Fluoridation
What is fluoride?
Fluoride is a poison. According to the 1984 issue of Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products (Williams & Wilkins), it is more poisonous than lead and slightly less poisonous than arsenic. It has been used as a pesticide for the control of mice, rats and other animal pests.
Procter & Gamble, the makers of Crest, acknowledges that a family-sized tube of fluoride toothpaste "theoretically, at least, contains enough fluoride to kill a small child." While no one is going to die from drinking one glass of fluoridated water, just as no one will die from smoking one cigarette, it is the longer-term chronic effects of many glasses of fluoridated water that takes its toll in human health - and life.

What is fluoridation?
Fluoridation is the addition of fluoride to the public water system, at the rate of about 1 part fluoride for every million parts of water. Industries that produced fluoride as a waste product originally promoted it as a means of fighting tooth decay.

Is evidence of fluoride poisoning visible to the naked eye?
Yes. About 20-35% of the people growing up in artificially fluoridated areas experience a disturbance of tooth development so great that the resulting damage is visible to the naked eye. This disease is referred to as dental fluorosis. In mild cases, it appears as a chalky-white area on the teeth. In more advanced cases, teeth become yellow, brown or black and the tips break off. Fluoride damages teeth by interfering with the proper formation of collagen and collagen-like proteins in the teeth during their formative stages. These proteins also comprise the structural component for skin, ligaments, muscles, cartilage, and bone.
Fluoridated water leads to a breakdown of these proteins.

Are there other harmful effects ?
Yes. Some others harmful efects include:

• genetic damage
• allergy-like reactions
• cancer
• bone damage (osteoporosis)
• weakened immune system

Does fluoridation reduce tooth decay ?
No. Recent large-scale studies by public health dentists in New Zealand, Canada and the United States have reported similar tooth decay rates in fluoridated and unfluoridated areas.

What other sources of fluoride should I stay away from ?

• Fluoride treatments at the dentist's office
• Fluoride toothpastes
• Fluoride mouthwashes
• Fluoride tablets or drops usually prescribed for children
• Fluoride tablets for the treatment of osteoporosis