US calls for lower fluoride level in drinking water; says fluoride is causing splotchy teeth
NEW YORK, N.Y. – The government is lowering the recommended amount of fluoride in drinking water because some kids are getting too much, causing white splotches on their teeth.
It's the first change since the government urged cities to add fluoride to water supplies to prevent tooth decay more than 50 years ago. Now, fluoride is put in toothpaste, mouthwash and other products as well.
One study found about 2 out of 5 adolescents had tooth streaking or spottiness. It's primarily a cosmetic issue, said Deputy Surgeon General Boris Lushniak, in announcing the new standard Monday.
The mineral fluoride is in water and soil. About 70 years ago, scientists discovered that people whose drinking water naturally had more fluoride also had fewer cavities.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the world's first city to add fluoride to its drinking water in 1945. Six years later, a study found a dramatic decline in tooth decay among children there, and the U.S. surgeon general endorsed water fluoridation.
Today, about 75 per cent of Americans get fluoridated water.
But adding fluoride was — and has remained — controversial. Opponents argue its health effects aren't completely understood and that adding it amounts to an unwanted medication.
Among the more recent dust-ups: Portland, Oregon, voters rejected a proposal to add fluoride two years ago. Sheridan, Wyoming, this year resumed adding fluoride; the city stopped in 1953 after a referendum.
Water fluoridation has been a public health success, and communities should keep adding fluoride, said Kathleen O'Loughlin, the American Dental Association's executive director, who joined Lushniak in Monday's announcement.
Lushniak added: "It is the best method for delivering fluoride to all members of the community."
Since 1962, the government has recommended a range of 0.7 milligrams per litre for warmer climates where people drink more water to 1.2 milligrams in cooler areas. The new standard is 0.7 everywhere.
Recent unpublished federal research found there's no regional differences in the amount of water kids drink. So it makes sense for the same levels to be used everywhere, health officials said.
To limit fluoride for young children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers this advice: Don't use fluoride toothpaste for children under 2 unless recommended by a dentist; use only a pea-sized amount of toothpaste for children 2 through 6, and avoid fluoride mouthwash.
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Online:
CDC on fluoridation: http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation
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Even the CDC backed down about 2000 and admitted that any perceived benefit from fluoride was predominantly TOPICAL, as in toothpaste – not from swallowing it.There are several negatives associated with drinking it that are also pretty universally agreed to:- Fluoride is an enzyme poison and endocrine disruptor.- Fluoride is a “potent adjuvant”… causes or worsens allergies.- Fluoride is a “proliferative agent”… causes or worsens inflammations. – Fluoride builds up in bones…. causing or worsening arthritis and brittleness. – Fluoride impacts thyroid functioning. – Fluoride is a “burden” to kidneys… causing increased retention and possible damage in those with renal inefficiencies or chronic kidney disease.Brush your teeth with it if you want, but those of us with allergies or Celiac disease; arthritis or brittle bones; and/or kidney or thyroid disease would rather not subject our entire bodies to it.Segments of the population are unusually susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride. They include “postmenopausal women and elderly men, pregnant woman and their foetuses, people with deficiencies of calcium, magnesium and/or vitamin C, and people with cardiovascular and kidney problems….Post menopausal women and elderly men in fluoridated communities may also be at risk of fractures.” – USPHS Report (ATSDR TP-91/17, pg. 112, Sec.2.7, April 1993).andThe NKF advises it may be “prudent” to monitor the fluoride intake of “patients with chronic renal impairment, children, those with excessive fluoride intake, and those with prolonged disease.” – National Kidney Foundation, Fluoride Intake in Chronic Kidney Disease, April 15, 2008.
The Centre for Health Services, University of Kent has found a clear association between communities with artificial fluoridation of drinking water in the UK and thyroid dysfunction. Their finding, in a current study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (doi:10.1136/jech-2014-204971), supports the epidemiological evidence from numerous other studies worldwide that have similarly found that fluoride in drinking water can impair thyroid function. Hypothyroidism can lead to fatigue, weight gain and depression. Dr Peter Mansfield, a member of the UK advisory board on fluoridation, has said, “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 for the rest of your life because some children suffer from tooth decay’ “.
What do some experts say about fluoridation? • Dr Hardy Limeback, Associate Professor and Head, Preventive Dentistry, University of Toronto, and panel member for the National Research Council report on ‘Fluoride in Drinking Water’ (NRC, 2006). “… we now know that fluoride doesn’t need to be swallowed, that the public has to be informed. They should be told that it doesn’t work by swallowing it.”.• Dr Robert Isaacson, panel member, NRC 2006. “As far as I can see, there’s no doubt that the intake of fluoridated water is going to interrupt basic functions of nerve cells in the brain, and this is certainly not going to be [for] the benefit of anybody.”.• Dr Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate in Medicine (2000) and official advisor to the Swedish Government. ”Fluoridation is against all modern principles of pharmacology. It’s obsolete. I don’t think anybody, not a single dentist would bring up this question in Sweden anymore.”.• Dr John Colquhoun, former dental health officer for Auckland and former editor of the international journal Fluoride, who on the basis of firm evidence became one of the most articulate critics of fluoridation. “It is my best judgement, reached with a high degree of scientific certainty, that fluoridation is invalid in theory and ineffective in practice as a preventive of dental caries. It is dangerous to the health of consumers.”.