Key Questions for Environmental Health Officers and other Public Health officials Promoting Fluoridation

A POOR MEDICAL PRACTICE
1.    Do you agree that while engineers can control the concentration of fluoride at the public water works, no one can control the dose of fluoride that people get because we can’t control how much water they drink? Or the fluoride they get from other sources?
2.    Do you know of any other medicine in which we don’t bother about controlling dose?
3.    Do you know of any other medicine that can be given to everyone—including babies, infants, children, adults and seniors, people who are not well and people who have poor nutrition?
4.    There is no other medicine we put in the drinking water. Why is this do you think?
5.    Do you agree that subsets of the population drink much more water than others? What are those subsets?
6.    Are you aware of the influence of fluoride on enzyme systems?
7.    Given that is accepted that fluoride acts as an enzymatic inhibitor what is the safe level for blood fluoride serum in humans taking into consideration adequate safety precautions for the most high risk subgroups?
8.    Are you aware that the World Health Organization has stated that patients with kidney dysfunction may be particularly susceptible to fluoride toxicity in the body?
9.    The World Health Organization have stated that It is known that persons suffering from certain forms of renal impairment have a lower margin of safety for the effects of fluoride than the average person. Have you undertaken any quantitative evaluation of the increased sensitivity to fluoride toxicity of such persons?
10.    Are you aware that it has been documented (United States National Research Council Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA's Standards 2006) that children and others with poor control of swallowing (Down syndrome, Autistic children) could have intakes of fluoride from dental products that exceed the dietary intakes? Have you quantified the total dietary exposure for such risk sub groups?
11.    Do you agree that a bottle-fed baby using fluoridated to make up formula milk can get 150 times more fluoride than a breast-fed one, since the level of fluoride in mothers’ milk in a non-fluoridated community is 0.003-0.004 ppm (European Food Safety Authority)
12.    Do you agree with the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society that fluoride should not be given to infants under 6 months?


DENTAL FLUOROSIS RATES
13.    Do you agree that Irish children are getting too much fluoride today as evidenced by high dental fluorosis rates?
14.    Are you aware of the studies by O Mullane et al.  (2003) Browne et al.  (2005) and Verkerk et al.  (2010) who found that the prevalence of dental fluorosis, representing chronic overexposure of the population to fluoride, has now reached endemic proportions in Ireland and that water fluoridation has been found to be a principle cause of the increased incidence.

MONITORING EXPOSURE AND POSSIBLE HARM
15.    Do you know what the average level of fluoride is in the urine, blood, bone and hair of people in this state?
16.    Have any attempts been made to collect such values on a systematic or comprehensive basis? If not, why not?

MARGIN OF SAFETY

17.    What primary published peer-reviewed studies have convinced you that it is safe to ignore the findings of international peer reviewed studies that have found fluoride to be a neurotoxin and that modest exposure lowered IQ in children in geographic areas with endemic fluorosis?

BENEFITS ARE TOPICAL; RISKS ARE SYSTEMIC
18.    Considering that most dental researchers now concede as did the European Commission scientific assessment on fluoride in 2010 that the major benefit of fluoride, if one exists, is TOPICAL not SYSTEMIC, why do you feel justified in forcing people to be exposed systemically through their drinking water?
19.    Why expose every tissue in the body including the bones, the brain and the endocrine system to a toxic substance when its benefit can be achieved topically via fluoridated toothpaste?


EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE OF BENEFIT?
20.    Are you aware of any randomized clinical trial (the gold standard for epidemiological studies) that has demonstrated fluoridation’s effectiveness at reducing tooth decay?
21.    What primary published peer-reviewed studies (as opposed to reviews) have most convinced you that swallowing fluoride actually reduces tooth decay by a significant amount?
22.    What confounding variables did these studies control for?
23.    Did these studies control for possible delayed eruption of teeth?

AN ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY

24.    Would you agree that tooth decay is concentrated largely in families of low income? Would you agree that it would make more sense to target children from low-income families with education for better dental hygiene and better diet rather than forcing them to drink a toxic substance they can’t avoid?
25.    Would not a campaign to get children to consume less sugar have the combined benefit of helping to fight tooth decay AND obesity and diabetes?


THE FLUORIDATING CHEMICALS
26.    Are you aware, according to the European Commission, that the toxicological characteristics of the chemicals used to fluoridate public water systems are inappropriately known?
27.    Based on numerous MSDS (material safety data sheets) it is clear that one of the contaminants of these fluoridating chemical is arsenic. Are you aware that the US EPA considers that there is no safe level of exposure to arsenic (or any other cancer-causing chemical) because it is a known human carcinogen?
28.    Would you agree that inevitably means that by using these arsenic- contaminated industrial grade chemicals we are knowingly increasing the cancer rates in this country?
29.    Do you think it is justifiable to increase cancer rates in order to possibly reduce tooth decay by a very small amount via ingestion when topical treatment with fluoridated toothpaste can achieve the same result?


HYPOTHYROIDISM
30.    Are you aware that fluoride has been used as a successful drug to treat overactive or hyperthyroid conditions because it suppresses thyroid function?
31.    Can you show us research that the accumulative effect of fluoride ingestion over many years is not a factor in lowering thyroid function?
32.    Are you aware that extremely high levels of hyperthyroidism have been found in geographic locations with very soft drinking water that is fluoridated?
33.    Are you aware that the bioavailability of fluoride increases with reduction in water hardness.

ARTHRITIS
34.    Are you aware that the first symptoms reported in skeletal fluorosis cases in countries that have high natural levels of fluoride in their water are identical to the symptoms of arthritis (stiff and painful joints and pains in the bones)?
35.    Do you know what the arthritis rates are in this country?
36.    Do you know if there have been any studies to investigate a possible relationship between arthritis, musculoskeletal pain and consumption and dietary exposure to fluoride from drinking fluoridated drinking water?

ENVIRONMENTAL FATE

37.    Are you aware that 99.5% of all fluoridated water is not used for the purposes it was intended and is discharged directly into the environment, via discharges from waste water treatment plants and the application of urban waste water biosolids onto agricultural land?
38.    Are you aware of any environmental or ecological study that has been undertaken examining the environmental impact of fluoride emissions on inland fisheries in Ireland?
39.    Are you aware of the toxicity of fluoride to freshwater fisheries such as Salmon or Trout?
40.    Are you aware that aquatic organisms living in soft waters with low ionic content are more adversely affected by fluoride pollution and that levels as low as 0.2ppm have been found to be detrimental to inland fisheries?
41.    Are you aware that fluoride is regarded as a persistent, bio-accumulative toxin in the environment?