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In The Beginning

Ironically, fluoride touted to be the saviour of our teeth, had a jaded past that often does not come up in a proponent presentation. In the 1930s H. Trendley Dean, Head of Dental Hygiene with the US National Institute of Health, was dispatched to Texas and Colorado to look for the cause of a disfiguring condition called Skeletal Fluorosis. Dean discovered that the cause for the disfigurement of the spine and the discoloration and brittle condition of the teeth in many towns of the southwest (including Barrett, TX) came from a chemical found in the water. That chemical was fluoride. He called the discolored or spotted teeth "Texas Teeth" and concluded that the fluoride, several times the recommended level in the water, poisoned the people. This poisoning was not from one exposure but a lifetime of accumulating fluoride in the body. At that time however, he concluded that some people appeared to have less dental cavities as a result of this condition and thought that perhaps they should not take all the fluoride out with the idea that it might somehow improve dental health. It wasn't until many years later in the 1950s he had second thoughts regarding his initial comment.

Other than finding fluoride in rocks, this chemical was known in the industry as a toxic by-product of aluminum and phosphate fertilizer processing. It had no benefit to man and was either dumped at sea or landfills until the government sued the companies for destroying the environment. Because of its toxicity, the only product value that it did have was the chief ingredient in rat poisoning and roach poison.

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The Experiment

The promotion of fluoridation in the late 40s and early 50s was no accident to many of us that have followed politics, for the US Public Health Service at the time was headed by Oscar Ewing, a former lawyer for the Alcoa Aluminum Companies. It was his strong leadership that targeted four cities in the US to try the great experiment of adding fluoride to the drinking water. Two Michigan towns and two New York towns were selected in the East. Newburgh was slated to be fluoridated along with a test city, Kingston, that remained unfluoridated. These cities had about the same amount of dentists and population and about the same rate of dental decay at the time. Without laboratory tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of fluoride the dentist in Newburgh stated that there was a reduction in dental decay according to the studies by the health officials and the dental profession.

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