New York — April 30, 2003 –Over forty years of water fluoridation failed to reduce tooth decay in Basel, Switzerland, where children’s cavity rates increased from 1996 – 2001, according to a Swiss Government Report(1). Basel, the only Swiss city adding fluoride to water supplies, halted fluoridation(1a) on April 9, 2003, on the advice of their governmental Health and Social Commission.

Europe’s cavity rates declined despite being 98% fluoridation-free(2). The UK and Spain remain fluoridated at 10% and 3%, respectively. Ireland is 73% fluoridated, where 12-year-olds have more cavities than 12-year-olds in four non-fluoridated European countries and the U.K.(3) .

Twenty years ago Levittown, New York, stopped 29 years of water fluoridation. Neighboring New York City’s daily newspaper, “The N.Y. Daily News” predicted Levittowner’s teeth would rot(4). However, many studies show cavity rates improve when fluoridation ends(5).

Unfortunately, it appears New Yorker’s teeth are rotting, despite drinking and cooking with fluoridated water at home and in restaurants since 1965:

In the South Bronx (NYC), “Bleeding gums, impacted teeth and rotting teeth are routine matters for children….. Children live for months with pain that grown-ups would find unendurable. ?I have seen children with teeth that look like brownish, broken sticks. I have seen teenagers who were missing half their teeth….,” writes Jonathan Kozol in “Savage Inequalities.”

Kozol’s observations aren’t just anecdotal. Low-income 100% fluoridated northern Manhattan ( NYC) pre-schoolers have significantly more cavities than pre-schoolers nationwide and average more tooth decay than the entire U.S. population, only 60% fluoridated, according to “Pediatric Dentistry,” in 2002. Also, NYC African American adults studied have more cavities than all adults nationally,” reports “Dental Clinics of North America,” January 2003.

“Fluoridation proponents refused invitations to lecture at an upcoming U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Forum,” says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.

“It’s embarrassing for government officials who promote fluoridation to admit it is ineffective, thereby, risking their jobs and credibility,” says Beeber.

“Cavity incidence and severity is clustered in America’s poorest. Nourish children and their teeth and health will prosper,” says Beeber. “Thirteen million children in the U.S. may go to bed hungry,”(6) reports “Parade magazine.”

“Tooth decay, a disease of poverty, hunger and poor diet, can’t be fixed with fluoride,” says Beeber.

References:

(1) http://www.bs.ch/ber-9229.pdf

(1a) http://www.kantonsblatt.ch/artikel/
2003/029/200302904001.html

(2) Caries Research 1996;30(4):237-55
The prevalence of dental caries in Europe 1990-1995.ORCA Saturday afternoon symposium 1995. Marthaler TM, O’Mullane DM, Vrbic V.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/
query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed
&list_uids=8773416&dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000

(3) British Medical Journal, Letter from Irish Dentist Don MacAuley, Water fluoridation is a medical and dental controversy. 19 November 2000 http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/
321/7271/1287/a#10887

(4) New York Daily News Editorial, April 16, 1983, “Bad Bite”

(5) http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof/_pgg6.php3

(6) http://www.greatamericanbakesale.org

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