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July 1, 2002The "Fuzzy Math" of Fluoride Promotion By Paul Connett, PhD (ggvideo@northnet.org) Many of you may have probably heard the term "fuzzy math" before. It is a term used to describe a somewhat controversial method of teaching math where the answers do not have to be EXACTLY right. But at the very least, they are supposed to be close. Unfortunately, many of those promoting the practice of water fluoridation would fail to meet even these basic "fuzzy math" guidelines, with methods better described as "hairy" than "fuzzy". And "fuzzy math" is supposed to be a temporary teaching tool...

Water fluoridation has been hailed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the top great public health achievements of the 20th century, but a new study raises questions about its role as a potential neurotoxin in utero. The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, found that increased levels of fluoride exposure during pregnancy were associated with declines in IQ in children. Previous research has made similar findings, but this is the first such study to evaluate the effect of fluoride on populations receiving what the US Public Health Service considers optimal levels...

Israel Bans Water Fluoridation The New American 26 August 2014 Israeli authorities last week unveiled a nationwide ban on the controversial practice of adding the chemical fluoride, labeled a “neurotoxin” by a top medical journal this year, to public water supplies as a medical treatment. The decision by the Health Ministry to ban what critics call a dangerous, involuntary mass-medication scheme drew applause from many medical and some dental experts around the world. However, it also prompted outrage and vicious attacks by proponents of fluoridation, who say the chemical can provide benefits to children’s teeth. The ban is a...

An angry reader — one of many — is impatiently waiting for me to explain myself after an earlier column in which I characterized anti-fluoride activists as delusional cranks. “You are promoting the mass medication of your community,” she wrote. “It makes absolutely no sense to put this hazardous waste into our drinking water. Why are you pushing for this insane practice? I look forward to your response.” I have a response, but she won’t like it: I am at an honest loss as to how to respond to crazy talk. If someone wants to believe flying saucers are beaming...

Early returns showed Portland residents voting to keep their city the largest in the U.S. without fluoride in the water. With more than half the expected ballots counted Tuesday night, the Multnomah County election website showed the fluoride proposal failing, 60 percent to 40 percent. Voters in Portland twice rejected fluoridation before approving it in 1978. That plan was overturned two years later, before any fluoride was ever added to the water. The City Council voted last year to add fluoride to the water supply that serves about 900,000 people. But opponents quickly gathered enough signatures to force a vote...

The co-author of a book on partisan science recently examined by Pacific Standard argues that our reviewer was a little too partisan himself. Any book that touches upon politics almost automatically angers half of the American public, regardless of what is written inside of it. It takes a special person—an objective, open-minded and self-critical one—to read and learn from a science book that criticizes people with whom the reader likes and agrees with politically.Recently, Pacific Standard published a review (“Red Science, Blue Science,” January/February 2013) by Wray Herbert, a pop psychology writer,of political writer Chris Mooney’s book The Republican Brain...

New York -- May 2, 2010 -- Sixty-five years ago today, officials added fluoride chemicals into Newburgh, NY's public water supply making residents guinea pigs in a failed experiment to discover whether fluoride could safely reduce tooth decay. It didn't. But political pressure declared it a success. Any high school biology student can find the flaws in this "study." Fluoride researchers are still using our bodies and tax dollars for their own benefit. Ten years later, 1955, researchers reported that newly fluoridated Newburgh children had more bone defects, anemia and earlier female menstruation than never-fluoridated Kingston children, according to the...

At the recent CPAC conference, Birch Society President John McManus and the Senior Editor of the Birch Society magazine, The New American, spoke with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC when she dropped by their CPAC booth. Video of Maddow at JBS-CPAC booth: http://www.libertynewsnetwork.tv/?p=101 Since December 2009, Rachel has devoted three segments of her TV program to the Birch Society. During two of those segments, Rachel discussed the Birch Society position on the fluoridation of water supplies. The Birch Society subsequently dismissed her comments as a typical "left-wing smear" of the JBS. It is totally understandable that JBS President John McManus now...

 TRENTON, NJ — The New Jersey Senate’s health committee on December 7 passed a bill that would require fluoride to be added to public water supplies throughout the state, The Star-Ledger reported December 8. Environmental advocates, utility companies and some parents object to the bill (A3709/S2856), which would require public and private water utilities to start adding fluoride within a year of the law’s enactment. Some lawmakers say the bill would be too costly to the consumer, yet the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee voted 6-0 with three abstentions to approve the bill. There are more than...

Push to fluoridate water in San Jose So far, tooth fairies have had it great in San Jose: The city is the largest in the country that doesn't fluoridate its water. But now a major effort is under way to shed that title. In a push toward better dental health in the valley, advocates have launched a campaign to raise the millions needed to upgrade the city's water infrastructure. Given the controversy that typically surrounds fluoridation efforts, they expect progress to be slow. So on Wednesday backers of the effort brought a top engineer from the Centers for Disease Control...

New York -- Blood fluoride levels were significantly higher in patients with osteosarcoma than in control groups, according to research published in Biological Trace Element Research (April 2009). Osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, occurs mostly in children and young adults Sandhu and colleagues measured serum fluoride levels in three equal groups of age-matched and sex-matched patients. Group one had osteosarcoma; group two had non-osteosarcoma bone tumors; and group three had musculo-skeletal pain. (1) “Mean serum fluoride concentration was found to be significantly higher in patients with osteosarcoma as compared to the other two groups,” write Randhu’s team. “(T)his report proves...

New York State's Governor Patterson is proposing extensive tax increases to offset revenue shortfalls. But I have a better idea. Stop fluoridation. This win-win decision for all states would save multi-millions of dollars and benefit every American – except maybe legislators beholden to special interest groups. Science shows ending fluoridation saves teeth, money, preserves health and will reduce the carbon footprint, to boot, but it would irk organized dentistry. That’s the rub. After 60 years of water fluoridation and over 50 years of fluoridated toothpaste, tooth decay is epidemic in the United States because 80% of dentists refuse to treat...

The Dark Side of Linus Pauling's Legacy Stephen Barrett, M.D. Linus Pauling, Ph.D. (1901-1994), was the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel prizes. He received these awards for chemistry in 1954 and for peace in 1962. He contributed greatly to the development of chemical theories. His impact on the health marketplace, however, was anything but laudable. Pauling is largely responsible for the widespread misbelief that high doses of vitamin C are effective against colds and other illnesses. In 1968, he postulated that people's needs for vitamins and other nutrients vary markedly and that to maintain good health, many...

New York – October 11 2007 - Researchers reporting in the Oct 6 British Medical Journal (BMJ) indicate that fluoridation, touted as a safe cavity preventive, never was proven safe or effective and may be unethical. (1) Cavity rates declined equally in fluoridated and non-fluoridated European countries over three decades. “This trend has occurred regardless of the concentration of fluoride in water or the use of fluoridated salt,” write Sir Iain Chalmers, editor of the James Lind Library, which was set up to help people understand the evidence base of medicine, KK Cheng, professor of epidemiology at Birmingham University, and...

ADA Distributing Misleading Information on Two Federal Fluoride Reports, Says Fluoride Action Network New York -- In a statement released August 9, 2007, over 600 dentists, physicians, scientists and environmentalists urge Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted. They cite new scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. (http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html) Signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three members of the prestigious 2006 National Research Council (NRC) panel that reported on fluoride’s toxicology, two officers in the Union representing professionals at EPA headquarters, the President of the International Society...

FReep This Poll! Do you want fluoride added to your drinking water supply? Yes No Not sure Go to the North County Times/The Californian link provided. Scroll down a bit and look for the poll on the right hand side. Vote your choice.

Del Rio’s drinking water supply will contain fluoride after all. City council flip-flopped on the issue Tuesday night (Oct. 24), voting 5-1 to reverse last month’s unanimous vote that had brought an immediate halt to fluoridation. In a room packed with citizens, physicians and dentists passionate about the matter, the return to fluoridation came after more than two hours of presentations, questions, discussions and heatedly expressed opinions. “I came here sort of with my mind made up. But after hearing all of this, I’m still not sure how to vote, so I think the best thing to do is to...

California Cavity-Epidemic Study Reveals Fluoridation is Ineffective New York – February 14 -- Fluoridated California communities have huge cavity rates and large dentist-neglected populations, according to a recent California study,1 reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). Although dentistry promises steep cavity reductions with fluoride-laced water supplies, that’s not happening in California which is in the midst of a cavity epidemic.2 For example: fluoridated Long Beach children have more cavities (75%) 3 than California state (71%) despite a state-wide fluoridation rate about one-fourth that of Long Beach. California is 27% fluoridated. Los Angeles County is 44% fluoridated,4...

New York - January 16, 2006 - Fluoride, added to water supplies, is touted as a tooth decay preventive. Science increasingly shows fluoridation is ineffective, harmful and a waste of money. But the politics of organized dentistry keeps fluoridated water flowing. Last year, 2005, was a very successful year for the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) and their affiliated groups for getting the truth out and bringing negative fluoride science to the media’s attention. Voters rejected fluoridation in at least nine referenda including Bellingham, Washington, where fluoridationists spent $260,000 to lose against a small group of volunteers armed with the truth...

Harvard Professors Cover-up of Fluoride/cancer Link Being Investigated Newly available research, out of Harvard University, links fluoride in tap water, at levels most Americans drink, to osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer (1). The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a highly-regarded Washington DC-based organization, urges that fluoride in tap water be declared a known or probable cancer cause (2), based on this and previous animal and human studies. Elise Bassin, PhD writes, in her April 2001 Harvard doctoral thesis, “…for males less than twenty years old, fluoride level in drinking water [about 1 part per million] during growth is associated...