Water Fluoridation

Water fluoridation is the practice of adding industrial-grade fluoride chemicals to water for the purpose of preventing tooth decay.  It is becoming increasingly clear, fluoridating water supplies is an outdated, unnecessary, and dangerous relic from a 1950s public health culture that viewed mass distribution of chemicals much differently than scientists do today.

Fluoride Origins
Unlike the fluoride compounds found in toothpaste or supplements, water fluoridation chemicals are not pharmaceutical grade quality. They are, instead, unpurified industrial by-products that are collected in the air pollution control systems of certain industries.

Phosphate Mining
Much of the hydrofluorosilicic acid used throughout North America originates in the State of Florida, while some is also imported from overseas.  Phosphate containing rock is strip-mined, broken up, placed in huge vats, sulfuric acid is added along with heat to cook off whatever phosphate plus contaminants are in the rock. As the phosphate is extracted, the contaminants used to just be released into the atmosphere; polluting the environment, harming or killing plant and animal life.

Process Contaminants
Due to environmental regulations, ‘wet scrubber’ chimney pollution control devices are now required to capture contaminants such as silicofluoride, lead, arsenic, and mercury from being emitted during chemical phosphate fertilizer production. Hydrofluorosilicic acid, containing the contaminants, is then taken out of the chimneys and stored in open-air cooling lakes, further exposed to airborne contaminants. The acid is then drawn from the open air cooling lakes, just as is.  It is containerized in tankers, and shipped to your municipal drinking water supplier.  Hydrofluorosilicic acid remains contaminated with trace amounts of lead, arsenic, mercury and radioactive materials.  It is delivered unrefined, and in non-pharmaceutical grade, to be used for water fluoridation. Industry produces millions of gallons of this liquid hazardous waste.  It costs thousands of dollars per ton to properly neutralize and dispose of hydrofluorosilicic acid, therefore, industry would rather just sell it to you as ‘product’.  

Serious Health Effects
A growing body of evidence reasonably indicates that fluoridated water, in addition to other sources of daily fluoride exposure, can cause or contribute to a range of serious effects, including dental fluorosis, bone disease, arthritis, damage to the developing brain, reduced thyroid function, and possibly bone cancer in adolescent males.

Assessing the Risks
Communities Are Starting to Get the Message In recent years, communities throughout the United States and Canada have started to reassess the conventional wisdom of fluoridating their water.  Many of these communities, including over 50 since 2010, are reaching the obvious conclusion: when stripped of its endorsements, well-meaning intentions, and PR-praise, fluoridation simply makes no sense. Europe reached this conclusion a long time ago. It is now time for us to follow suit.