The Unconsensual Medication of the Masses
Juan Pablo Nava 1
Table of Contents Dedication
Pages 4 and 5
Forward
Pages 6 and 7
Intoduction
Pages 8 to 13
Chapter One: The Health of Problems of Flouride
Pages 14 to 21
Chapter Two: Flaws with the Ideals and Morality of Fluoridation
Pages 22 to 27
Conclusion
Pages 28 and 29
Works Cited
Pages 30
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to my family and freestly academy and my dogs who don’t need any fluoride in their water.
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Foreword My father works at the Santa Clara Water District and when I mentioned doing a documentary he suggested fluoridation. He explained to me that there was controversy over whether or not fluoridation was beneficial to the public’s health or not. I wrote the book to explain the anti-fluoridation point of view. The Book is organized into the history and goal of fluoride. chapter one describes how fluoride is detrimental to your health while chapter two explains how fluoridation is illogical and immoral. For the project I interviewed Bruce Cabral, a worker at the Santa Clara Water District, a dentist from South San Jose, Dr. Duong, and a anti-fluoride activist, Arlene Goetze.
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the lake outside of The Santa Clara Water District
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Introduction ““The purpose of fluoride is to benefit dental health, and I think one of the reasons that it is put in the water verses just toothpaste or versus just topical application at the dentist’s office is that—if you talk to your dentist he’ll say this too—is that it reaches a broader population:children who maybe don’t go to the dentist, can’t afford the dentist, will be getting fluoridated water, and it helps protect their teeth against cavities” —Bruce Cabral, Santa Clara Valley Water District.
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Mr. Bruce Cabral
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According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), seventy-three percent of Americans (204.3 million) ingest fluoride in their “community water systems” (CDC jargon) on the basis that it benefits our teeth and prevents cavities. In a society where not everybody has access to dental health care, the policy of water fluoridation has spread with the hope that it could be end to dental inequality. But this is sadly false. Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city to fluoridate because of research sparked by the eloquently named “Colorado Brown Stain”. A man named
Dr. McKay moved to Colorado Springs in 1901 where he was shocked to find local residents with grotesque brown marks on their teeth, but, upon further inspection had teeth especially resistant to decay. His findings eventually reached an aluminum company, ALCOA, and their chief chemist. Mr. H. C. Churchill now intrigued by the new sent his assistant out to Colorado to investigate whether the water supply was causing the staining. Fluoride was found in high quantities. 10
This caused, Dr. H. Trendley Dean, and his team to conduct research that would determine at what point did fluoride caused fluorosis (the staining of teeth due to fluoride). When he discovered the number was 1 part per million, he was enthralled. Remembering that the victims of the Colorado Brown Stain had teeth which were resistant to decay, he went to Grand Rapids in 1944 to persuade the city to allow fluoridation at safe levels for an experiment. For fifteen years thirty thousand Grand Rapid school kids and their teeth were monitored. After eleven years, sixty percent of kids saw a reduction of tooth decay, and Dr. Trendley Dean hailed fluoride as a scientific breakthrough. Almost sixty years later water fluoridation continues to be a worldwide controversy. 11
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The facts against fluoride are overwhelming. Fluorosis has become widespread and fluoridated areas are not seeing a lowering in tooth decay, but a rise in other health problems associated with fluoride. 13
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Chapter 1: The Health Problems of Fluoride Since the original experiment that put fluoride on the map, high fluorosis levels have caused disturbing effects. Over forty-one percent US children aged twelve to fifteen suffer from fluorosis with racial minorities and the working class suffering the most. The CDC says that Mexican-American and African-American children have significantly higher rates of fluorosis than white children. Community leaders like the Rev. Andrew Young have spoken out against fluoridation because the perspectives of the impoverished and minority populations were not being represented, “I am deeply concerned for poor families who have babies: if they cannot afford unfluoridated water for their babies’ milk formula, do their babies not count? … This is an issue of fairness, civil rights, and compassion.” (Rev. Andrew Young 2011) Mrs. Arlene Goetze. She is a reformer and anti-fluoridation supporter.
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Arlene Goetze’s Demonstration for how much fluoride is in our food But it’s OK because the advantages of drinking fluoridated water outweigh the negative effects, right? Well the CDC has recently stated that the effects of fluoride are mainly topical, meaning that fluoride helps when it is applied to your teeth like in toothpaste, not when it is ingested via our water supply. This contradicts the what the findings in Grand Rapids have presented since their vehicle for fluoridation was the town’s water supply. 16
In 2012, the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation Inc. claimed that water supplies with fluoride are not reducing tooth decay in New York. The West Virginia University Rural Health Research Center produced similar findings, saying children with high levels of fluoride have just as much tooth decay as children in less fluoridated areas. It has even been found that in areas without fluoridated water, dental decay is lowering at the same rate if not faster than in countries with fluoridated water (Journal of the American Dental Association, 1984). Unfortunately fluorosis is one of the many hazards of fluoride.
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There’s a long list of things fluoride can be detrimental to, including the brain. The National Research Council in 2006 stated, “the consistency of the results [in fluoride/IQ studies] appears significant enough to warrant additional research on the effects of fluoride on intelligence.” Studies in China, Iran, and India (all non fluoridated countries) have shown a connection between lower IQs and fluoride. Not only is intelligence impaired, but three studies (Calderon 2000; Li 2004; Rocha-Amador 2009) show that fluoride in humans compromises visualspatial organization while three other studies (Han 1989; Du 1992; Yu 1996) show a connection between fluoride exposure in parents and damage to fetal brains.
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Again, in 2006, the U.S. National Research Council linked fluoride to modern health problems, stating: “Several lines of information indicate an effect of fluoride on thyroid function.� Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) is a major U.S. health problem and in other countries where drinking water is fluoridated; coincidently in the 20th century, European doctors prescribed fluoride to reduce an overactive thyroid gland (Stecher 1960; Waldbott 1978). For the vast majority of Americans without an overactive thyroid gland, fluoride would therefore cause hypothyroidism.
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Fluoride causes bones to become condensed and brittle, but not stronger. This has a bigger effect than you think. We as a nation intake massive amounts of fluoride though our food. The bones of chickens are mashed together with the meat in baby food, our food, and even dog food. That means the fluoride ingested by the chickens resides in their bones and goes into our food. Food has fluoride levels way higher than those deemed safe in our drinking water. Two thirds of the nation’s water is fluoridated and that fluoride also goes into our irrigation systems for our livestock and produce. The Center for Disease Control did a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2001 and 2002 for the overdosing of babies with fluoride. Boston, Detroit , Minneapolis, Seattle, and San Francisco ranked top five cities with the highest percent of overdosed infants.
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Over 27% of infants had fluoride levels higher than the recommended amount. Formula fed infants showed the highest rate of overexposure starting at 44.1% of infants in the fifth highest city (61.2% of Boston formula fed babies were overdosed). This is frightening when the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry says that children one to six months old should have no fluoride in their diet. Even worse, in 1991 the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) concluded that the average person absorbs more pollutants through baths and showering than in drinking water. Fluoride is everywhere: in our drinking water, in our food, and the bath water we clean ourselves in.
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Chapter 2: Flaws with The Ideals and Morality of Fluoridation Fluoride is the only thing put in our water as medication, not a cleanser. Dr. Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Peace Prize winner for medicine in 2000 says, “The addition of drugs to the drinking water means exactly the opposite of an individualized therapy.� Usually a doctor prescribes a patient for medication after they have met and the doctor has conducted a thorough examination. The doctor then determines what the cause of the underlying problem is and what the solution is for it. Water fluoridation is mass medication with no doctor visits, so the amount needed on a daily basis for a unique individual is not determined. 22
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The Santa Clara Water Board uses a table given to them by the California Department of Health which directs how many parts per million of fluoride should be in the water supply based on ambient temperature. In hot climates, the average person drinks more water so they need less fluoride per glass because they drink more glasses of water daily. This doesn’t take into account people that need less or no fluoride in their water like newborn infants of people with kidney problems that cannot handle the fluoride.
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The government puts in fluoride to help those who cannot afford the dentist or other dental care needs, but this isn’t happening. Ironically, in low income areas where water fluoridation is the main purpose, lead pipes bring the water medicine to the subject. An issue of the International Journal of Environmental Studies by Professor Emeritus Roger Masters focuses on 280,000 Massachusettes children. The results showed an association between silicofluorides (water fluoride) and high levels of lead in children’s blood. The town of Thurmont, Maryland banned water fluoridation in 1994. Following the ban, lead levels dropped from 130 parts per million to 31 parts per million in the water supply and 9.26 parts per million to 7.11 in people’s blood supply.
Santa Clara Valley Water District-The Deciders fpr our local Fluoride
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The intended goal of fluoride, which in turn justifies the unconsented medication of the masses, isn’t even working; it’s just causing more issues. Other doctors have spoken out against the mass medication fluoride intends to do. Dr. Peter Mansfield, who was on an advisory board for the government review of fluoridation in the UK, stated the following in 2000, “No physician in his right senses would prescribe for a person he has never met, whose medical history he does not know, a substance which is intended to create bodily change with the advice: ‘Take as much as you like, but you will take it the rest of your life because some children suffer from tooth decay. ‘It is a preposterous notion.” (Mansfield 2000) Dr. Peter argues that doctors never prescribe patients who they haven’t met before with medication, nor would a doctors prescribe a group of people with a medication when only one group member has symptoms. So why is the government doing it?
Dr. Duong and her Assistents
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Santa Clara Valley Water District-Where they hold Ad Hawk mettings The Nuremberg laws declare it a crime against humanity to forcibly or covertly medicate a population, and that’s what fluoride does. An individual cannot choose whether they want fluoride in their community water systems, they have no vote in the matter. The only chance a fluoride dissenter has is to speak is at an AD HAWK meeting which after hearing both sides, still voted for fluoridation. When I asked Dr. Duong, a dentist who supports fluoridation, if people should have a choice if they want fluoride in their water, she conceded by saying that was a good question. nonconsensual medication, even when justified by benefits, still disenfranchises people. 27
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Conclusion We are a nation exposed to extremely high levels of fluoride on the basis that it prevents tooth decay, but facts contradict the preventive abilities of fluoride and present a different story. Along with fluoride, fluorosis is spread across the United States. Hypothyroidism and Brain Damage are linked to fluoride and infants are being overexposed to the toxin. Doctors and Men of the Cloth have spoken out, yet the government continues to fluoridate against people’s wishes. Is this not madness? On March 22, more than one hundred protesters dressed in all black marched from San Francisco’s Union Square to the city library on Market Street to protest fluoride’s continued addition to public drinking water. A drum major led a six-member marching band that started the procession, playing solemn music. Marchers followed, holding a banner with the slogan “Get the F Out.” Although the occasion was no civil rights march on Washington, it demonstrated that fluoride fighters are organized and willing to take action. The government should take note of these protests.
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Works Cited Calderon J et al. (2000). Influence of fluoride exposure on reaction time and visuospatial organization in children. Epidemiology11(4):S153. http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/statistics/2010stats.htm. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 27th 2012. Web. March 21st. Carbral, Bruce. Personal Interview. February 11th. Du L. 1992. The effect of fluorine on the developing human brain. Chinese Journal of Pathology 21(4):218-20 (republished in Fluoride41:327-30). Duong, Quyen. Personal Interview. February 28th. Goetze, Arlene. Personal Interview. March 14th. Han H, Cheng Z, Liu W. 1989. Effects of fluorine on the human fetus. Chinese Journal of Control of Endemic Diseases 4:136-138 (republished in Fluoride 41:321-6). Li J, Yao L, Shao QL, Wu CY. 2004. Effects of high fluoride level on neonatal neurobehavioural development. Chinese Journal of Endemiology 23:464-465 (republished in Fluoride 41:165-70). http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/oralhealth/topics/fluoride/thestoryoffluoridation.htm. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Health, March 25 2011. Web. March 21st. Paul Connett. http://www.fluoridealert.org/articles/50-reasons/. Fluoride Alert. Org, September 2012. Web March 24th. Rocha-Amador D et al. (2009). Use of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test for neurotoxicity evaluation of mixtures in children.Neurotoxicology 30(6):1149-54. Stecher P, et al. (1960). The Merck Index of Chemicals and Drugs. Merck & Co., Inc, Rathway NJ. p. 952 Waldbott GL, et al. (1978). Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma. Coronado Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. Yu Y et al. (1996) Neurotransmitter and receptor changes in the brains of fetuses from areas of endemic fluorosis. ChineseJ Endemiology 15: 257-259 (republished in Fluoride 41(2):134-8). 30