The Fluoride Deception

 

          The following is a slightly abbreviated version of an interview with Christopher Bryson, who authored the book, The Fluoride Deception. Bryson, an award winning journalist and former BBC radio producer, based his writing on almost 10 years of research into the story behind fluoridation of public water supplies. His research began in 1993 after a group of people in Nth London who were battling the fluoride issue, contacted workers at the Rockefeller centre in New York for scientific information. Their first enquiries through a few reputable scientists revealed that  ‘safety standards of water fluoridation are based on fraudulent science.’ Subsequent research uncovered the following facts on how we came to be sold the story that fluoride is beneficial to our health and should be put in our water supply.

 

          Defenders of fluoride say that the industrial story of fluoride and the history of its use for health reasons are separate stories, but in actual fact they are tightly interlinked. The first suggestion of adding fluoride to public water supplies was made by researcher Gerald Cox of the Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh. The recommendations to Cox came from Francis Fery, director of Aluminium Co. America, who was worried about fluoride pollution. The Mellon Institute, which has a track record of producing research disclaiming asbestos problems in order to defend its safety, was also involved in defending the safety of fluoride through lawsuits. It was no coincidence that the Mellon Institute was the first to suggest that fluoride be added to public water despite the fact, and seemingly because of the fact, that industry experts have publicly acknowledged the damage of fluoride pollution as shown in the following statements:

 

      “Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic animals than            

        any other air pollutant.”  - US Dept of Agriculture, 1970

 

      “Between1957 &1968 fluoride was responsible for more damage claims against

        industry than all twenty (nationally monitored air pollutants) combined”   - Dr Edward

        Groth, senior scientist, Consumer Union (US)

 

      “Certainly there has been more litigation on alleged damage to agriculture by fluoride than

        all other pollutants combined”  -  Dr Leonard Weinstein, Cornell University, 1983

 

        But when lawsuits began against fluoride damage it suddenly became a protected pollutant with many research results being laundered. In the aftermath of the most notorious air pollution incident in US history in Pensylvania, which  killed 17 people and injured many others, public health authorities denied fluoride’s role despite the chemical investigations showing high levels of fluoride in the blood of the blood of the injured and deceased and in vegetation.

 

      Large quantities of fluoride are needed in the production of nuclear weapons and as this was a concern in the development of the atomic bomb, the University of Rochester conducted experiments under the direction of senior toxicologist, Dr Howard Hodge. Documents have been uncovered revealing that Hodge was asked to come up with information that would help the government with lawsuits in which the US army and government were being charged with fluoride pollution. The document states :

 

                “Information which would invite or tend to encourage claims against the

                 Atomic Energy Commission or its contracts, such portions of articles to be 

                 Published should be reworded” -  Atomic Energy Commission, Oct 8, 1947

 

Any information from Hodge that would increase chances of litigation was forbidden. If fluoridation was found to be harmful, the US bomb programme and many other fluoride polluting industries would have been open to massive litigations, so there was no hope that Hodge would ever say that water fluoridation was dangerous or that small doses were toxic.

 

Hodge subsequently becomes a key defender of the safety of low doses of fluoride and the benefits of fluoridation, claiming it is safe at 1ppm. (Investigations have also revealed and been published in a book, that Hodge was a director of human radiation experiments in which citizens in hospitals were injected with Plutonium and Uranium.)

 

      Another leading promoter of water fluoridation, Dr Robert Kehoe of the Kettering Institute (US) was connected to the ‘Fluorine Lawyers Committee’ which serves to defend corporate clients. In 1957 he stated “the question of public safety of fluoridation is non-existent from the viewpoint of medical science”. In his files have been found studies of laboratory dogs exposed to fluoride in the same way as workers are. The dogs showed tremendous lung and lymph node damage. The study was given to the fluoride lawyers committee and was buried. The Kettering laboratory, whose publications are funded by industrial sponsers including Aluminium Co. of America, US steel and American Petroleum institute, were also instrumental in laundering the image of lead in gasoline.

 

       The job of selling fluoridation to the American public was given to Edward Bernays, the Father of Public Relations, who is noted for promoting cigarettes as torches of liberty. His campaign focused on convincing doctors and dentists of the benefits of fluoride, knowing that the public would unquestioningly follow their advice. His campaign was so successful that few dentists actually realise that fluoride in water is a product of industrial waste and that the phosphate industry is relieved of the problem of disposing of its toxic fluoride waste by putting it in tankers and shipping it around the country to be added to public water.

 

      Dissent to fluoridation has been equated with believing the earth is flat or being against the UN, and equated with quackery or paranoia. When the US Health Department sanctified fluoride in 1950, a national movement rose up against it, lead by Dr George Waldbott  (one of the first to warn of reactions to penicillin and the dangers of emphysemia with smoking). He suspected that a lot of people’s symptoms such as headache backache and muscle fatigue were due to low doses of fluoride and he performed experiments to verify this. But Dr Waldbott is suddenly seen in the public eye, not as a protector of public health, but as a marginal figure, criticized for speaking out. For doctors and dentists to speak out against fluoride is fatal to their careers.

 

      Fluoride and Cancer: In the 1990s Dr William Marcus, senior toxicologist for EPA’s office of Water spoke out about the doctoring of results of cancer tests  that had been performed on animals exposed to fluoride. The experiments had shown significant bone cancer  in rats exposed to fluoride. Marcus was fired and the federal judge ruled that he was fired because of his outspoken opposition to fluoride.

 

      Fluoride and the Brain:  Dr Phyllis Mullenix was a neurotoxicologist at the Forsyth Dental Centre, an industry-funded research centre related to Harvard, where she had developed a new way of analyzing the behaviour patterns of animals given certain chemicals. When asked to study fluoride she refused at first because she believed it was harmless. But when she did, she found that very modest doses in lab animals produced disorders like Attention Deficit Disorder, hyperactivity  and results akin to memory loss and IQ problems. She told the authorities that fluoridation was reducing the IQ of children. Within days of learning that her study was accepted for publication, Dr Mullinex was fired from Forsyth and has received no grants since to continue her work.

      The orthodox view is that fluoridation is one of the top 10 achievements in the 20th Century.

      98% of Western Europe has rejected water fluoridation. Their children’s teeth are just as healthy as children’s teeth in the US.

 

      Reference: www.fluorideaction.net

 

Linda Whitefeather