Fluoride, Whether Rat Poison Or Tooth Builder, Was Never FDA Approved
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/aug/article259.html
By Sally Stride
Aug. 18, 2005

For years, killing rodents was sodium fluoride's most popular use until dentists latched onto the idea that feeding just little bits of fluoride to little children might prevent cavities.

You probably assume that the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) or some other governing body tests, studies and assures the safety of all drugs, including the doctor-prescribed fluoride tablets caring parents feed their children. After all they wouldn't sell it if it wasn't safe?

But neither the FDA nor any other regulatory body ever tested the safety or effectiveness of fluoride tablets.

It was 1938 when the FDA required drug safety testing, Any "drug" on the market pre-1938 was exempt from regulation. Since sodium fluoride was already being sold - as a rat poison - it was not investigated for preventing cavities.

So where did dentists get this crazy idea to feed rat poison to little children?

Water fluoridation. Dentists claimed that if children drink about one quart of water containing 1 milligram fluoride every day, they would have less tooth decay. So children not drinking fluoridated water, therefore, should receive a 1 mg fluoride dose in pill or drop form once a day. No science showed getting all the fluoride at one time was safer or as "beneficial" as drinking 1 milligram spread over the entire day.

Fluoridation science is very shaky; it's promotion shady. The first fluoride human experiment started in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose residents were dosed with fluoride via their water supply. Muskegon was planned to be the non-fluoridated control city.

After 15 years, Grand Rapids had about 50% less tooth decay than Muskegon. No other fluoride sources were sold at that time. However, Muskegon fluoridated it's water supply six years into the experiment. So the dentists were actually comparing two fluoridated cities which proves that something other than fluoridation is responsible for Grand Rapids lower cavity rates.

That hasn't stopped the dentists from crowing about fluoridation and bragging about Grand Rapids. Heck, they even built a monument to fluoridation in Grand Rapids. This year they celebrated 60 years of this dubious practice, spending over $80,000, and four days in fluoridated Chicago, where children spend days or weeks in dental pain because no dentist will treat them.

So it's really no surprise that tooth decay rates are going up, instead of down, in most of our largest fluoridated U.S. cities. And it's no surprise that tooth loss rates have gone up since 2002 despite growing numbers of Americans drinking, eating and applying more fluoride than ever.

What is a surprise is that fluoridation is still practiced in the U.S.

E-mail correspondence between the author and the FDA indicating that fluoride was never safety tested http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fluoridation/107324

------------

About the author: Sally Stride Is The Fluoridation Editor At Suite 101: http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/fluoridation

Email: suite1oh1@aol.com