Dentists Push Fluoridation Despite Evidence of Harm

New York - Ignoring scientific evidence of harm, a coalition of Nassau and Suffolk Dental Societies  and the Nassau County Department of Health wants to institute fluoridation on Long Island NY, according to the Nassau County Dental Society Bulletin (November-December 2006) and a Nassau County Health Department report (May 2007). Similar coalitions are driving fluoridation efforts all across the nation, including California, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, etc.

Fluoride, neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth, is intentionally added to many public water supplies, not to purify the water but ostensibly to prevent tooth decay.

In Nassau County, NY, Levittowners voted out 29 years of water fluoridation in 1983. Carle Place and the Nassau communities bordering New York City followed in 1996. The Suffolk County NY Legislature voted down their Health Commissioner's fluoridation plan in 1991. Now Long Island is fluoridation-free yet enjoys a lower cavity rate than most fluoridated New York States counties and NYS, as a whole, which is 73% fluoridated.

Dentists hope fluoridation efforts will divert attention from the real problem - 80% of dentists refuse to treat Medicaid patients and 108 million Americans don't have dental insurance. Dentists fear governments may mandate they treat people they don't want to treat. So dentists treat their water supply instead.

A 2006 National Research Council (NRC) report reveals that fluoridation poses risks to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and others and can severely damage children's teeth.

"Government officials who continue to promote fluoridation must testify under oath as to why they are ignoring the powerful evidence of harm in the NRC report," says Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network.

Also, ignoring their own 1990 recommendation for more kidney and allergy fluoride research, NYS Department of Health representatives take part in current Nassau Suffolk Oral Health Coalition meetings where fluoridation is discussed and encouraged but fluoridation dissent is discouraged.

Over 1,200 professionals (and growing) have signed a statement urging Congress to stop water fluoridation nationwide and to hold Congressional hearings about why federal officials continue to promote fluoridation in the face of new scientific evidence that fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. ( http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html)

Signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three NRC fluoride panel members, two officers in the EPA Union representing 1500 EPA professionals; and hundreds of medical, dental, academic, scientific and environmental professionals, worldwide.

Signer Dr. Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, says, "Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology."

The Professionals' Statement also references:

-- new American Dental Association advisory that infant formula NOT be prepared with fluoridated water

-- Centers for Disease Control's concession that fluoride's predominant effect is topical not systemic

-- Fluoridation chemicals are arsenic and lead-contaminated industrial waste, neither safety-tested nor FDA-approved for human ingestion.

-- CDC data shows fluoride has caused up to 51% of U.S. school children to have dental fluorosis (discolored teeth)

"As a Cosmetic Dentist, it is not uncommon to have patients receive gorgeous porcelain veneers to correct their dental fluorosis, white and brown damage from too much ingested fluoride. Costs range from several hundred dollars to well over $25,000 and need to be retreated every 10 to 20 years for life time costs which may exceed $100,000 per person," writes Washington state dentist Bill Osmunson in the British Medical Journal.

"No Long Islander is fluoride-deficient and no logical reason exists to add fluoride chemicals to any Long Island water supply," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). The dental crisis that's occurring nationwide is not from lack of fluoridation but because most dentists won't treat Medicaid patients and 108 million Americans don't have dental insurance," says Beeber.

"Please contact your legislators to ask that they reject unnecessary and tax-draining fluoridation initiatives," says Beeber

"Also, please take action to end fluoridation once and for all by signing the online petition to end fluoridation and call for a congressional hearing here," asks Connett.

References:

Nassau County Dental Society Bulletin, President's Message, November-December 2006

http://www.nassaudental.org/Content.aspx?Command=File&File=html/presidentmsg-nd06.html

"Our partnership has led to a coalition between the Nassau County Dental Society, the Suffolk County Dental Society and the Nassau County Department of Health dealing directly with the access to care issue present in our community... The coalition is currently exploring the possibility of re-instituting water fluoridation programs in selected communities, recognizing the dramatic and direct positive impact this action would have on the general dental health of these communities."

Nassau County Community Health Assessment 2005-2010 (Updated May 2007)

http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/health/docs/pdf/2005-2010_cha.pdf

Page 35 "The LHD, as part of the Nassau Oral Health Coalition, will engage politicians, health professionals, community leaders and water districts to reexamine the public health benefits of water fluoridation."

"Fluoride: Benefits and Risks of Exposure," by NYS
Department of Health employees and published in Oral Biology and Medicine
in 1990 advised "The available data suggest that some individuals may experience
hypersensitivity to fluoride-containing agents. Further studies on hypersensitivity are required...

More resources