperature changes.
The posting added, “However, one of the other possible explanations is that the browning is a symptom of fluoride toxicity. Many municipalities will add fluoride to the water supply to help prevent tooth decay. When plants are watered with fluoridated water, fluoride is translocated into the leaves, where it can accumulate in the tips over time. If levels in the leaf become high enough, it will cause injury in the form of necrotic leaf tips.
“Dracaenas, Easter and peace lilies, spider plants and prayer plants are all sensitive to fluoride. To prevent this damage, avoid using fluoridated water on sensitive plants, and opt for bottled, distilled or rainwater instead,” read the botanical garden’s posting.
Source:
Researchers Call Dental Fluorosis A “Pathology” And A “Disease”
In contrast to dentistry’s dismissive view of dental fluorosis as a “cosmetic” concern, several groups of researchers have recently emphasized the seriousness of the disorder by labeling it a “disease” and a “pathology.”
In the context of water fluoridation dental fluorosis is an iatrogenic disorder caused by ingesting the drug. Dentistry does not recognize dental fluorosis as an adverse effect. More than half of youth in the USA show some level of dental fluorosis with over one million displaying moderate to severe levels.
A recent article in Salon dismissing criticism of water fluoridation notes, “Fluorosis is a cosmetic condition in which one’s teeth appear to have small speckles on them.” The author cites the Cleveland Clinic’s view: “Fluorosis is a condition that results in white or brown speckles on your teeth. It’s caused by overexposure to fluoride in the early years of life, when your permanent teeth are developing. Fluorosis is a cosmetic concern and isn’t harmful to your health. But there are treatments that can address the issue.”
In contrast, researchers from Argentina, reporting in Sustainable Water Resources Management September 13 write, “Dental fluorosis is a disease associated with prolonged intake of high concentrations of fluoride, mainly by drinking water consumption.”
Similarly, dental researchers in Austria, investigating how artificial intelligence can be used to diagnose dental disorders, write in Clinical Oral Investigations, “For this study, clinical pictures of four different pathologies were collected. These pictures were categorized in caries, MIH [molar incisor hypomineralization], amelogenesis imperfecta and dental fluorosis.”
Similarly, authors of a recent paper on fluoride intoxication’s effects on serum metabolism in the Arabian Journal of Chemistry write, “Fluoride toxicity greatly impacts human health and causes many diseases including dental and skeletal fluorosis.”
Sources:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40899-022-00745-7
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00784-022-04646-z
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2022.103928
Fluoride Enhances Toxic Effects Of Cadmium On Plant Development
Concerned that large areas of China have soils contaminated with cadmium and fluoride, researchers from Zhejiang University have exposed hydroponic lettuce to combinations of these toxins, and discovered they harm the plants in a synergistic manner.
A soil survey in China found cadmium contamination in 7 percent of the samples, making it the primary contaminant across all analyzed pollutants, according to their report in Environmental Science and Pollution Research July 22.
“Cadmium is generally toxic to plants including the inhibition of photosynthesis and respiration, reduction in the absorption of water and nutrients, and decreased biomass,” the scientists report.
They noted that “Fluorine stress may have detrimental effects on germination, photosynthetic pigments, metabolic processes, and other physiological, biochemical and morphological parameters.”
“Moreover,” they add, “long-term and excessive fluorine ingestion cause adverse impact on human health, such as dental and skeletal fluorosis, and an increase in urolithiasis (kidney stones) rates.”
While the authors found that fluorine had limited effect on the germination, biomass, and shoot growth, presumably due to the many mechanisms that plants have to defend themselves from the toxin, they found that the combined exposure to cadmium and fluorine “synergistically reduced germination and growth of lettuce.”
They concluded, “It is worth noting that the toxicity of cadmium and fluorine to organisms was latent; therefore, prolonged exposure to low concentrations of the contaminants may have effects on the growth, photosynthesis, and nutrient absorption of plants.”
Source:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-022-22195-6
See also:
–https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2748634
–https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-020-0973-8
Aluminum Industry-Backed Scientists Would Raise Level Of Allowable Fluoride In Freshwater Ecosystems
Citing a variety of mitigating factors related to fluoride toxicity, scientists funded by the aluminum industry have recommended that the levels of fluoride allowed in freshwater environments can be raised 30 to 80 times without harm to the animals living there.
Researchers from the industry-consulting group EHS Support and Alcoa, writing in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, argue that the 0.15 mg/L proposed optimum for fluoride in Canada is overly conservative, and can be raised based on the presence of toxicity-modifying factors such as water hardness, alkalinity and chloride. They also assert that animal species used in developing the optimum were overly sensitive to fluoride.
Their report led University of Alcalá ecologist Julio A. Camargo to write in a recent letter to the journal, “It should be evident that the best and most reasonable national water quality criteria for fluoride would be those that match natural levels of fluoride in the fresh waters of each country. A less restrictive but still reasonably valid alternative is to establish water quality guidelines for fluoride that essentially protect the most sensitive native species, especially if those species contribute significantly to the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. This is the case of freshwater caddisflies, mayflies, amphipods, and upstream migrating salmons. Therefore, in the event that the interim Canadian water quality guideline of 0.12 mg F?/L (Environment Canada, 2001) must be revised upwards, I recommend raising it to a maximum level of 0.2 mg F?/L.”
Source:
https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5259
https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/etc.5408
“Photographic Guide To Fluorosis In Livestock” Posted By California Doctor Of Veterinary Medicine
The discovery of a fluoride removal plant in Twentynine Palms, CA led Larry H. Kelly D.V.M. to investigate fluoride poisoning of horses and other livestock at a local ranch where the well water contained 12 mg/L fluoride.
The result is a richly illustrated “Photographic guide to fluorosis in livestock” presentation that was recently posted on the internet. The guide consists of over 20 plates with detailed descriptions of dentition, horns and feet of living animals and skulls that show the types of visible evidence associated with fluoride poisoning.
Included is an undated poster presentation in which Kelly and co-authors from several colleges of veterinary medicine write, “Fluoride in drinking water has a very narrow margin of safety,” noting the US Public Health Service recommends a level be added to water that is half the maximum concentration that can be dangerous to children and that the US Environmental Protection Agency allows up to 4 mg/L fluoride in drinking water.
Source: click here
Fluoride Denounced As “Xenobiotic,” Toxic To Rice Plants
Reflecting the growing concern among environmentalists over the accumulation of toxic fluoride in ecosystems, two rice specialists from India have raised the alarm over the toxin’s presence in the environment while reporting how the chemical suppresses seedling growth in that crop plant.
“With the explosion of human population, the release of xenobiotic substances in the environment has increased enormously to a point of grave concern. Fluoride (F) is one of such pollutants whose continuous release in the environment has raised a serious cause of concern amongst various researchers and environmentalist groups. Along with several anthropogenic activities (release of untreated water from industries, excess application of fertilisers in agricultural fields and various household activities), various environmental factors (natural weathering of minerals, emissions from volcanic ash and marine aerosols) have also contributed towards such abrupt rise of fluoride in the environment,” wrote the authors St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata in Journal of Plant Growth Regulation September 9.
The scientists reported that fluoride at 25 mg/L stress-arrested root and shoot development and seedling biomass, interfering with various aspects of nitrogen metabolism, but that one variety of rice seedlings they used showed long term tolerance to the toxin, apparently able to use the toxic ammonium ions generated by the fluoride-stress.
The high concentration of fluoride used is similar to that limit recommended by aluminum industry-funded scientists for release into freshwater ecosystems as reported elsewhere in this review.
Source:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10780-5
Dr. Stephen A. Dean, Successful Opponent Of Fluoridation, Dies At 79
The leading force opposing water fluoridation in western Massachusetts, chiropractor Dr. Stephen A. Dean has died. For over 40 years he testified, organized, produced media and held meetings to prevent the addition of fluoride to drinking water.
He told this writer that he became involved in the struggle over fluoridation when he heard an advocate of the practice say on the radio that fluoride “is not a poison; it’s a toxin.”
He always wore a jacket and tie, and avoided talk of scientific research results, instead presenting fluoride as a prescription medicine. His successes included Springfield, several times, Wilbraham, Chicopee, and Worcester. He helped block a proposed state mandate in Massachusetts in 2004 when he brought a busload of his patients to the Statehouse to testify and lobby legislators.
Dean had a secret weapon – many of the politicians he faced were his patients, whom he had already convinced against fluoridation.
This writer once testified before the Chicopee Board of Alderman with Dr. Dean where two of the Aldermen were his patients. His presentation was so persuasive that the Board voted overwhelmingly against fluoridation, and the health director, who had first brought up the proposal to fluoridate, sheepishly announced that he was never that crazy about the idea.
Dr. Dean was remarkably generous with his own money, hosting conferences and paying for the 2004 bus trip out of his own pocket.
Former Worcester Mayor Jordan Levy, who hosted Dr. Dean on his radio show, called him the most clearly spoken and understandable advocate on either side of the fluoridation dispute.
A small selection of his papers can be found in the Department of Special Collections and University Archive at the DuBois Library at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
https://obits.masslive.com/us/obituaries/masslive/name/stephen-dean-obituary?id=36569431
•• Michael Dolan can be contacted at <mdolan.ecsn@outlook.com>
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