The research behind fluoride
began in 1901 when Frederick McKay opened up a dental practice in Colorado
Springs, Colorado. Many of the Colorado Springs natives had brown stains on
their teeth. The meaning behind these mysterious stains were discovered by
McKay and Dr. G.V. Black. They discovered that the stains were from developmental imperfections in children’s teeth. However, the people with these brown stains were resistant to tooth decay also. McKay developed a theory that the water the residents were drinking could have something to do with blackening of the teeth.
So McKay ordered the town
to drink from another water supply and within a few years, the black stains disappeared.
After running many tests on the water, the end found out that it had high
levels of fluoride.
Further studies show that
even though high levels of fluorosis mottles tooth enamel, it lower levels
prevented tooth decay without the staining. Consequently, in 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named water fluoridation as one of the top ten
greatest public health achievements.
Fluoride
is most commonly known to be found in drinking water to promote dental health
but is also found in toothpaste and tooth products. It mixes with tooth enamel
when teeth are growing, decreasing the chance for tooth decay. Exposure to excessive
consumption of it can lead to a
likelihood of bone fractures. Only 50-60% of fluoride is excreted by the
kidneys. The rest accumulates in the body, where is calcifies in tissues and
bones. There are villages in India where people are crippled by fluorosis of
the bone due to small amounts of fluoride. It just accumulated. This amount of fluoride increases steadily
over a lifetime. It can be turned into fluoride toxicity which causes early symptoms
of gastrointestinal pain, nausea, vomiting, and headaches. Even a small dose of
01. To 0.3 mg/kg of fluoride can produce these symptoms. 1-3mg of fluoride is
found in 1-3g of toothpaste, which is less than 3% of the tube
Fluoride can have a negative
effect on the human brain. As of May 16, 2013, there were 37 cases associated
with the decrease of IQs in children and the increase of fluoride exposure. A Harvard
team of scientists found that high fluoride exposure reduced the “standardized
mean difference” by 0.45 reduction which is equivalent to seven IQ points. Of
course this is with high levels of fluoride, but 1.4 million Americans drink
this amount every day. Many people are intoxicated through toothpastes and high
fluoride concentration in drinking water.
The reason that there is
a warning sign on toothpastes saying “WARNING: Keep out of reach of children
under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for
brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately,”
is due to the levels of fluoride contained inside the paste. The environmental
protection agency has even stated that fluoride has “substantial evidence of
developmental neurotoxicity”. There have been over 100 animal experiments that
show a negative impact on the fluoride on the brain. This chart shows
the amount that children consume in toothpaste.
|
Amount of Bubblegum-flavored “Colgate
for Kids” Toothpaste
Capable of Causing Acute Toxicity |
||||
|
Age of Child
|
Average Weight*
|
Milligrams of Fluoride
Capable of Producing Symptoms |
Grams of Ingested Toothpaste
|
Percent of Toothpaste
Volume |
|
2 years
|
~12 kg
|
1.2 – 3.6 mg
|
1.1 – 3.3 g
|
0.8 – 2.5%
|
|
3 years
|
~15 kg
|
1.5 – 4.5 mg
|
1.4 – 4.1 g
|
1.0 – 3.1%
|
|
4 years
|
~16 kg
|
1.6 – 4.8 mg
|
1.5 – 4.4 g
|
1.1 – 3.4%
|
|
5 years
|
~ 18 kg
|
1.8 – 5.4 mg
|
1.6 – 4.9 g
|
1.3 – 3.8%
|
|
6 years
|
~20 kg
|
2.0 – 6.0 mg
|
1.8 – 5.5 g
|
1.4 – 4.2%
|
|
7 years
|
~22 kg
|
2.2 – 6.6 mg
|
2.0 – 6.0 g
|
1.5 – 4.6%
|
|
8 years
|
~25 kg
|
2.5 – 7.5 mg
|
2.3 – 6.8 g
|
1.7 – 5.2%
|
|
9 years
|
~28 kg
|
2.8 – 8.4 mg
|
2.5 – 7.6 g
|
2.0 – 5.9%
|
|
*Average weight data
obtained here
** The fluoride concentration in Colgate for Kids toothpaste is 1,100 ppm. At 130 grams of paste |
||||
What is scary is that most children consumed the near
amount of toxic fluoride from their toothpaste. This chart shows the number of reports to poison
control centers in the US due to the intoxication of fluoride through
toothpaste.
|
Reports to Poison Control Centers in U.S.
Due to Excessive Ingestion of Fluoride Toothpastes Data from: Bronstein (2009, 2010) & Watson (2003) |
||||||||
|
# Treated in
Emergency Room |
Medical Outcome*
|
|||||||
|
Year
|
Product
|
# Reports
|
None
|
Minor
|
Moderate
|
Major
|
Death
|
|
|
2009
|
F Toothpaste
|
24,547
|
378
|
4,781
|
1,146
|
42
|
2
|
0
|
|
2008
|
F Toothpaste
|
23,468
|
383
|
4,395
|
1,119
|
43
|
1
|
0
|
|
2002
|
F Toothpaste
|
24,087
|
411
|
4,852
|
1,218
|
40
|
1
|
1
|
As you can see, the impact of fluoride toxicity
exists.
Fluoride does not only
effect humans. The fluoride compound placed in drinking water dissolves easily
into the ground and into bodies of water where the water is purified for human
consumption. But not all the water is used, of course, for human consumption. A
lot of it enters many ecosystems.
We have to keep our environment
in mind when treating our water systems. Fluoride toxicity to aquatic invertebrate
and fish increase with the concentration and exposure time. It has been over 45
years since we have been treating our water systems and the exposure time has exponentially
increased. A fluoride concentration as low as 0.5 mg can affect invertebrates
and fish in a negative way. Why should we care? By impacting our fish, we
impact our ecosystem and indirectly, impact our lives. An ecosystem is very
frail and we must not destroy it with our added chemicals.
The safe drinking water
act was passed in 1975 through congress. This is a law that requires the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to determine the levels of water contaminants. The
maximum contaminant level for fluoride is 4.0mg/L or 4.0 ppm. If the
contamination of fluoride increases past this limit, the EPA must reduce its
concentration.
However, we live in a capitalistic
environment and sometimes the regulation of a chemical can take longer than
ideal to promote. It can take up to 3 months to a year to have the EPA make its
final decision to reduce a certain amount of fluoride in water. This is especially
because it is expensive to remove fluoride from drinking water. The water must undergoes
reverse osmosis or distillation.
So why does the government
not shut down the usage of fluoride? The mindset is that all substances are poisonous
at a certain level, thus not using them would really make no difference. The
positive impacts of fluoride does out way the negative, but we must understand that
the usage of fluoride is still new. We still do not know what the long term
effects are and only are starting to realize them through the brain, case
studies, ecological factors, etc… The regulation of fluoride through EPA is important
but it needs to be better regulated so that the reduction in high concentrations
can be reduced before people are intoxicated.
Works cited:
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