Reader takes issue with politicizing fluoride debate
To The Editor:
The June 13,2012, article by Doug Hissom attempts to politicize a real scientific dispute. The so-called health authorities at the CDC and WHO are paid to defend their predecessors’ decisions regardless of the current state of the scientific literature. If you have control over grant money to fund research, as they do you can find people to reanalyze old studies and confirm what the grantors want or your grant will not be renewed.
Most of their momentun for fluoride in water relies on the flawed decision made 66 years ago when less was known about the potential dangers. While Fluoride does sometimes occur naturally in some water supplies, and an apparent correlation between high fluoride content fewer cavities did appear in the early days of fluoride research, further study exposed this as an error.
After more was known about the importance of trace minerals in human nutrition this early observation was found to be due to other high concentrations of strontium, magnesium and calcium in that same water. These are more likely to have been responsible for stronger teeth. A study by Fred Losee and Basel Bibby confirming this appeared in the New York State Dental Journal,1970, volume 36, pages 15-19. Fluoride supplements were found to be ineffective (NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire).
According to the Cochrane Oral Health Group, fluoride supplements fail to reduce tooth decay in primary teeth, permanent teeth cavity-reduction is dubious and health risks are little studied (1). Further, “When fluoride supplements were compared with topical fluorides or with other preventive measures, there was no differential effect on permanent or deciduous teeth,” wrote Cochrane researchers Ismail. See reports.
Public Health authorities want to be taken seriously in the future. The best way to do that is to get the public to believe they have a good past track record. Most of their studies rely on second hand expertise from authorities who are afraid to admit they made a mistake 66 years ago.
Most of the advanced countries of Western Europe have discontinued water fluoridation which has been linked to higher rates of cancer, bone fracture and decreased intelligence in children.
Sincerely,
Arnold Gore
Consumers Health Freedom Coalition
New York,NY
For an accurate perspective on the Cochrane Report, cited in this letter to the Ed, I encourage all interested readers to view the entire report which may be found at:
http://adajournal.com/content/139/11/1457.full.pdf
Reading the full report will make clear the misleading nature of the statements made in this letter to the Ed. If antifluoridationists would either read, understand, or accurately present information they find in the scientific studies they site, they would probably be taken far more seriously.