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| The battle over water fluoridation is surprisingly fierce. Very few states in America have been able to successfully avoid fluoridated water. There is big money involved, big businesses demanding the right to put fluoride in your water — for your own good. Do the benefits of water fluoridation outweigh the risks? In the angry debate over fluoridation the one thing that is often missing is education. The decision to add it to drinking water has less to do with health than it does with the perception of health and whether or not preventative measures should be forced on the populace. The idea for water fluoridation was seeded in 1960. The American Dental Association endorsed the "safety and effectiveness" of Crest toothpaste based on findings that fluoride may strengthen tooth enamel and prevent cavities in some cases. However, no scientific study to support this claim was made. As a result of this endorsement, Proctor and Gamble stock rose by more than $8 per share. Also in 1960 the USPS approved water fluoridation in amounts up to 2.4 parts per million (ppm), despite the fact that investigators set the maximum safe amount at 1.5 ppm. Although there was some evidence in 1960 that fluoridated water does prevent cavities, why wasn't a complete study mounted before approving widespread fluoridation? And where did this concept come from anyway? The discovery of fluoride dates back to the 16th century. It is highly toxic in its ionized form, and reactive fumes were once used to etch glass for artistic purposes. During World War II, the United States discovered that fluorine, an electronegative form of fluoride, could be used to separate uranium isotopes. This discovery led in part to the creation of the radioactive uranium used in the first atomic bombs. Fluoride is also an industrial waste byproduct. If too much of it gets into groundwater it can permanently damage river ecosystems. Above amounts of 1.5 ppm, fluoride also actually damages teeth, causing deep pitting and dark brown stains. This was first discovered in Colorado Springs, where industrial pollutants and natural fluoridation had raised the town's drinking water excessively above safe levels. In fact, industrial manufacturers have a lot to gain by water fluoridation. Legal disposal of industrial waste containing fluoride, among other contaminants, costs manufacturers upwards of $1.40 per gallon. Now, however, this waste is sold "as is" to municipal water departments as a cheap source of fluoride for drinking water. The resultant profit to manufacturers runs into the millions every year. No study was done of the long-term effects of fluoride in the human body until the late 1980s, a full 20 years after its first purposeful introduction into American drinking water. We now know that fluoride builds up in the body over time, primarily in the penal gland Ð a part of the body that regulates thyroid, hormone production, and melatonin. Cadavers used in this study showed fluoride levels in the penal gland to be thousands of times higher than the trace amounts expected. Additionally, some studies have linked fluoride to bone cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease. There are certainly measurable benefits to fluoridation. These include the accessibility of fluoride to poor children, who don't have money to spare on dental procedures. Preventative care could result in far greater dental health. However, many opponents to water fluoridation suggest that free or low-cost fluoride treatments be made available to poor families. They reject the idea of a drug being induced into their system without their say so. Most strikingly, they cite the recent discovery that fluoride works best as a topical, rather than a systemic treatment, meaning that it does more good to use a fluoride toothpaste than drink many times that amount of fluoride every day. Sources:
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