Toxic effects of silicofluoridated water in chinchillas, caimans, alligators, and rats held in captivity

Abstract

Two independent experiences with animals in captivity revealed a dramatic onset of severe debilitating symptoms when the nonfluoridated water supplies were changed to municipal water fluoridated with fluorosilicic acid, H2SiF6. The first group of animals, chinchillas in a small fur farm operation, quickly more than doubled their water consumption with the change to silicofluoridated water and gradually began to have inferior fur quality, stillbirths, and premature mortality. In the second group of animals, when a similar change in the water occurred, caimans and alligators in a noncommercial private animal collection exhibited swelling and ulceration of eye membranes and later bloated bellies, liver silicosis, spinal deformity, tumors, and shortened life spans. The health of the rat colony in this collection rapidly deteriorated and numerous tumors developed. When hatchling caimans were raised in distilled water, they remained healthy until, because of their size, they were transferred to the silicofluoridated water, after which the above symptoms began to appear. Similarly, when the rats were changed to distilled water, tumor formation ceased, and they became healthy with greatly extended life spans.