Fluoridation is based on poor science, has overstated benefits, puts
children at high risk of developing dental fluorosis and may increase
older women's chances of wrist fractures, reports the British Medical
Journal (B.M.J.), October 7, 2000.

McDonagh and colleagues conducted a systematic review of 214 selected
water fluoridation safety and efficacy studies. "Given the level of
interest surrounding the issue of public water fluoridation, it is
surprising to find that little high quality research has been
undertaken," they write.

Fluoride-laced drinking water, touted as a potent cavity fighter,
apparently, has little, if any, scientific support.

McDonagh, et al, write that the pro-fluoridation studies lack appropriate
design and analysis. Many don't control for potentially confounding
factors such as "age, sex, social class, ethnicity, country, tooth type
(primary or permanent), mean daily regional temperature, use of fluoride,
total fluoride consumption, method of measurement (clinical exam or
radiographs, or both) and training of examiners," they write.

Furthermore, they report, 48% of children who live in fluoridated
communities have developed dental fluorosis (white spotted, yellow or
brown permanently stained teeth) due to fluoride overdose.

In another B.M.J. study, Phipps and colleagues report that older white
women who lived for 20 years or more in fluoridated communities have a
32% higher rate of wrist fractures although they also report a lower rate
of hip fracture. "It is reasonable to expect that concentrations of
fluoride at 1 ppm (the level at which most U.S. communities fluoridate)
may have discernible skeletal effects after 20 years of exposure," writes
Phipps.

Several studies show hip fracture increase in fluoridated areas, others a
decrease, and yet some, no effect at all.

"This is clear evidence that water fluoridation is a massive and
potentially dangerous failure," says chemist and professor Paul Connett,
Ph.D., St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.

"When dental fluorosis occurs, it means that fluoride has poisoned an
enzyme," says Connett. "What dental fluorosis is telling us is that a
child has been overdosed on fluoride. It is warning us that other, even
more important enzymes, may be poisoned as well, like the enzymes in the pineal gland (which produces melatonin)," says Connett.

In a B.M.J. editorial, Hannu W. Hausen, professor at the University of
Oulu in Finland, reveals there was no difference in decay rates between
Finland's fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities according to a 1982 study, because he says "In Finland, preventive dental care is provided free to all children."

"The U.S.A. is the most fluoridated country in the world. Yet, our
Surgeon General announced recently that our minority and poor
populations, who mostly live in fluoridated communities, still suffer
epidemic proportion of oral disease," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President
and General Counsel to the New York State Coalition Opposed to
Fluoridation, Inc. "One of the major reasons is that Medicaid doesn't pay
dentists enough money to treat the poor."

"Dentists have to stop giving the illusion they are helping the poor by
throwing some fluoride chemicals into their drinking water," says Beeber.

These studies caused previously neutral B.M.J. staffer Douglas Carnall to
write "I am now persuaded by the arguments that those who wish to take
fluoride (like me) had better get it from toothpaste rather than the water supply."

New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof

Fluoride Action Network
http://www.fluoridealert.org

Contact:
Paul S. Beeber, Esq., President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, PO Box 263, Old Bethpage, New York 11804 nyscof@aol.com     516-433-8882

Dr. Paul Connett, ggvideo@northnet.org      315-379-9200

N.B.  Researchers reporting to the British Medical Journal evaluated human statistics rather than trying to find answers to human problems in other species which is never valid--except, occasionally, by coincidence.

Fluoride 50 Years On  article in Summer 2000 CivAb

Report on Fluoride Politics  from Kamloops, BC Canada