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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today are announcing important steps to ensure that standards and guidelines on fluoride in drinking water continue to provide the maximum protection to the American people to support good dental health, especially in children. HHS is proposing that the recommended level of fluoride in drinking water can be set at the lowest end of the current optimal range to prevent tooth decay, and EPA is initiating review of the maximum amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water.
These actions will maximize the health benefits of water fluoridation, an important tool in the prevention of tooth decay while reducing the possibility of children receiving too much fluoride. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the fluoridation of drinking water one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.
“One of water fluoridation’s biggest advantages is that it benefits all residents of a community—at home, work, school, or play,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH. “Today’s announcement is part of our ongoing support of appropriate fluoridation for community water systems, and its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay throughout one’s lifetime.”
“Today both HHS and EPA are making announcements on fluoride based on the most up to date scientific data,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water Peter Silva. “EPA’s new analysis will help us make sure that people benefit from tooth decay prevention while at the same time avoiding the unwanted health effects from too much fluoride.”
HHS and EPA reached an understanding of the latest science on fluoride and its effect on tooth decay prevention, and the development of dental fluorosis that may occur with excess fluoride consumption during the tooth forming years, age 8 and younger. Dental fluorosis in the United States appears mostly in the very mild or mild form – as barely visible lacy white markings or spots on the enamel. The severe form of dental fluorosis, with staining and pitting of the tooth surface, is rare in the United States.
There are several reasons for the changes seen over time, including that Americans have access to more sources of fluoride than they did when water fluoridation was first introduced in the United States in the 1940s. Water is now one of several sources of fluoride. Other common sources include dental products such as toothpaste and mouth rinses, prescription fluoride supplements, and fluoride applied by dental professionals. Water fluoridation and fluoride toothpaste are largely responsible for the significant decline in tooth decay in the U.S. over the past several decades.
HHS’ proposed recommendation of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water replaces the current recommended range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams. This updated recommendation is based on recent EPA and HHS scientific assessments to balance the benefits of preventing tooth decay while limiting any unwanted health effects. These scientific assessments will also guide EPA in making a determination of whether to lower the maximum amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water, which is set to prevent adverse health effects.
The new EPA assessments of fluoride were undertaken in response to findings of the National Academies of Science (NAS). At EPA’s request, NAS reviewed new data on fluoride in 2006 and issued a report recommending that EPA update its health and exposure assessments to take into account bone and dental effects and to consider all sources of fluoride. In addition to EPA’s new assessments and the NAS report, HHS also considered current levels of tooth decay and dental fluorosis and fluid consumption across the United States.
Comments regarding the EPA documents, Fluoride: Dose-Response Analysis For Non-cancer Effects and Fluoride: Exposure and Relative Source Contribution Analysis should be sent to EPA at FluorideScience@epa.gov. The documents can be found at http://water.epa.gov/action/advisories/drinking/fluoride_index.cfm
The notice of the proposed recommendation will be published in the Federal Register soon and HHS will accept comments from the public and stakeholders on the proposed recommendation for 30 days at CWFcomments@cdc.gov. HHS is expecting to publish final guidance for community water fluoridation by spring 2011. You may view a prepublication version of the proposed recommendation at: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/01/pre_pub_frn_fluoride.html.
More information about the national drinking water regulations for fluoride:
http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/fluoride.cfm
Q&A’s on latest EPA actions on fluoride:
http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/regulatingcontaminants/sixyearreview/upload/2011_Fluoride_QuestionsAnswers.pdf
More information on EPA’s fluoride assessment and to comment:
http://water.epa.gov/action/advisories/drinking/fluoride_index.cfm
More information about community water fluoridation, information on tooth decay prevention and dental fluorosis: http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation.
The first lawsuits against the U.S. Atomic bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage. US government and its multinationals are capable of killing Americans for profit, conversion and for war preparations. None of you may be aware of the extent to which a government is willing to damage the health of its own citizens and it is best illustrated in USA. I am reminded of the fluoride story in USA. During the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb massive quantities of fluoride were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons. To protect the secret atom bomb development the US government went to extreme cover-up operations. During the Atom bomb development in USA plenty of fluoride waste was produced and it spread to surrounding areas and killed humans and animals. US government wanted to keep the bomb project a secret. So their scientists created fake research reports saying that the fluoride waste is good for teeth. The end result was fluoridisation of drinking water, fluoride tooth paste for the whole world.
Fluoride is one of the most toxic chemicals known, emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the U.S atomic bomb program, both for workers and for nearby communities. Atom bomb scientists and engineers went to work to create proof to show that fluoride is safe for humans in low doses like the fiction created by the nuclear scientists that radiation in low doses are good for health. They secretly provided evidence useful in litigation against defense contractors for fluoride injury to citizens. Human studies were required. Bomb program researchers played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water, conducted in Newburgh, New York from 1945 to 1956. Then, in a classified operation code-named Program F, they secretly gathered and analyzed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizens, with the cooperation of State Health Department personnel. The original secret version of a 1948 study published by Program F scientists in the Journal of the American Dental Association shows that evidence of adverse health effects from fluoride was censored by the most powerful government department, in U.S. which is the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) for reasons of so called national security. The bomb program’s fluoride safety studies were conducted at the University of Rochester, site of one of the most notorious human radiation experiments, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. In the fifties there were seminars that hailed the health benefits of lower levels of radiation for humans. Looking back, it was the publicity hype of the nascent nuclear scientists to promote their profession. They envisaged unlimited fusion power very soon and Homi Bhabha claimed that India will achieve it very soon. Homi Bhabha was assassinated by USA in a plane crash created by the CIA due to this.
The fluoride studies were conducted with the same ethical mind set, in which national security was paramount. US multinationals are poisoning every American with their chemical and one example is the chemical called C8 that is in the blood of every US citizen in detectable level. In Kerala state in India, the American firm Coca Cola cheated the farmers, by giving them contaminated chemical waste of its factory as fertilizer and thereby damaging the whole ecosystem of the area. Union Carbide killed tens of thousands of Indians in the world’s worst Industrial disaster in Bhopal India. Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Ltd plant harmed the farming sector and environment in the area by dumping solid waste as fertilizer which is similar to the fluoride story in USA.
Fluoride is not good for teeth and is a dangerous chemical and a poisonous substance, which does no good to the human body. Fluoride destroys muscle structure, muscle function and depletes muscle energy. Fluoride destroys the bone, destroys the teeth, destroys the RBCs, destroys the Blood Vessels, destroys the lining of the stomach and intestine causing GI problems and in some individuals it causes infertility. Twenty years of follow-up studies conducted on Human Subjects and Hospital patients and those residing in places where fluoride content ranges in drinking water from 0.5 p.m to 38.5 ppm in India showed that the gastro-intestinal complaints are the earliest manifestations of fluoride toxicity and fluorosis. The most common complaints due to fluoride toxicity include, headache, nausea, pain in the stomach, gas formation in the stomach, constipation and intermittent fermentation diarrhea. Studies on human teeth have shown that fluoride alters a chemical substance in the matrix of the tooth. The mineralization process is abnormal, leading to changes in mineral content, and cavities or pitting are known to occur. In other words, Fluoride induces cavity formation, as well as discoloration of teeth. It is also evident that use of fluoride can lead to loss of teeth at an early age and one becomes edentulous.
Fluoride in circulation has an affinity to get deposited in tissues rich in calcium although some amount is excreted. In children, the fluoride ingested has adverse effects on kidney function. Muscular and Neural manifestations in Fluoride Toxicity in Rabbit and Man were studied. It emerged from studies on human patients of skeletal fluorosis, degenerative changes that were well defined at the ultrastructural level in the fluoresced muscle obtained from patients of Skeletal Fluorosis. Study of structural and functional aspects of bone with reference to fluoride poisoning showed that chemical defects are occurring in the tissues as a result. Fluoride inhibits the activity of enzymes of Glucose-6-Po dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase in erythrocytes leading to impairment of carbohydrate metabolism. Fluoride adversely affects membrane bound enzyme (ATP – ase) and affects the transfer of calcium and magnesium ions in erythrocytes. Fluoride inhibits antibody formation in rabbits and may occur in human subjects as well. Fluoride inhibits protein and DNA synthesis in cultured lymphocytes. Fluoride reduces the number of lymprocytes in circulation by inhibiting their proliferation. Fluoride is not good for teeth. Fluoride does more damage to teeth than any good. Prolonged use of fluoride leads to a decrease in the organic matrix of rabbit tooth but Dermatan Sulphate content is increased. High Dermatan Sulphate content appears to be the detrimental factor in causing dental fluorosis. Patients afflicted with fluorosis will have reduced plasma cortisol levels. Fluoride treated animals also produced less cortisol and revealed adrenocortical hypofunction.
Excess fluoride ingestion can result in pituitary gland hypofunction which is possibly the reason for adrenal insufficiency in the production of steroid hormone. Fluoride toxicity impairs cortisol production, thereby altering the bone matrix constitution both organic and inorganic, leading to defective and abnormal mineralization process. Aortic calcification, which is very frequently occurring, is a result of excess ingestion of fluoride through food, water, drugs, cosmetics like tooth paste/mouth rinses and fluoridated water. The disappearance of Dermatan Sulphate from soft tissue, which normally has high concentration of Dermatan Sulphate, is the beginning of nucleation for calcification of the soft tissue. This process is activated by fluoride. The impact of the above contributions in the Indian National scene has been significant. Fluoride is known to induce calcification of blood vessels of the fetus. Yet it is seen that artificial fluoridation of drinking water is being done in many nations thinking that it is good for health. Fluoridation is an ineffective means of improving dental health, and is in fact quite dangerous to those forced to consume it. The limit is 1 ppm as per WHO handbook. Research have shown that the safe permissible upper limit of fluoride in drinking water is 0.3 ppm.