ZWAReports11-2-98


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ZERO WASTE AMERICA
PRESS RELEASE - NOV 2, 1998

Please Note! Jan 7, 1999: ADA Refutes News Reports That Bottled Water Causes Cavities 

DISMAYED OVER LATEST FLUORIDE FARCE, ACTIVISTS WANT BALANCE

Activists are shaking their heads this week. It has happened again. A pro-fluoride story, lacking in accuracy, substantiation, and balance, sweeps the nation, thanks to a news media who takes an uncritical position with proponents of fluoride.

According to the reports, some dentists think that they've noticed children who drink bottled water and not fluoridated municipal water may be getting more cavities. No study was sited to substantiate these claims, nor does any appear to exist.

Despite the numerous battles that have raged across the United States for years against the federal government’s and dental associations campaign to fluoridate all municipal water systems, reporters appear to be unaware of the numerous government and university research studies that have been published in the last 10 years, that clearly demonstrate that Americans are being over-exposed to fluoride and are suffering the resulting harmful health effects.

THE REAL STORY IS THAT PEOPLE ARE BEING OVERDOSED WITH FLUORIDE and it has been substantiated in a series of reports published in the Journal of The American Dental Association (JADA) since 1995. The visible symptom is fluorosis or spotted and pitted teeth, and which, by any other name, is TOOTH DECAY. Fluorosis is widespread in America due to the fact that over 60% of municipal water is fluoridated and now fluoride is showing up in processed food and beverage products.

This week's fluoride story wasn't even news. The ADA released this same unsubstantiated "bottled water" story last year. But, in the ill-conceived campaign to fluoridate the nation's water system, federal and dental spokespeople continue to be dutifully quoted by the news media, while anti-fluoride activists are shut-out of the coverage.

In one news report, fluoride was characterized as 'natural', a description that does not apply to the fluoride that is added to municipal water. That type of fluoride is a toxic waste by-product of industries, including phosphate fertilizer producers. It would cost industry to properly dispose of fluoride as a hazardous waste, instead they make money by selling it to municipal water authorities.

What is hard to explain is that many of the studies that document the overexposure of Americans to fluoride and resulting harmful health effects have been published by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and by the Journal of the American Dental Association, the publishing arm of the ADA. Yet, both HHS and the ADA have a pro-fluoride policy.

The following are the news stories and research studies the news media has not reported on:

Background: Fluoride is the only chemical added to U.S. municipal water that is used to mass medicate, rather than to render water safe to drink. It is not an essential nutrient. It has never received "FDA Approval" (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). It is listed as an "unapproved new drug" by the FDA, and as a "contaminant" by the EPA.

1986: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set new "maximum contaminant levels (MCLs)" for fluoride in water. Above 2 mg/liter "children are likely to develop objectionable dental fluorosis" and parents must be officially notified. Above 4 mg/liter, individuals are at risk of developing "crippling skeletal fluorosis." It is against federal law to fluoridate water above 4 mg/liter.

1991: The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, in their Review of Fluoride Benefits and Risks, published an analysis of fluoride exposure levels from food, beverages, toothpaste, and mouthwash. This data indicates that the public is already overexposed to fluoride and that, at the very least, dentists should no longer prescribe fluoride supplements. Even in unfluoridated communities, residents were being exposed to as much as 2.20 milligrams a day. In fluoridated communities, fluoride exposure exceeded 7 milligrams per day. (In 1998, fluoridation is more widespread, therefore current exposures would be worse.)

1993: The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated in its Toxicological Profile on Fluoride, "Existing data indicate that subsets of the population may be unusually susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride and its compounds. These populations include the elderly, people with deficiencies of calcium, magnesium, and/or vitamin C, and people with cardiovascular and kidney problems... Postmenopausal women and elderly men in fluoridated communities may also be at increased risk of fractures."

1994: The American Dental Association's (ADA) Council on Scientific Affairs approved a new Fluoride Supplementation Dosage Schedule with the following cautions, "Patient exposure to multiple water sources can make proper prescribing complex...Caries (cavities) reduction benefits must be balanced with risk for mild and very mild fluorosis."

1995-97: The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA's Dec. 1995, July 1996, July 1997, March 1999, June 2000) has published a series of studies reporting on pervasive overexposure to fluoride due to "the widespread use of fluoridated water, fluoride dentifrice, dietary fluoride supplements and other forms of fluoride...{There is} an increased prevalence of dental fluorosis, ranging from about 15% to 65% in fluoridated areas and 5% to 40% in non-fluoridated areas in North America."

February 1997: The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) press release: AGD, representing 35,000 dentists, warns parents to limit their children's intake of juices due to fluoride content.

June/July 1997 - ADA:Your Child May Be Getting Too Much Fluoride Through Baby Food? / Full Abstract

July 2, 1997 - EPA Union Scientists Take Stand Against Fluoridation-Press Release & Original letter

April 16, 1998 - Research Links Fluoride to Alzheimer's & Kidney Damage.

June 19-21, 1998 - International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT ) co-hosted a

Sept 8, 1998 - Academe Today, Chemical in Fluoridated Water May Cause Violent Behavior symposium on developing a public health goal (PHG) for ingested fluoride. See SaveTeeth.Org

EXPERTS ON FLUORIDE:

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