I thought fluoridation was safe until I did my own research. The truth is that many fluoride-associated health effects were never researched before government endorsements. Fifty years passed before the smoking/cancer link emerged from the scientific literature into popular acceptance. We can wait for government to catch up with fluoride science or protect ourselves now by avoiding and rejecting fluoridation.

Fluoride, neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth, is a drug with adverse side effects. Consuming a fluoride-free diet doesn’t cause cavities, but consuming too much fluoride can create dental fluorosis, which now afflicts 58 percent of adolescents, according to the Fluoride Action Network. Dentists advertise they’ll cover fluorosed teeth, possibly for a hefty fee.

Even at low levels added to public water supplies, fluoride can harm the thyroid, damage bones and harm the fluoride-allergic or fluoride-intolerant populations. Especially troubling is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s acknowledgement that fluoride is a chemical showing “substantial evidence of developmental neurotoxicity.” Currently, according to the Fluoride Action Network, 300 animal studies and 50 human studies show fluoride can alter the brain, something that was never even considered when fluoridation began.

The question isn’t if fluoride damages the brain but at what level. We are all guinea pigs in this ongoing human fluoridation experiment while not being properly informed or giving consent.

Albany County already enjoys a low decay rate (25 percent) despite a 13 percent fluoridation rate, according to New York state Department of Health statistics.

Carol S. Kopf

The writer is media director of the Fluoride Action Network, (and NYS CoF) which spearheaded the effort that stopped 29 years of fluoridation in Levittown

• Original letter online at http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-opinion/article/Letter-Research-shows-fluoride-a-hazardous-11119234.php

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