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Tale of Two Toxins - cont'd

Fluoride, unlike tobacco, didn't get its start by a strong need to be incorporated, like smoking, as a social recreation. As far as I know, people never get together in fluoridation parlors, drinking fluoridated water and wishing good health to each other.

Actually fluoride was discovered quite by accident, by researchers studying why people had structural problems with their spine, teeth and bones in what was known as Colorado Teeth (dental fluorosis). The researchers, Trenly Dean and others from the United States Public Health Service found that the culprit of these physically devastating diseases was in the drinking water. That element was fluoride, 13th most common element on earth. At levels of 4 to 6 parts per million, it caused devastating physical effects in the people that consume.

One seeming benefit at the time suggested that those people that had some fluoride exposure had strong teeth. But the margin of safety was very close, within a few parts per million. Trenly Dean the researcher, had the best of intentions suggesting that maybe a small amount of fluoride be left in the water supply to help people achieve better dental health. Even many industries that produce fluoride as a by-product of processing, namely the phosphate fertilizer and the aluminum companies, thought they were providing good. (Even though it was well known that the compound of fluoride was one of the most potent toxic chemicals on earth, defoliating the environment and destroying plants and animals.)

Dentistry, of course, embraced the concept of better dental health. In the late 1940s and 1950s with the scourge of dental decay, caused mostly by sugars, the old "drill them and fill them" concepts of dentistry turned to that of prevention. Again all good intentions were made.

The possibility of putting a chemical into the water supply to effect the physical health of another person through fluoridation had its critics, including the former President of the American Medical Association, stating that he was appalled by the concept. But the ban wagon started to roll on. The social descent of people objecting to being treated through their water supply was put down by the allegation that these people were right wing conspirators, and doctors waived on the side of caution and concern were on the medical fringe.

In no point in this writing am I going to get into the ultimate result...continue or previous page

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