IS 'FLUORIDEGATE' THE NEW CIVIL-RIGHTS SCANDAL?

Skeptics of ‘settled science’ suddenly no longer on fringe

The next time you raise a glass of fluoridated city water to your mouth for a drink, think again. The water you are putting in your body to protect your teeth may be doing you more harm than good.

The story of fluoridating water is one of most successful public relations campaigns in history. The leader of the PR campaign was the “father of public relations,” Edward L. Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, who previously made a reputation for his campaign to persuade women to smoke cigarettes.

The campaign was so successful that the benefits of adding fluoride to water is considered “settled science,” and for years anyone who expressed concerns about the adverse side effects was considered a “kook.”

But fluoro-skeptics are no longer on the fringes of the debate.

As more evidence comes out about the dangers of fluoridation, communities, organizations and legislators that are taking up the cause against fluoridation have mounting scientific evidence to support their position.

On July 20, 2012, Harvard University researchers published a review of fluoride/brain studies in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study concludes “our results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children’s neurodevelopment.”

The review also concluded, “The children in high fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ than those who lived in low fluoride areas.”

Other groups disagree.

The American Dental Association, in a pamphlet “10 Reasons to Fluoridate Public Water,” calls fluoridation the “single most effective public health measure to prevent tooth decay.”

The Centers for Disease Control issued a recommendation that water fluoridation is a “safe, effective, and inexpensive method to reduce tooth decay among populations with access to community water systems.”

It goes on to recommend that water fluoridation “should be continued in communities currently fluoridating and extended to those without fluoridation.”

These conflicting views are part of a discussion over water fluoridation that has been raging for almost 70 years.

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Reposted with permission.