News Coverage
NRC report validates 'Stop Fluoride' effort
Published April 26, 2006
Clean Water Advocates of Fort Collins recently received validation for raising health concerns about water fluoridation.
On March 22, the highly regarded independent National Research Council released its long-awaited report on safe levels for fluoride in water (www.nationalacademies.org).
This NRC report is powerful evidence that many Americans are being overdosed with harmful levels of fluoride! The NRC advises the EPA to lower the current 4 parts per million "maximum contaminant level" in water due to strong evidence linking fluoride to a wide range of health problems.
Especially notable was the NRC panel's position that dental fluorosis (white spots, mottling and brown stain on teeth) is an adverse health effect. The American Dental Association and other agencies have long proposed that dental fluorosis is only a cosmetic effect, not indicating risk to a body's general health. Not so, says the esteemed panel.
The Fort Collins Fluoride Technical Study Group was seduced by this complacence with regard to dental fluorosis. Proponents of fluoridation have repeatedly stated that the epidemic of fluorosis is nothing to worry about. In its press release following the NRC panel report, the EPA Headquarters Union states: "(The NRC report) vindicated this union's expressed concerns about fluoride toxicity dating back to 1986, when we defined severe dental fluorosis as an adverse health effect. ... The NRC now joins our union in putting the lie to this propaganda ploy by those whose devotion to an out-dated and dangerous policy overrode their (ADA) obligations to protect public health."
I quote further from the EPA Union's release: "(The NRC) Committee expressed concerns similar to those of the union over adverse effects on the brain and central nervous system, as well as endocrine disruption, including effects on thyroid function. The Committee report also cautions against assumptions - put forward by proponents of fluoridation - that there is no evidence that fluoride can cause cancer." This report has expressly called for more and better studies with regard to these and other health conditions.
NRC panel member Kathy Thiessen, a former senior scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who has studied fluoride for EPA, said the report showed "the potential is there" that water fluoridation is unhealthy. She said the research suggests "most people should minimize their fluoride intake" - which includes avoiding fluoridated water. Another NRC panel member, Robert Isaacson, a distinguished professor of neurobehavioral science at the State University of New York in Binghamton, agreed, saying that the possible effects on endocrines and hormones from water-fluoridation are "something I wouldn't want to happen to me if I had any say in the matter. This report should be a wake-up call."
This in-depth study has acknowledged the grave need for re-evaluation of the risks of water fluoridation even at the 1 ppm level of most communities. Expressing concern for all cumulative exposures, the NRC panel calls on government agencies to introduce nationwide monitoring of fluoride levels in individual's urine and blood. According to data presented in the report, the doses of fluoride associated with thyroid disturbances are now exceeded by many Americans - particularly children - living in so-called "low fluoride" (1 ppm) areas. The Environmental Working Group reports that 60 percent of infants are being overdosed at 1 ppm fluoridation levels.
Clean Water Advocates calls for the establishment of local testing facilities where doctors, veterinarians and patients can evaluate individual fluoride toxicity.
Doctors, vets and even dentists are not even trained to consider whether excess fluoride might be a cause of various illnesses. The NRC report changes this. It is long past time to get very clear about what our real fluoride exposures and risks are.
