From the "Bottom Line Daily Health Newsletter":
FRIEND OR FOEThe controversy over fluoridation of our water rages on. Fluoride is supposedly good for dental health. However, research continues to demonstrate that it is harmful to our general health. Is it worth the trade-off?
FLUORIDE AS FRIENDThe discovery of fluoride's ability to fight cavities and tooth decay began with experiments by Basil Bibby, MD, in the early 1940s at the Tufts Dental School in Boston. Dr. Bibby discovered that if a little bit of fluoride was put on a cotton swab and then applied to a decayed tooth, the tooth could be saved.
Fluoride halts tooth decay because it inhibits the growth of enzyme-causing bacteria. It also can remineralize tooth enamel. Fluoride's primary benefit comes through direct contact with the teeth. According to many scientists, topical application to the tooth is the only effective delivery path for fluoride's decay-fighting abilities.
Several studies support this view. In the largest dental survey ever conducted in the US, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research found virtually no differences in dental decay in children living in areas with fluoridated water versus unfluoridated water areas. Five peer-reviewed studies conducted in 2000 and 2001 found that dental decay does not increase when communities stop fluoridating their water.
FLUORIDE AS FOE
Although the benefits of fluoride are primarily topical, its risks are primarily systemic (that is, resulting when fluoride is swallowed). A look at the medical literature revealed many study results suggesting negative health effects of fluoride.
A few examples...
- A study published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research found that water with concentrations of one part per million fluoride (the standard amount in most communities that have fluoridated water supplies) facilitated the absorption of aluminum in the brains of rats, producing the type of brain formulations that are associated with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.
- Fluoride stimulates abnormal bone development, according to clinical trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. Researchers report that while high-dose fluoride treatment increases bone mass, the newly formed bone is structurally unsound, causing increases in hip fractures. There also are concerns that even low doses of fluoride, taken over long periods of time, as it would be in communities with fluoridated water, also may increase the rate of hip fracture. More than half of 19 recent studies found an association between low levels of fluoride in water and an increase in hip fracture.
- Fluoridated water has been associated with elevated levels of lead in children's blood, reported a study in the December 2000 issue of Neurotoxicology.
FLUORIDE, BIG BUSINESS AND POLITICS
Most of us have had fluoride in our drinking water for many years. Why? As early as the 1930s, the aluminum manufacturers needed something to do with the sodium fluoride that was a by-product of the aluminum smelting process. When the industry became aware of Dr. Bibby's work at Tufts, a campaign was mounted to convince the American Dental Association to accept fluoride as a topical anticavity treatment so that it could be advocated as a value-added component of toothpaste. In 1950, the Public Health Service authorized use of fluoride in water systems as a way to get fluoride to the general public as a tooth-decay preventive agent.
Mike Coplan, former consultant to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Enviornmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Defense and other government agencies and a lifelong "student" of water fluoridation, says that during the 1960s and 1970s, heavy phosphate mining for fertilizers produced another type of fluoride as a by-product -- fluorosilicic acid. This time, the industry got rid of the new type of fluoride by marketing it to municipalities as a less expensive alternative to sodium fluoride, and most municipalities in the US bought it. However, as you will see below, if fluoride in the water was questionable before, recent changes in water-disinfection procedures have made it even more questionable now.
A FLUORIDE/LEAD STORY: THE SYNERGY FACTOR
Ongoing research involving fluoride in lead contamination of water is being conducted by Richard Maas, PhD, codirector of the Environmental Quality Institute at University of North Carolina at Asheville. His study provides some insight into the fluoride/lead connection. The problem is not just the fluoride -- it's the combination of the type of fluoride added to the water and the type of disinfecting agents used in the water.
Specifically, Dr. Maas is finding the highest levels of lead in the water in areas that combine chloramines, the agent now used to comply with EPA standards for lower levels of chlorine byproducts in the water, with fluorosilicic acid. Scary: 89% of communities fluoridate with the less expensive fluorosilicic acid versus the traditional sodium fluoride.
Dr. Maas says that the study will be completed in about three months, but he expects the final results to mirror the tests so far.
MINIMIZE EXPOSURE
To minimize your exposure to fluoride...
- Use a reverse osmosis filter on your water tap. The only filters that will reliably remove more than 90% of flouride are those that use reverse osmosis technology, so be sure to ask. Prices range from $300 to as high as $1,500. Some pitcher filters may remove fluoride as well, but you must be sure to change the cartridges frequently.
- Use a water cooler/dispenser. Water coolers typically hold five-gallon jugs of spring water. Coolers are more convenient than buying small bottles of water from the store, and you can avoid the need for properly maintaining a filter. Remember to ask about the fluoride concentrations in the water you are buying. (Try to get water with less than 0.1 parts per million.) Prices for water coolers range from $50 to $600... a five-gallon jug of water typically costs about $6.
- Install a water distillation system on your water tap. Water distillation will remove all fluoride. Prices vary widely according to size -- small units run about $200, while the larger ones can cost as much as $1,600 and up.
- Cook with spring water. If you don't install a distillation system on your tap water, consider cooking with bottled water as well. Heating does not remove fluoride from the water.
- Use fluoridated toothpaste properly. Believe the warning label when it says "do not swallow." Used properly, this is where the fluoride benefits do exist.
Even with all of these precautions, it is nearly impossible to completely avoid ingesting fluoride. Most prepared foods, including frozen foods, were probably manufactured with fluoridated water, says Coplan. Where possible, fresh is best.
A note of comfort for you: Daily Health News contributing editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, says that we don't have to be overly obsessive about fluoride -- it is a necessary nutrient in microscopic amounts. If we exclude it from our drinking water we should be all right.
To find out the type of disinfectant and fluoridating agents being used in your community, call your local water company.