Over 2,060 professionals (including many from NY) urge the US Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted, citing scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. See statement: http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.... .
53 US cities rejected fluoridation this election day (Nov 4, 2008), including Corning NY.
The following NY cities stopped fluoridation: Poughkeepsie in February 2008; Cobleskill Village in 2007; Central Bridge Water District in 2006; Homer in 2005; Canton in 2003; Oneida, Carle Place, Levittown, Jamaica Water Company and others. Johnstown and others rejected it outright.
After over fifty years of water fluoridation, many children in Newburgh, New York have more cavities and more fluoride--caused discolored teeth (dental fluorosis) than children in never-fluoridated Kingston, New York, according to a New York State Department of Health study published in the 1998 New York State Dental Journal
LONG ISLAND
Second-graders from non-fluoridated Long Island, New York, are more cavity-free than second graders nationally (15) where two thirds of Americans drink fluoridated public water supplies.
Third Graders With Tooth Decay
a) New York State 54.1.%. (73% fluoridated)
b) Nassau County 50% (0% fluoridated)
c) Suffolk County 54.5% (0% fluoridated)
UPSTATE
About half of 7 to14-year-old children from fluoridated Rochester, NY, have cavities. Latino children had significantly higher caries experience than African-American and Caucasian children, thus indicating that disparities exist among different ethnic groups even when the water is fluoridated.
Also in Rochester, “In the first nine months of 2005, we screened 123 children. The results of our initial teledental screenings of children aged 12-48 months attending inner-city child-care centres revealed that almost 40% had active dental caries, mainly early childhood caries (ECC).” (17a)
Despite a tremendous effort to improve oral health in fluoridated Rochester and Monroe County, lack of dental care has created a tooth decay crisis
In fluoridated Syracuse and Massena, many children are raised in homes where they feel it's their destiny to have tooth decay and tooth pain
"The state also has increased dental payment rates by 250 percent over the past few years, with little success in improving access to dental care." in fluoridated Syracuse, New York
Cavities are rising in fluoridated Rochester’s 10-year-old population.
Binghamton, NY, is fluoridated: 6/15/06 Letter to the Editor “I have been working with children and families for a number of years. I have worked with children and adolescents who have never been to the dentist because they cannot afford the cost. The children I have worked with suffer unbelievable pain each day. They do not have parents or insurance companies who will pay for dental work nor orthodontics. There are so many people in our country suffering each day for the lack of dental treatment. Why is it so expensive? Why are so many people suffering" (22)
In fluoridated Buffalo, NY – 448 children with early childhood caries.
“Bleeding gums, impacted teeth and rotting teeth are routine matters for children..... Children live for months with pain that grown-ups would find unendurable. …I have seen children with teeth that look like brownish, broken sticks. I have seen teenagers who were missing half their teeth....,” writes Jonathan Kozol about life in the South Bronx (a NYC borough) in his 1991 book, Savage Inequalities.
NYC children of Chinese descent suffer a much higher prevalence and severity of tooth decay than the national average (63% vs 38%).
More NYC children required cavity-related hospitalizations, proportionately, than two of New York State's largest non-fluoridated counties, Suffolk and Nassau (Long island) whether payment was made by Medicaid or privately.
One New York City hospital charged from $900 to $12,000 to treat 96 children with severely decayed teeth, excluding the dentist and anesthesiologist fees. Children needed extensive work including stainless steel crowns, extractions, root canal therapy, fillings, other restorations, periodontal procedures, surgeries and/or more.
According to NYS's School of Dentistry, "The need for dental care is especially acute among impoverished (NYC) children, who have 60 percent more untreated cavities than their peers at higher socioeconomic levels."
Lack of oral health care for adults in Harlem is a hidden crisis, write researchers in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Adolescents in northern Manhattan have higher caries prevalence than their national counterparts,” The Journal of Public Health Dentistry, reports."
Latinos and African American seniors suffer high rates of tooth decay and tooth loss in Northern Manhattan, according to the Journal of Community Health.
A higher prevalence of dental decay is found in New York City African Americans, aged 18 - 64, than found nationally, reports Dental Clinics of North America.
Dental caries, among disadvantaged 3 to 4-year-old children in northern Manhattan, are higher than the national average, according to Pediatric Dentistry.
"Poor oral health was identified as the number one complaint in a population-based survey of Central Harlem conducted in 1992-1994."
In Harlem, NY., forty-six percent of African-American seniors were missing teeth, compared with twenty-two percent of Latinos. (10)
16.9% of New York State Seniors are edentulous (11); but only 11.5% of Long Islanders are (12) It’s 13% for Manhattan. (13)
Over 2,024 professionals urge the US Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted, citing scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. See statement: http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement....
Fifty three US cities rejected fluoridation on election day 2008.
A Tennessee State legislator who is also an MD is urging all Tennessee Water Districts to stop fluoridation, reported a Tennessee newspaper on 11/29/08. At least 30 Tennessee water districts have already complied with his request.
On 1/6/09, a Canadian town, Drayton, stopped fluoridation, not to save money, but because it was in the best interests of residents, said the Mayor.
On 1/5/09, the Burlington VT Board of Health passed a resolution urging the Burlington legislature to stop water fluoridation. "In light of recent scientific developments indicating the potential for harm to certain subsets of the population, the Burlington Board of Health recommends immediately taking a precautionary stance by discontinuing the practice of water fluoridation," the resolution reads.
-- The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canada’s leading voice on environmental health issues, released a statement opposing fluoridation.
-- The National Kidney Foundation dropped its fluoridation support replacing it with this caution: “Individuals with CKD [Chronic Kidney Disease] should be notified of the potential risk of fluoride exposure.” (1)
-- Researchers reporting in the Oct 6 2007 British Medical Journal indicate that fluoridation was never was proven safe or effective and may be unethical. (2)
-- “A qualitative review of ...studies found a consistent and strong association between the exposure to fluoride and low IQ,” concluded Tang el al., in "Fluoride and Children’s Intelligence: A Meta-analysis” in Biological Trace Element Research (e-published 8/10/08)
-- Scientific American editors wrote in January 2008, "Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland"
-- Dr. A. K. Susheela, a leading fluoride expert, explains in a video why US physicians overlook fluoride as a possible cause of diseases commonly caused by fluoride. http://tinyurl.com/Susheela
References:
(1) National Kidney Foundation, “Fluoride Intake in Chronic Kidney Disease,” April 15, 2008
The water is even more damaging if it contains fluoride. The American Dental Association, the Centers for Disease Control and the Academy of General Dentistry all advise that concentrated infant formula should NOT be mixed with fluoridated water. This puts babies at high risk of developing dental fluorosis - yellow discolored teeth which is the body's outward warning that too much fluoride was ingested. Unseen is the damage fluoride ingestion causes to bones, thyroid and kidney function. Also, over 20 studies done in other countries link low level fluoride ingestion to lowered IQ
Since fluoride is neither a nutrient nor required for healthy teeth, there is no harm from avoiding it.
Fluoride should be removed from all water supplies immediately, If parents don't know that they shouldn't super-dilute infant formula, they certainly are unaware of the danger to their babies that fluoridated tap water delivers. Obviously, we can't trust our health departments and legislators to properly inform people - because they already havn't done so even though researchers told them to do so before the year 2000 and after.
I think the expiration date is just there so people will assume it's outdated and buy some more. Sounds like good marketing to me.
Most people don't know that fluoridated toothpaste is a drug and like all drug it has side effects. Even though it's not swallowed some gets absorbed into your blood stream through the mouth and some gets involuntarily swallowed.
The National Kidney Foundation told the American Dental Association to take it's name off of their dubious list of fluoridation supporters because fluoride in water supplies is potentially harmful to all kidney patients, not just those on dialysis, and can cause fluoride-induced bone damage.
Three cheers for those who voted against fluoridation. You are truly serving your constituents and not the dental societies who really should be mandated to treat more Medicaid patients and low-income New Yorkers.
Only 25% of NYS dentists accept Medicaid. Children in this country are dying from untreated tooth decay.
Unfortunately, there's no special interest group approaching legislators with this obviously required mandate. Fluoridation gives the illusion that organized dentistry gives a hoot about low income New Yorkers. If they truly cared, they would be filling their cavities. Instead many have to wait until their teeth rot enough to be pulled in a hospital emergency room at taxpayer expense
Let's keep the fluordating dentists away from our water once and for all join the 12,000 individuals and over 1,700 professionals urging Congress to stop fluoridation nation-wide and hold hearings to hold officials accountable for promoting fluoridation in the face of growing scientific evidence of harm here:
The real solution that everyone knows about but doesn't have the political will to introduce into legislation is that dentists must be mandated to treat Medicaid patients. They also must treat those who don't qualify for Medicaid but without insurance on a sliding scale basis. They must allow patients to make payments over time or work on a barter system. They shouldn't be allowed to force patients to take out a loan before they will agree to work on them.
If NYS's overpaid but under worked dentists refuse, we must create a new dental professional to fill the dentist-void as other countries Do. NYS can do what Alaska and other states are looking into. Dental therapists are two or three year trained individuals who will drill, fill and pull teeth in mouths and geographical areas dentists refuse to go
Organized dentistry's only solution to the growing dental health crisis is to give dentists more money to do what they should be doing in the first place.
Fluoride exposure is rising and causing children’s tooth imperfections, ranging from white spots to brownish discolorations and pitting (fluorosis), dentist Elivir Dincer reports in the New York State Dental Journal. (1)
“Such changes in the tooth’s appearance can affect the child’s self-esteem which makes early prevention that much more critical,” writes Dincer.
Children, aged 2 to 7 years, can swallow about one-quarter milligram of fluoride with every brushing because their swallowing reflexes are not fully developed, reports Dincer.
“Children from the age of 6-months to 3-years should not have more than one-quarter milligram of fluoride per day. Brushing the teeth of a 2-year-old twice a day will expose the child to about one-half milligram, exceeding the allowable [daily] limits” [from toothpaste alone], writes Dincer.
Intentionally swallowing the toothpaste which is likely, given the pleasant flavor of children’s toothpaste, increases children’s fluorosis risk, Dincer reports.
Up to 48% of children have fluorosis, with 4% moderate/severe (yellow/brown teeth), reports the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2). Fluoride over-exposure at ages 22- to 25-months can discolor the permanent two front teeth while they form under the gums.
Two-thirds of US water suppliers add fluoride chemicals to reduce tooth decay. This fluoridated water is used to make many foods and beverages. (3) “Water and processed beverages (e.g., soft drinks and fruit juices) can provide approximately 75% of a person's fluoride intake,” according to the CDC. (4)
Mixing infant formula with fluoridated water (5), fluoride supplements (6) and foods with naturally higher fluoride levels, such as tea and ocean fish, independently increase risk of dental fluorosis. Fluoride-containing pesticide residues remain on various foods. Fluoride is also inhaled via ocean and shower mist and is in some medicines.
The adequate intake of fluoride from ALL sources to avoid moderate fluorosis (not mild white spots) according to the National Academies of Science (9) is
-- 0.01 mg/day for 0 to 6-month-olds -- 0.5 mg/day for 7 through 12 months -- 0.7 mg/day for 1 to 3-year-olds
Why isn't this information reaching the public?
In 2000, dental researcher AK Mascarenhas wrote, “There is substantial evidence that fluoridated water, fluoride supplements, infant formulas, and fluoride toothpastes are risk factors for fluorosis,” alone and together in “Risk factors for Dental Fluorosis: A review of the recent literature,” in Pediatric Dentistry, 4/22/2000.
According to NYS Department of Health statistics, fluoridated NYS counties do not have less tooth decay and fluoridation has not leveled out cavity rates between haves and have-nots. See chart here: http://www.freewebs.com/fluoridation/cha...
No child is, or ever was, fluoride deficient. However, many are dentist-deficient. 80% of dentists refuse Medicaid patients and 108 million Americans don't have dental insurance.
A 12-year-old boy, living in a fluoridated community died because no dentist would treat his tooth decay. He wound up in a hospital emergency room with a tooth abscess that traveled to his brain.
In New York City, fluoridated since 1965, more children required cavity-related hospitalizations, proportionately, than two of New York State's largest non-fluoridated counties, Suffolk and Nassau (Long island) whether payment was made by Medicaid or privately, according to a NYS Dep't of Health report. Fluoride is not a substitute for dental care.
The first experimental city to add fluoride chemicals into the drinking water to find out if it made residents sick was conducted in Newburgh, NY, in 1945.
Recent studies show that Newburgh children have more cavities and more fluoride discolored teeth than children in never-fluoridated Kingston, NY which was the control-city in the experiment.
On Long Island: (Nassau & Suffolk Counties)
Levittowners voted out 29 years of water fluoridation in 1983. Carle Place and the Nassau communities bordering NYC followed in 1996. The Suffolk County Legislature voted down their Health Commissioner’s fluoridation plan in 1991. Now Long Island is fluoridation-free yet enjoys a lower cavity rate than most fluoridated NYS counties and NYS, as a whole, which is 73% fluoridated.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that fluoride does not have to be swallowed to be effective. In fact, they say ingesting fluoride confers little, if any benefit. The CDC says fluoride's benefits are topical. So there really is no good reason to add fluoride into water supplies unless you advise people to gargle with it but never swallow.
More Evidence that Fluoridation Fails New York State
Posted on January 26 at 6:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Over 2,060 professionals (including many from NY) urge the US Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted, citing scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. See statement: http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.... .
You can support the Professionals' Statement by writing to Congress here: http://congress.FluorideAction.Net
53 US cities rejected fluoridation this election day (Nov 4, 2008), including Corning NY.
The following NY cities stopped fluoridation: Poughkeepsie in February 2008; Cobleskill Village in 2007; Central Bridge Water District in 2006; Homer in 2005; Canton in 2003; Oneida, Carle Place, Levittown, Jamaica Water Company and others. Johnstown and others rejected it outright.
On Letters to the Editor forJan. 26