Fluoride Linked to Bone Cancer, Again

Yahoo Financial News ^ | June 27, 2005 | NYS Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

[nyscof]

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 with an increased risk of osteosarcoma.”

Further, EWG charges that Bassin’s lead advisor, Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD signed off on her research; but told federal health officials there is no cancer link to fluoride, according to the Boston Herald (2a). Harvard University is investigating these charges (2b).

Douglass is also editor-in-chief of the Colgate Oral Care Report, a newsletter that goes to dentists and is supported by toothpaste manufacturer Colgate Palmolive.

“It appears Douglass violated federal research rules, according to the group’s complaint, which they plan to file with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,” writes the Boston Herald.

According to EWG, “Research dating back decades, much of it government funded, has long suggested that fluoride added to drinking water presents a unique cancer risk to the growing bones of young boys.” (3)

Citing a strong body of peer-reviewed evidence, including the Bassin study, EWG urges an expedited review of fluoride for inclusion in a U.S. government report of substances known or feared to be cancer-causing in humans. (2)

Richard Wiles, EWG’s Sr. Vice President, told the British newspaper The Observer, “I've spent 20 years in public health trying to protect kids from toxic exposure. Even with DDT, you don't have the consistently strong data that the compound can cause cancer as you now have with fluoride.” (4)

High-quality epidemiological studies show a strong association between fluoride in tap water and osteosarcoma in boys, reports EWG.

EWG’s Wiles writes, “The safety of fluoride in America’s tap water is a pressing health concern….the weight of the evidence strongly supports the conclusion that millions of boys in these [fluoridated] communities are at significantly increased risk of developing bone cancer as a result.”

“The Harvard dissertation…obviously had merit because Bassin was awarded her doctorate,” writes The Observer.

Fluoride is added to water supplies in a questionable attempt to reduce tooth decay. Pro-fluoridation studies are outdated and flawed as revealed in British (5) and U.S. reviews of the literature (6).

Because osteosarcoma usually develop from osteoblasts (the cells that manufacture growing bone), it most commonly develops in teenagers who are experiencing their adolescent growth spurt. Boys are twice as likely to have osteosarcoma as girls, and most cases of osteosarcoma involve the bones around the knee. (7)

More about fluoride and bone cancer here:

http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/cancer/osteosarcoma.html

http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5030

References:

(1) “Association Between Fluoride in Drinking Water During Growth and Development and the Incidence of Osteosarcoma for Children and Adolescents,” A Thesis Presented by Elise Beth Bassin, April 2001 http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/cancer/bassin-2001.pdf

(2)June 6, 2005 letter from Richard Wiles, Sr. Vice President, Environmental Working Group to Dr. C. W. Jameson, National Toxicology Program, Report on Carcinogens http://www.ewg.org/issues/fluoride/20050606/petition.php

(2a) “Claim: Doctor fudged fluoride findings,”By Jessica Heslam,, June 28, 2005

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=91857

(2b) "Dental School Begins Investigation of Prof School probes accusations that Douglass misreported findings of cancer study," By Crimson Staff Writer Brendan R. Linn ,

July 01, 2005

http://www.thecrimson.com/today/article508199.html

(3) Environmental Working Group News Release “Government Asked to Evaluate the Cancer Causing Potential of Fluoride in Tap Water,” June 6, 2005 http://www.ewg.org/issues/fluoride/20050606/index.php

(4) “Fluoride water ‘causes cancer’,” by Bob Woffinden, June 12, 2005, The Observer http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1504672,00.html

(5) The University of York, Centre for Review and Dissemination “What the 'York Review' on the fluoridation of drinking water really found,” Originally released: 28 October 2003 http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluoridnew.htm

(6) National Institutes of Health, News Release concerning Consensus statement regarding Diagnosis and Management of Dental Caries Throughout Life, March 26-28, 2001,Vol. 18, No. 1 http://consensus.nih.gov/news/releases/115_release.htm

("... the (NIH) panel was disappointed in the overall quality of the clinical data that it reviewed. According to the panel, far too many studies were small, poorly described, or otherwise methodologically flawed" (over 560 studies evaluated fluoride use).)

(7)

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/cancer/cancer_osteosarcoma.html

[Moonman62]

OPE

POE

[bmwcyle]

I knew it.

[OldFriend]

We even bought fluoride free toothpaste for our children.

The danger has long been known, but in every case it was always.....the government knows best......and the poison was put in the water.

[Sidebar Moderator]

Do you have a working link and source for this? Thanks.

[stocksthatgoup]

Junk Science 303 - Flouride's benefits are enormous. Dental problems markedly reduced leading to longer and better lives.
Follow the money - No one gets rich on flouridation or water or toothpaste.
Listen to flouride phobics at your own risk.

[stocksthatgoup]

Junk Science 303 - Flouride's benefits are enormous. Dental problems markedly reduced leading to longer and better lives.
Follow the money - No one gets rich on flouridation of water or toothpaste.
Listen to flouride phobics at your own risk.

[bjc]

The link to cancer may well be the case. However, it is totally irresponsible to report this type of research without giving the reader the opportunity to see what the baseline incidence of the "disease" is. For example, with a large enough epidemiological sample increasing the chances of the disease from 1 in 1 million to 2 in 1 million will be "significant" - but it tells us nothing about the net health benefits and risks.
I am neither for nor against fluoride - I am definitely against bad scientific journalism that drives about rational thinking with fear and hysteria.

[gridlock]

It saps our precious bodily fluids...

[babble-on]

Loss of Essence

[plangent]

The lede paragraph says it all:

Osteosarcoma is a RARE form of bone cancer.

Thus, after 50+years and billions of exposures to flouride, it seldom appears in the exposed population.

The causative link is imaginary. More scientific moonbat-ery.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

That's OK. The NAS also recently rejected the LNT hypothesis. Follow the money. See my tagline.

[OldFriend]

The benefits are imaginary.

[bjc]

It certainly looks like it is junk science. I just took a quick look at one of the cited studies listed on the link provided on the original article. After selectively extracting quotes from the study that supported the possible link between fluoridation the editors of the site omitted the studies conclusions:

In summary, analysis of incidence data from the SEER program has revealed some age- and sex-specific increases over time for bone and joint cancers, and for osteosarcomas, which are more prominent in fluoridated than in non-fluoridated areas. However, on hrther (sic) analysis these increases are unrelated to the timing of fluoridation, and thus are not linked to the fluoridation of water supplies. (emphasis added) http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/cancer/nci-1990.pdf

Moreover, a quick look at the pattern of numbers indicate that the effects are very small in absolute terms (Base-line incidence rate is 1 in 100,000) and that there is sufficient variance in the numbers that any effects could be caused by chance. Finally, again after a very brief review, the data could be interpreted to suggest that prolonged exposure to fluoride actually reduces the chances of bone cancer!!

[Jabba the Nutt]

I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural... fluids. God bless you all".

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

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.

So, perhaps one American in a million is afflicted with it naturally, and because of fluoridation five Americans in a million are afflicted with it. Horrible! But what are the positive effects of the fluoridation on the rest of the million people?

[RedRightReturn]

The real problem

http://www.dhmo.org

[js1138]

I suggest you actually read some of your sources and references.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/cancer/cancer_osteosarcoma.html

[stocksthatgoup]

No Fluoride & British Dentistry ......... Doesn't everyone want that? (/sarcasm)

[stocksthatgoup]

British Dentistry on display.