Teresa Goodin, a First Light Flower Essence practitioner, presented a submission on fluoridation at New Plymouth Council’s 3rd June Council Meeting. She was talking on behalf of Stan Litras from the Fluoride Information Network for Dentists (FIND) and represented Fluoride Free NZ and Fluoride Free Taranaki. This is the second discussion on the meeting, the first being “Health experts talk about fluoridation“.

Here I address some of the points she made about water fluoridation, and correct the misinformation and the confusion she presented on this issue.

What fluoride is in the water?

Drinking water contains only fluoride ions. It doesn’t matter what the source of the fluoride is, as added chemicals like fluorosilicates hydrolyse on dilution and end up exactly like naturally occurring fluoride ions that are already present in the water supply. Natural calcium fluoride doesn’t exist in drinking water, as it dissociates into calcium and fluoride ions when it dissolves. Adding Hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFA) into the water supply is just a method of adjusting these levels of fluoride.

Nobel Prize winners

Teresa claimed ’14 Nobel prize winners object to fluoridation’, which, while superficially impressive, is really just an argument from authority and a fairly trivial figure. Most of those listed people are dead, so it’s difficult to gain personal confirmation of their stance. There is also no differentiation made between the number of the 14 who had some reservations about fluoridation, and those who were opposed. There have been many hundreds of Nobel Prize winners. The only reliable inference that can be made from the data of Nobel Prize winners’ opinions is that many of them supported fluoridation or had no firm viewpoint.

See “Nobel Prize winners and fluoridation” blog article for more information.

US lowering fluoride levels

The US has recently lowered their recommendation of the amount of fluoride that is ideal in water to 0.7ppm – this is to reduce levels of mild fluorosis. The decision was not an admission of harm being caused by higher levels of fluoride. “Mild” and “very mild” fluorosis have no effect on the appearance, form or function of teeth. In fact, it has been demonstrated that mildly fluorosed teeth are more resistant to decay.

The 2009 New Zealand Oral health Survey found very little difference in fluorosis between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas. Any increase in fluorosis due to Community Water Fluoridation (CWF) would be in this “very mild” to “mild” fluorosis range.

Thousands to repair fluorosis?

While it may cost thousands of dollars to repair severe fluorosis, we do not see this kind of fluorosis at optimal levels of fluoride. If one wanted to reduce mild fluorosis, even though it is the kind of effect that most likely only dentists would notice, it is a relatively cheap and easy procedure.

IQ

The best study in the world on IQ and fluoride, when ingested in NZ’s recommended range of fluoridation, shows no effect of fluoride on IQ.

The studies brought up by Teresa are mainly found published in obscure Chinese scientific journals. China’s water is not artificially fluoridated, and the studies in question involved well water with high levels of naturally occurring fluoride – levels far above the recommended level of 0.7ppm.

See “Myth-busting fluoridation and IQ” article for more information.

Other countries don’t do it

Teresa claimed that some countries don’t artificially fluoridate their water supplies. It could equally be stated that 1.1 billion people do not have access to an improved source of drinking water, while another 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

Just because some countries don’t utilise certain public health measures, this doesn’t mean that other countries shouldn’t. However, 377.7 million people in 25 counties have access to artificially fluoridated water supplies, and a further 57.4 million people in 28 countries have naturally fluoridated water supplies that are already at the optimal level. This is no small number.

Countries such as Jamaica, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Switzerland, France and Germany use salt fluoridation as an alternative to water fluoridation. A number of these countries make sure that this salt gets added to school meals and baked into commercial breads.

Countries such as Bulgaria, Thailand and Chile use milk fluoridation, with 800,000 children in five countries participating in milk fluoridation programs.

Israel is already looking into reinstating fluoridation, after only a year of having removed it from their water supply, to reduce the harm to children.

See “‘Other countries don’t do it’ excuse” blog article for more information.

Referenda are not the way to determine health policy

This point myself and many others would agree with – that councils, instead of using a referendum, should listen to both the experts in the field and their own local health boards on this matter.

US cities have removed fluoride

There have been cities in the USA that have removed fluoride, but to say that is to ignore half of the story – the number of people receiving fluoridated water in the USA has actually increased. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Healthy People 2020 initiative has set a goal of serving eighty percent of Americans with community water systems with optimally fluoridated water by 2020.

Fluoridated areas have more cavities?

One can’t use raw data when comparing fluoridated to non-fluoridated areas. Instead, one must look at the entirety of peer-reviewed papers to come to the best conclusion possible, even better if systematic reviews are used. For example:

The Water fluoridation Health monitoring report for England in 2014 reported: “In fluoridated areas there are 45% fewer hospital admissions of children aged one to four for dental caries (mostly for extraction of decayed teeth under a general anaesthetic) than in non-fluoridated areas.”

Health effects of water fluoridation: A review of the scientific evidence concluded: “A large number of studies and systematic reviews have concluded that water fluoridation is an effective preventive measure against tooth decay that reaches all segments of the population, and is particularly beneficial to those most in need of improved oral health.”

Water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries key results showed: “Data suggest that the introduction of water fluoridation resulted in a 35% reduction in decayed, missing or filled baby teeth and a 26% reduction in decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth. It also increased the percentage of children with no decay by 15%.”

Effectiveness of Fluoride in Preventing Caries in Adults concluded in the abstract: “The prevented fraction for water fluoridation was 27% (95%CI: 19%–34%). These findings suggest that fluoride prevents caries among adults of all ages.”

The post Selling fluoride misinformation to council members appeared first on Making Sense of Fluoride.

Experts who spoke

Taranaki District Health Board, Rosemary Clement (Chief Executive Officer) 0:03

Taranaki District Health Board, Andrea Kelsen (Dental surgeon) 9:14

Taranaki District Health Board, Deneille Walden (DentalTherapist/Oral Health Educator) 18:13

Taranaki District Health Board, Dr Jonathan Jarman (Medical Officer of Health) 27:24

Board of Taranaki DHB – Pauline Lockett 37:52

Good news that the New Plymouth District Council will be looking at fluoridation. They have voted for council officers to complete a report on the issue of fluoridation of the council’s water supply. The report will discuss the possibility of holding a poll on the issue.

I’ll do an upcoming post looking at what misinformation anti-fluoridationists said at the June 3rd meeting.

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Mt Taranaki photo by me.

Leaving ‘pure’ water to the ducks

I saw an online comment by a concerned New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) resident irate at the suggestion council may charge for water. “water is free and it’s our human right to have it”.

Lake Mangamahoe. Credit: Phillip Capper.

Interesting, though false concept that it’s a human right, but at source it is free. You can go to Lake Mangamahoe reservoir or any river or stream and get yourself two free buckets of water any time you want. The second would be vital to flush the remains of the first down if you dared to drink it. You’d probably get a good dose of giardia or other water-borne bug and unless you’re a duck, eel, trout or Canada goose you’re going to need to purify that water, especially that from Mangamahoe and that costs money.

For the longest time New Plymouth had the dubious distinction of enduring the grossest water in New Zealand, if not the world. It stank like swamp water and required an inbuilt resistance to whatever was in it.

When we arrived from Hawke’s Bay in the 60’s where we’d lived on tank water every single one of us went down at the same time. Even Mum and Dad were incapacitated, all puking and running back and forth to the two bathrooms for about three days until we got used to it. Our Aunty, a nurse, rushed in from Levin to look after us all until we came right.

We were told it was quite normal, but because hardly anyone came to New Plymouth back then no one bothered about it much. It might seem incredible but it is absolutely true, everyone got it on arrival, like “Delhi Belly”. Obviously it’s picked up from there but whilst there’s still the oft mentioned chlorine smell from our water, it’s better that than the “eau de ducks butt” it used to be. So Council treat the water and purify it adding God knows what chemical cocktail in the process then finely filtering it to remove most of it, the taste and the odour as much as possible.

Then they very kindly deliver it to our doors, as fresh and safe as it can be and hardly recognisable from its natural state. We’ve been able to trust the engineering and personnel for the longest time to get it right and to date I’m not aware of them killing anyone by mistakenly putting too much of this and that in it. The system can be trusted quite clearly.

Building better bulls

Many years later I leased the Lake Mangamahoe forest (below the lake) from council for grazing. It was the beginning of agroforestry and no one thought it would work and largely, they were right. My bulls didn’t prosper in the still young forest.

Soil sample tests confirmed the ground was seriously short of selenium and copper. I knew Taranaki was generally selenium deficient because Farmer Joe Mooney used to add Selenium to his pastures and grew legendary Friesian steers on his farm where the Links is now.

His fences had to be about 45cm higher than anyone else’s and still the big boys dwarfed them. They also had a bone and meat density an average 20% higher than any comparable size of steer from anywhere else which made them worth 20% more than anyone else’s cattle at the freezing works.

So I had FBT spread fertiliser with added copper and selenium along the fire breaks and my bulls immediately responded. At the bull fair that season my 80 odd 2 yo bulls, shiny and bursting with bull vigour, topped the sale for every breed I presented, awesome stuff and from a cheap, natural, fix. Selenium and copper are naturally occurring trace elements not ‘chemicals’ but too much of either is not a good thing. Too much copper for instance and you could become a conductor, but Taranaki is largely deficient in it I’m told but most especially the soil is selenium deficient.

It’s all about the traces

This means locally grown vegetables can’t get it from the ground to give us the daily minimums we require because it’s not there, nor is it in the grass the cattle and sheep graze for us to get it that way. Similarly fluoride is a trace element, naturally occurring in balanced quantity over much of the inhabited world, but deficient in most of New Zealand. Our teeth in particular suffer as a result since its a vital building and maintenance block for our teeth.

What else in our bodies require it is unknown to me but I’m not a scientist or naturopath. What is known is that despite countless scientific research tests, trials, surveys, study of statistics, no professional, without any financial interest in his own outcome, has been able to discover or demonstrate any reason whatsoever why the fluoride element should not be added to water to bring levels to normal. On the other hand, Fluoride is cheap to buy, it’s not from some massive secretive industry with unlimited funds to bribe its way into use, its cost is a nothing.

We owe it to ourselves, our kids and grandkids to fix this pause in fluoridation

Every world health and dental health agency in the world recommends its addition via the water supply in areas deficient like ours. We owe it to ourselves, our kids and grandkids to fix this pause in fluoridation. My father lost all his teeth while attending New Plymouth Boys’ High School (NPBHS) by age 13 but that was normal for the 1930’s. Mayor, Councillors? Please do not take us back in time or keep us there? Comment on Burnside of Life.

The post Guest Post: Ducks, bulls and a trace element appeared first on Making Sense of Fluoride.

Click to enlarge

The only people I’ve found that say fluoride causes large problems for them are always through self-diagnosis.

Self-diagnosis is prone to error and may be potentially dangerous if inappropriate decisions are made on the basis of a misdiagnosis. Because of the risks, self-diagnosis is officially discouraged by governments, physicians, and patient care organizations.

Even physicians are discouraged from engaging in self-diagnosis. The filter solution in the image could have been a simple placebo effect.

 

 

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