Fluoride damages the Thyroid, report shows.

First-ever government review of fluoride/thyroid toxicology shows risk .2008-05-19 There is clear evidence that small amounts of fluoride, at or near levels added to U.S. water supplies, present potential risks to the thyroid gland, according to the National Research Council's (NRC) first-ever published review of the fluoride/thyroid literature.
(A)Fluoride, in the form of silicofluorides, injected into 2/3 of U.S. public water supplies, ostensibly to reduce tooth decay, was never safety-tested.(B) "Many Americans are exposed to fluoride in the ranges associated with thyroid effects, especially for people with iodine deficiency," says Kathleen Thiessen, PhD, co-author of the government-sponsored NRC report. "The recent decline in iodine intake in the U.S could contribute to increased toxicity of fluoride for some individuals," says Thiessen."A low level of thyroid hormone can increase the risk of cardiac disease, high cholesterol, depression and, in pregnant women, decreased intelligence of offspring," said Thiessen.
(C)Common thyroid symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, constipation, fuzzy thinking, low blood pressure, fluid retention, depression, body pain, slow reflexes, and more. It's estimated that 59 million Americans have thyroid conditions.
(D)Robert Carton, PhD, an environmental scientist who worked for over 30 years for the U.S. government including managing risk assessments on high priority toxic chemicals, says "fluoride has detrimental effects on the thyroid gland of healthy males at 3.5 mg a day. With iodine deficiency, the effect level drops to 0.7 milligrams/day for an average male."
(E) (1.0 mg/L fluoride is in most water supplies)Among many others, the NRC Report cites human studies which show- fluoride concentrations in thyroids exceeding that found in other soft tissues except kidney- an association between endemic goiter and fluoride exposure or enamel fluorosis in human populations- fluoride adversely affects thyroid and parathyroid hormones, which affect bone health "If you have a thyroid problem, avoiding fluoride may be a good preventive health measure for you," writes Drs' Richard and Karilee Shames in "Thyroid Power."
(F).Over, 1,700 Physicians, Dentists, Scientists, Academics and Environmentalists urge Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted. They cite new scientific evidence that fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. (http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html)
Please sign the petition and Congressional letter to support these professionals: http://www.FluorideAction.Net
References:(A) "Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA'sStandards," Committee on Fluoride in Drinking Water, Board onEnvironmental Studies and Toxicology, Division on Earth and LifeStudies, National Research Council of the National Academies ofScience. March 2006 Chapter 8http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11571"Thyroid Function: Fluoride exposure in humans is associated withelevated TSH concentrations, increased goiter prevalence, and alteredT4 and T3 concentrations." (Page 262)"(The thyroid effects are associated with average fluoride intakesthat) will be reached by persons with average exposures at fluorideconcentrations of 1-4 mg/L in drinking water, especially thechildren." (Page 260)(B) Sodium Hexafluorosilicate and Fluorosilicic AcidReview of Toxicological Literature, October 2001http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/Chem_Background/ExSumPDF/Fluorosilicates.pdf(C) Chemical & Engineering News, "Fluoride Risks Are Still AChallenge," by Bette Hileman, September 4, 2006,http://pubs.acs.org/cen/government/84/8436gov1.html(D) Mary Shomon, About.com Thyroid editor, Patient Advocate --Author of "The Thyroid Diet" and "Living Well With Hypothyroidism"http://thyroid.about.com/(E) Fluoride, "Review of the 2006 National Research Council Report:Fluoride in Drinking Water," July-September 2006, by Robert J. Cartonhttp://www.fluorideresearch.org/393/files/FJ2006_v39_n3_p163-172.pdf(F) Thyroid Power and Feeling Fat Fuzzy or Frazzeled"by RichardShames MD & Karilee Shames RN, PhD http://www.thyroidpower.comhttp://www.feelingfff.com/Fluoride/Thyroid Health Effectshttp://www.fluoridealert.org/health/thyroid/Sources of Fluoridehttp://www.fluoridealert.org/f-sources.htmSulfuryl Fluoride Pesticide Residues Allowed on Foodshttp://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/sulfuryl.f.all.food.html United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National FluorideDatabase of Selected Beverages and Foods http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Fluoride/Fluoride.html
Contact Information:New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, IncPO Box 263Old Bethpage, NY 11804
Contact Person:email: email Web: http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
Author:Nys Cofe-mailWeb: http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof

The call by Mary Creagh, leader of the Labour Manifesto Group on Health, for all children of pre-school age to be vaccinated against the triple Measles, Mumps and Rubella diseases, has foundered, apparently, on a refusal by the Government to contemplate mass vaccinations.
Is it now likely that our same government will reverse its hitherto relentless ambition to mass-fluoridate the water supplies of every citizen in the UK? If not, perhaps a member of the LMGH could be persuaded to explain why!

Bernard J Seward

Green MEP writes to Health Authority

See the letter earlier this year from Caroline Lucas, Green Party Member of the European Parliament for the South East of the UK:

Dr Geoffrey Harris
Chairman NHS South Central Strategic Health Authority
Oakley Road, Southampton SO16 4GX

18th March 2008

Dear Dr Harris

Water fluoridation problems and the need to test residents for current fluoride levels

I am writing for two reasons,

1. To express my concern at the proposal currently being considered to fluoridate the drinking water in Southampton, and possibly elsewhere in Hampshire.
2. To ask what the levels of exposure there are in the current population in Southampton, and if this is not known, what steps are being taken to find this out.

My concerns over water fluoridation are that:

• It is not proven to be effective for teeth, particularly with the bad effects of dental fluorosis are taken into account (1)
• Many studies have indicated links between water fluoridation and serious ill health effects, including thyroid problems, skeletal fluorosis, bone cancers and mental problems (see attached summary paper)
• Putting fluoride in the water amounts to mass medication of the population. This is in direct contravention on the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (2) and contrary to medical ethics (3). We are seeking a legal opinion on its contravention of the Medicines Directive.

The concern over levels of exposure in the population at the moment is also a very serious one as it is very important to know the total dose that people will be receiving if water fluoridation were to be administered. The World Health Organisation advises that Public Health Administrators should be aware of this before introducing any additional fluoride programme (4).

I look forward to hearing your responses to these points.

Yours sincerely
Caroline Lucas MEP

cc Mrs Pauline Quan Arrow, Chair Southampton City Primary Care Trust

Please note that this is an open letter that I will be releasing to the media.

References:

1. York Study 2000. Main statement from the Conclusions: “The evidence of a benefit of a reduction in caries should be considered together with the increased prevalence of dental fluorosis. The research evidence is of insufficient quality to allow confident statements about other potential harms or whether there is an impact on social inequalities. This evidence on benefits and harms needs to be considered along with the ethical, environmental, ecological, costs and legal issues that surround any decisions about water fluoridation. All of these issues fell outside the scope of this review”:www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/pdf/fluorid.pdf and www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluoridnew.htm
2. Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/164.htm
3. “No physician in his right senses would prescribe for a person he has never met, whose medical history he does not know, a substance which is intended to create bodily change, with the advice: ‘Take as much as you like, but you will take it for the rest of your life because some children suffer from tooth decay’. It is a preposterous notion.” Dr Peter Mansfield, Advisory Board member of York Review.
4. "Dental and Public health administrators should be aware of the total fluoride exposure in the population before introducing any additional fluoride programme for caries prevention.“ - World Health Organization (1994), Fluorides and Oral Health.

AGM: Mysteries of water

Yes it was our AGM today - see the last post for further details re the presentation from Bernard Seward on IQs and below re Simon Charter's talk on the Mysteries of Water. The turn out at our AGM was somewhat disappointing - despite having handed out many leaflets about the talk and stuck up posters there were still only 25 people.

However I suspect as the threat of fluoridation is not imminent in Gloucestershire then there is not so much concern - plus there is still confusion about fluoride and chlorine - and the fact that fluoride is in toothpaste must mean it is good for us.....?? And in any case there are many other local issues at the moment including post office closures, plans for a new nuclear power station, bus service cuts, airport expansion plans etc etc...

One bit of fun was an experiment Rob Mehta had been carrying out - see photo - last year Rob carried out an experiment using different water - see results here. This year he by mistake over watered all of the seeds by the same amount - the results showed best growth with teh spring water from Hawkwood, then tap water then fluoridated water. Of course these one off experiments don't have any scientific value but they are a bit of fun and replicate others who have shown similar results.

Anyhow we had a lively discussion after the speakers had finished which included a look at the best next steps. These will be picked up at our next meeting on 5th June at 2pm - contact us for details of venue.

Mysteries of water

I love this talk that Simon gives - it is the second time I heard it and I still find it fascinating - for a write up of the last talk which covered a lot of the same ground see my blog here - and see the photos here of a slide and one of the experiments.

Many people said afterwards that it gave them a whole new perspective on water - anyhow hope these notes give a taster of the AGM today.

Fluoride and IQ deficits

AGM of the Safe Water Campaign today and one of the presentations was from Bernard Seward - here are his notes below but first the meeting kicked off with Rob Mehta singing "Brown Spotted Teeth" - now listed at the Centre for Political Song at Glasgow Caledonian University as a protest song - see our listing here. Also see next post re our other speaker Simon Charter on the qualities of water...

Photo: Rob singing Brown Spotted Teeth

Fluoride and I Q Deficits

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he wants to make Britain the best-educated nation in the world.

If he’s serious he should talk to the Chinese. China is priding itself in turning out 20 thousand or more graduates, year on year and is leaving no stone unturned in pursuit of that goal.

One of those stones is the removal of an impediment to IQ among children aged 8 to 13. Research by Chinese scientists in 1995 found a correlation between high levels of naturally occurring fluorides in the ground water and incidents of serious brain dysfunction.

In that same year a Dr Phyllis J Mullenix who worked at the Department of Psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachussetts, published the results of her research into
the toxicological effects, upon the brain, of various substances used in therapeutic treatments, including sodium fluoride which has long had a use for the treatment of thyroid conditions.

Mullenix had used laboratory rats for her studies, but by scaling up the results in terms of equivalence of concentrations, body mass and blood/fluoride levels, she discovered, among other things, a reversal of a previously accepted mantra; notably that fluoride would not cross the blood/brain barrier in the unborn foetus. She found that it did; and that the outcoming behavioural patterns were related to gender, age and exposure of the subjects. Males were more sensitive to pre-natal fluorides, whereas females reacted more to weaning and adult exposures, but the net results overall represented a weakening of the expected mental faculties relating to intelligence.

A quote (or soundbite) from Dr Mullenix: "Humans are being exposed to levels of fluoride we know alters behaviour in rats; levels that flagged potential for motor dysfunction, IQ deficits, and/or learning disabilities in humans."

Concurrently with her work, though independently, a Dr Bruce Spittle of the Dunedin Medical School, New Zealand, corroborated Dr Mullenix with his own work spanning 60 years of study of the effects of fluorine compounds on the central nervous system.

In 1994, the same year as Spittle’s work was published, scientist Richard Masters and water engineer Aaron Coplan collaborated in a study of 280 thousand children, also in the state of Massachussetts, finding high lead levels in the blood of those living in artificially fluoridated communities. Lead is a heavy metal we’d rather do without. We’ve spent a fortune getting rid of it in car fuel because it compromises normal brain development leading to long term deficits in learning and social behaviour.

In terms of public health, lead-free petrol and all that it implied must surely be an excellent example of money well spent.

Ironically, for the fluoridation proponents who do not yet seem to have made the connection, a major survey of 120 thousand children living in fluoridated New York State found that those with high lead levels also had more tooth decay than children living in neighbouring, unfluoridated, communities or states. This was freely reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association and commented upon by the New York State Coalition on Fluoridation (NYSCOF) whose web site makes an impressive case for fluoride opposition.

So with the benefit of their own research and that of other countries, now freely available and accessible via the internet, the Chinese authorities are playing safe and have banned fluoridation, cancelling existing schemes and abandoning plans for any further interventions, all in interests of the pursuit of academic excellence among their young people; not to mention their ambitions of world dominance in the global economy.

The 1995 Chinese scientific research paper “Effect of Fluoride Exposure in Intelligence in Children” , described in Barry Groves’ book ‘Fluoride Drinking ourselves to Death’ carries a graph plotting levels of IQ against age in two districts: Xinhua which had a low concentration of fluoride; and Sima with a high concentration.

Using the incidence of dental fluorosis as the marker, the IQ scores were 5 to 19 points lower for children in the severe fluorosis area compared with those with minimal fluorosis. A second study found a difference of 6 to 12 points lower in those children afflicted with severe fluorosis.

Another global competitor is India. India has legislated to remove all fluoride compounds from water before it reaches the suppliers. It acknowledges fluorides (even those naturally occurring) to be inconsistent with academic achievement among its consumers. The condition of their teeth is an irrelevance.

So wake up Gordon Brown – and you too, Ed Balls! Don’t glibly accept all that stale US inherited 1950s Dental Association hype.

If waste management features in your manifesto, remember that the original fluoridation scheme was a nuclear waste fly-tipping exercise conducted secretly upon the American people under the cloak of ‘National Security’. In the immortal words of actor Michael Caine, ‘Not a lot of people know that’…including most at Westminster.

You could start by instructing chancellor Alistair Darling to withhold any further treasury funding for ill-considered or fraudulently manipulated dental health schemes.

If British education is really worth fighting for, and it most certainly is, it should be simple enough to follow the 21st century prevailing policy of the American Dental Association; tell the truth about fluoridation, refuse to compromise further your declared educational objectives while setting aside the collection of disparate professional views, based on vested interests and reputations.

Bernard J Seward B.Ed(Hons)

Telephone Poll to inform Fluoride Debate

Is this what we can expect to be used here in the UK? It is incredible how people can get away with carrying out opinion polls in such a biased way. It sounds like it is right out of the British Fluoridation Society advice book about how to fix opinion polls.
Should fluoride be added to our water supply?
A TELEPHONE poll of 1,000 randomly selected Island residents will be carried out next month to find out if the public want fluoride in their drinking water.
Health Minister Eddie Teare insisted that if there was no strong public mandate then his department would drop the proposal. But the launch of the latest phase of the consultation came amid continuing accusations of bias – and an embarrassing u-turn over an information leaflet being distributed to households. And Mr Teare admitted that even if the public voted in favour he was still likely to face a long political battle before fluoride could be introduced to the Island's water supply. He said: 'I've no idea how it's going to go. If the view of the public is they don't want fluoride then that's fine – we will walk away. I do feel this whole debate has been useful in raising the issue of the poor state of oral health in the Isle of Man.'
Public health officials are convinced fluoridation is the most cost-effective way of tackling alarmingly high rates of dental decay among the Island's children. But the anti-fluoride lobby accuse them of 'state-sponsored propaganda' and insist fluoride is unsafe and far from cost-effective. The Department of Health and Social Security has appointed independent market research company GfK/NOP to conduct the telephone poll of 1,000 randomly selected residents which will take place in early May. It will include those with ex-directory numbers. They will ask: 'Do you think tooth decay rates on the Isle of Man are above average UK level, below it, or about the same?'. They will continue: 'In fact tooth decay levels on the Isle of Man are considerably higher than the average UK level.
In many developed counties, and in some parts of the UK, fluoride is added to the water supply to reduce levels of tooth decay. Would you favour or oppose fluoride being added to the water in the Isle of Man.'
Kevin Glynn, campaign director for anti-fluoride group Save Our Water, said: 'How can you have a poll when only one side of the argument is given? I would say it is weighted as it doesn't include information on dental fluorosis, a proven side-effect.' But Mr Teare said: 'We're going to be accused of trying to manipulate things. This thing has got very personal and I regret that. We will have no input in the poll. The questions have been drafted by GfK/NOP. It's not weighted. We've not attempted to phrase the questions in such a way that there's only one answer.'
In Tynwald last week, the minister was criticised over a new public information leaflet, due to be distributed to all Island households this week. A line in the leaflet claimed that the Water Authority was 'now seeking to bring in legislation on fluoridation'. Water Authority chairman David Cannan pointed out this wasn't correct and the leaflets have now been re-printed by the DHSS at a cost of £2,500 with the offending line removed. Mr Teare said: 'There was a dispute about this in Tynwald and we took it out to avoid any ambiguity. We had relied on information taken in good faith from the Water Authority but they didn't feel comfortable with it so we removed it at their request. We reprinted it at DHSS cost because we just want to get on with it.' But the minister admitted that even with a strong public mandate, he could still face a tough challenge to persuade the politicians to vote for the legislation needed to add fluoride to the water supply.'I've got a very difficult road to cross,' he said. Save Our Water say they may challenge the public information leaflet on fluoridation. Mr Glynn said: 'We already know information put out by the DHSS is biased. This leaflet is just propaganda and may well be in breach of advertising codes as well because they are making medicinal claims of a food product.'
18 April 2008 From: http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Telephone-poll-to-inform- fluoride.3994546.jp

What is in your toothpaste?

See The Ecologist look at the contents of a tube of toothpaste here:
www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=884

Do you suffer from mouth ulcers or rashes on your face? Are your teeth pitted and yellow? If the answer to these questions is yes, then your toothpaste may be to blame...and one of those ingredients that is worrying is fluoride.....

"My God! This is the next asbestos!

UK Councils Against Fluoridation is an Alliance of Public Authorities, Professional Institutions and Unions opposed to the fluoridation of public water supplies
We have finally got the new website up and running.
UK Councils Against Fluoridation
Please visit our url as the website contains much legal information which will be of great interest to Councils and other institutions.