“Never, never reconstitute infant formula with fluoridated water. And never let children under 3 — whose swallowing reflexes are not fully developed — use fluoridated toothpaste. Infants and young children are especially susceptible to fluoride toxicity.”
These warnings from Dr. Hardy Limeback, Ph.D. in Biochemistry, D.D.S., University of Toronto’s Head of Preventive Dentistry and Past President of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, were recently delivered to a number of dentists, doctors, and other folks at Dartmouth College, Antioch in Keene, and Manchester. Members of N.H. and Manchester Health Departments were conspicuously absent!
Pro-fluoridation until 1999, Dr. Limeback stated “For the past 15 years I had refused to study the toxicology information readily available to anyone. ….. There are over 100 peer-reviewed papers covering such topics as fluoridation and cancer, reproduction, bone problems, dental fluorosis, thyroid interference, pineal gland effects, etc.; over 100 peer-reviewed papers that look at chronic fluoride poisoning in humans from higher doses of fluoride; hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies investigating the toxicity of fluorinated products on humans, and, finally, there are hundreds of peer-reviewed papers on fluoride’s negative impacts on the environment in general. Yet, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Dental Association have never looked at the whole picture. Very irresponsible!”
So why have our health establishments dismissed these peer-reviewed studies as “ not credible”, doggedly defending fluoridation, while Europe’s health establishments rejected fluoridation years ago? (98% of Europe drinks unfluoridated water and their dental health is superior to ours.) The answer from the Salt Lake Tribune (March 5, 2002) editorial : “European health organizations didn’t stick their necks out by aggressively promoting fluoridation early on, so they risked no loss of credibility by backing away when questions arose about its safety and effectiveness…. It is a falsehood that scientists are united behind fluoridation.”
Responding to Dr. William Maas, Utah’s Director of Oral Health, who said he can’t understand “why people don’t trust the recommendations from esteemed scientific sources,” the Tribune wrote: “Fluoridation proponents know well but never acknowledge that the many scientists who question fluoridation are every bit as ‘esteemed’ as the ones who don’t. Dr. Maas, meet Dr. Arvid Carlsson of Sweden. Carlsson won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2000, then joined a list of a dozen other past Nobel-winning scientists by advising the world not to fluoridate.”
Many towns and cities across this nation are heeding Dr. Carlsson’s advice, despite impressive sums of money spent by fluoridationists (e.g. $ 400,000 in Worcester, Mass., which rejected fluoridation November 2001). Salt Lake Tribune: “Ten U.S. towns — including Flagstaff, Ariz., and Modesto, Calif. — defeated fluoridation measures handily last year while only Yuma, Ariz., and Utah’s Centerville passed them. Even the City Council of progressive Colorado Springs, recently spurned fluoridation, while the national Sierra Club is urging communities to seek ‘safer alternatives’ “. Add to this that, since 1990, well over 100 U.S. cities rejected or abandoned fluoridation.
In 1999 the CDC publicly acknowledged that fluoride works topically — by direct contact with teeth, not by ingestion as mistakenly believed for over 50 years. Clearly, this acknowledgment also removes any rationale for prescribing ingested fluoride supplements (whose safety and effectiveness have never been approved by the FDA, contrary to common sense and the law.) Ingested fluoride is our main issue. Even Dr. Limeback uses topical fluoride in his dental practice and is not troubled by fluoride toothpaste except for young children. (See warning on fluoride toothpaste: Contact poison control center immediately if your child swallows more than a pea-sized amount.)
After reviewing the scientific literature on ingested fluoride, Dr. Limeback studied the fluoridation chemicals themselves. ” The crowning blow”, he said giving another reason for no longer supporting fluoridation, “was the realization that we have been dumping contaminated fluoride into water reservoirs for half a century. The vast majority of all fluoride comes from Florida smokestack scrubbers. The additives are a toxic by-product of the super-phosphate fertilizer industry.” Note: arsenic and lead are the most common contaminants found in fluoridation chemicals.
In agreement with Dr. Limeback’s assessment, the union of scientists and professionals at EPA Headquarters, charged with assessing the safety of this country’s drinking water, are calling for a national moratorium on fluoridation. Yet, U.S. Senate Bill S 1626 (Children’s Dental Health Improvement Act) still seeks to continue funding the administration’s goal of 100 % fluoridation. The question: Why continue spending taxpayer dollars on, as Dr. Limeback puts it, an “outdated public health measure”?
If you’ve had enough of truth decay, contact Senators Gregg and Smith. Urge them to exclude fluoridation from bill S 1626, and demand a full congressional hearing on fluoridation. Then clip this article. Copy it and pass it around. And remember Dr. Hardy Limeback’s words, “Fluoridated water is nothing but a mouthwash. Why swallow it?”