As I begin writing I am flooded with emotion for the burden that my generation and that of my parents has bequeathed yours. As most of you realize there are a number of well-financed arenas that value the health of corporate over that of the individual and need to be reevaluated.
So many people cope through going along with the momentum or feeling unable to affect change. If I had one word of wisdom for you leaders of tomorrow it would be NEVER let the spirit of hopelessness control you. Let your quest be to wake the masses out of their spell. Together let’s BE THE CHANGE WE NEED and we can turn the tide issue by issue.
Today we have one of those needed changes right here in our face in Port Angeles and we need your help.
Ten years ago I happened to attend the city council meeting where fluoridation of PA was approved.
With no previous city council experience, I was flabbergasted with the bullying disregard used to intimidate and watched amazed as fluoridation of PA was pushed through in a rush so that we would not lose the wonderful time sensitive grant offer to fluoridate (a popular technique used in many communities to get it in before people have a chance to think about it).
Only one city council member had the courage to suggest it be tabled for discussion. I was so shocked I proceeded to do hundreds of hours of research, and what I found was appalling. With the PA warning we managed to stop a similar attempt in Sequim.
The “commitment” of 10 years of fluoridation is now up and the issue of whether or not to continue fluoridation is again on the table with a new and much more courageous and progressive city council that suggested an opinion poll through the PUD bill to see what Port Angles wants.
I know many of you cannot vote as you’re not home owners but you can address this with who is paying your PUD bill. It must be returned in the designated envelope.
Many of you are here temporarily but fluoride is known to be more toxic than lead and only slightly less toxic than arsenic-poisonous enough to be a standalone for pesticides. Fluoride creates a plethora of health issues (see fluoride alert.Org), including suppression of the thyroid, fluorosis, lowered I.Q., and dramatically suppressing the enzymes that repair DNA. SIGNIFICANT! Thyroid issues are rampant and growing exponentially.
From my clinical experience of 30 years, I believe there are, at this point, more people in PA with undiagnosed thyroid issues than there are children (the supposed reason for fluoridating everybody). Fluoride overrides iodine in the body.
Since Napoleon’s time, iodine has been known to cure goiter (enlarged thyroid often caused by lack of iodine). My parents grew up in the goiter belt of the Midwest and were given iodine pills in school seventy years ago. Now, iodine deficiency is rarely addressed and the focus has turned to thyroid hormone replacement, which incidentally exacerbates iodine deficiency.
When the thyroid, which is dubbed the body’s thermostat, is on low all bodily functions are slowed. Symptoms include fatigue, obesity, and depression. The liver’s ability to detoxify is compromised—perhaps part of the reason that there is an increased risk of breast, ovary, uterine, and prostate cancer with a decrease in iodine (Jeorge Flechas M.D., M.P.H.—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcNNKzsUIT0). 90% of the diabetics I’ve treated have thyroid issues.
I would be conservative to say 60% of my overall patients test iodine deficient, and simply prescribing the right dose of iodine has changed many lives.
Fluoride disrupting the natural iodine pathway is one of the causes of this incredible increase of life threatening thyroid disruptions and consecutive iodine requirements.
Food cooked in fluoridated water has concentrated levels, and pesticides are rich in fluoride, so non-organic foods can have many times the allowed amount.
As you can see there is no way to monitor the amount a given individual is taking in on a daily basis so mass dosing is nonsensical and dangerous.
½ of the fluorine you ingest remains in your system depositing in bones, kidneys, and brain in addition to the teeth and it just keeps accumulating.
One visible symptom of fluoride poisoning is mottling on the teeth called fluorosis, which as far back as 2004 was found in 41% of 12-15 year olds in the U.S. by the American Dental Association.
Fluoride toxicity also lowers IQ according to a meta-analysis by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and China Medical University in Shenyang. There is the same amount in a glass of water as the pea sized amount of toothpaste which the FDA and CDC recommends children and advises to not swallow.
It’s useful to consider that before age 2 it is recommended children not be given fluoride toothpaste, and that at ages 2-6 they be supervised and make sure they spit, but new research indicates children at that age generally have not yet developed a proper spitting mechanism.
I know you’re busy. Me too. We all are these days. Please take the time to join us in getting the word out and help give folks the opportunity to understand that this is their window of opportunity for clean water.
Please self-educate be watching FLUORIDEGATE An American Tragedy by Dr. David Kennedy(DDS) on Youtube and show your concern by coming to the city council meetings on October 22 and 29 WEARING RED for stopping fluoridation. WE NEED YOU TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED.
Crystal Tack ND, LAc
(Naturopathic Doctor, Licensed Acupuncturist)
Sequim, WA
Ms. Tack exposes the true source of her “hundreds of hours of research” in one paragraph:
“Many of you are here temporarily but fluoride is known to be more toxic than lead and only slightly less toxic than arsenic-poisonous enough to be a standalone for pesticides. Fluoride creates a plethora of health issues (see fluoride alert.Org), including suppression of the thyroid, fluorosis, lowered I.Q., and dramatically suppressing the enzymes that repair DNA. SIGNIFICANT! Thyroid issues are rampant and growing exponentially.”
If I had a dollar for every time I have seen these catch-phrases posted verbatim by uninformed antifluoridationists who limit their “research” to antifluoridationist websites such as “fluoridalert”, I could retire. “Fluoridealert” is the biased website of the New York antifluoridationist faction, “Fluoride Action Network”. Obviously, Ms. Tack considers perusal of “fluoridealert” and copy/pasting the nonsense posted on that site, to be “hundreds of hours of research” on fluoridation.
Here’s a challenge for Ms. Tack: Provide any valid, peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support your regurgitation of all the same, stale, unsubstantiated antifluoridationist claims of thyroid, IQ, etc. Then, upon your inevitable failure to do so, go back and properly educate yourself on this issue from respected, trustworthy sources of accurate, authoritative information. Be sure to include proper information on dental fluorosis in your education, as well as from where the “41% of 12-15 year olds” arose. Hint: it wasn’t in 2004, and it wasn’t the American Dental Association.
The websites of the CDC, the EPA, the American Dental Association, the World Health Organization, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, each has a wealth of accurate information on fluoridation, readily available to anyone. These sites would provide an excellent starting point for you.
Steven D. Slott, DDS
Thank you for participating in the discussion!
I can confirm the study on U.S. dental fluorosis rates mentioned is actually from 2010 and conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics as posted on cdc.gov
The “41%” she notes is in reference to a 2010 CDC study by Beltran-Aguilar in which 41% of adolescents they examined were found to have signs of dental fluorosis. This 41% was composed of 37.1% with mild to very mild dental fluorosis, a barely detectable, benign effect which has no adverse effect on cosmetics, form, function, or health of teeth….with the other 3.8% being those with moderate dental fluorosis, attributable to improper ingestion of toothpaste and/or exposure to abnormally high levels of environmental or well-water fluoride during the teeth forming years of 0-8.
—-Prevalence and Severity of Dental Fluorosis in the United States, 1999-2004
Eugenio D. Beltrán-Aguilar, D.M.D., M.S., Dr.P.H.; Laurie Barker, M.S.P.H.; and Bruce A. Dye, D.D.S., M.P.H.
While she laments this barely detectible effect, she ignores the lifetimes of extreme pain, debilitation, development of serious medical conditions, black discoloration and loss of teeth, and life-threatening infection, directly resultant of untreated dental decay which could be, and is, prevented by water fluoridation.
Steven D. Slott, DDS
Of grave concern are the effects of undiagnosed (and untreated) hypothyroidism during pregnancy (which is rampant in Canada and the fluoridated United States). Every cell in the human body requires thyroid hormones. Low maternal thyroid hormone is linked to increase risk of complications such as ADHD, autism, miscarriage and stillbirth.
In the United States 30% of pregnant women are iodine deficient. The last thing we need added to our water is another halogen that displaces iodine.
Important to note: the mediocre dentists/ fluoride peddlers are not endocrinologists or toxicologists.
For some historical prospective:
from Wikipedia:
“”Mad as a hatter” is a colloquial phrase used in conversation to refer to a crazy person. In 18th and 19th century England, mercury was used in the production of felt, which was used in the manufacturing of hats common of the time. People who patronised these hat factories were exposed daily to trace amounts of the metal, which accumulated within their bodies over time, causing some workers to develop dementia caused by mercury poisoning (called mad hatter syndrome). Thus, the phrase became popular as a way to refer to someone who was perceived as insane.”
One can only ponder the long-term, cognitive effects from years of exposure to mercury vapours (from amalgamist fillings), that our dentists are exposed to on a daily basis.
Amy
This is a discussion on water fluoridation. Thyroid issues are of no relevance. Perhaps you can find a comment section on thyroid elsewhere, if that is your interest.
Steven D. Slott, DDS
Well, Amy, if it is the opinion of a toxicologist you wish to see, the following is a 2013 statement from Dr. John Doull, Chair of the 2006 NRC Committee on Fluoride in Drinking Water, and one of the most highly respected toxicologists in the nation:
“I do not believe there is any valid, scientific reason for fearing adverse health conditions from the consumption of water fluoridated at the optimal level”
—John Doull, MD, PhD, Chair of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council 2006 Committee Report on Fluoride in Drinking Water
If it is the opinion of an endocrinologist you wish to see, the following is from a highly respected endocrinologist from the University of Florida:
August 27, 2013
To Whom It May Concern:
As a practicing endocrinologist, I was appalled at the claims that fluoridated drinking water causes clinically significant harm to the endocrine system.
Clinically, in more than 30 years of seeing patients, I have never seen any fractures or thyroid problems associated with fluoridated water. Early puberty is more associated with obesity than anything else, though there are many endocrine disrupters that have estrogenic effect. Fluoride has not been implicated, though lavender, tea tree oil and HCG, substances found commonly in hair products, have been.
I looked at the papers cited about the effects of fluoride on thyroid function and could find none that suggested any effect on thyroid at doses used in fluoridated water. A Review of the literature published in 1986 came to the same conclusion:
“The increasing use of fluoride for prevention of dental caries poses the problem as to whether this halogen has antagonistic properties towards iodine, whereby it could hamper the success of iodine prophylaxis of endemic goitre. Review of the literature shows that some authors have found an inhibition by fluoride of various steps of thyroid hormone biosynthesis in animal experiments. By and large, the inhibition was only slight and it was elicited only with fluoride doses greatly in excess of those recommended for caries prevention. The inhibition was not consistently present and other authors could not confirm it in comparable experiments. There is no convincing evidence that fluoride produces true goitres with epithelial hyperplasia in experimental animals. There are some reports based on casual observations that fluoride is goitrogenic in man. On the other hand, several good studies with adequate exposed and control populations failed to detect any goitrogenic effect of fluoride in man. It is noteworthy in particular that fluoride does not potentiate the consequences of iodine deficiency in populations with a borderline or low iodine intake.Published data failed to support the view that fluoride, in doses recommended for caries prevention, adversely affects the thyroid.”
I hope this clarifies the issues a bit more.
Sincerely,
Janet Silverstein, MD, FAAP
University of Florida Physicians
Steven D. Slott, DDS
Slott, you mean the CDC that you said made “a ridiculous recommendation” that “is so absurd that it is truly comical”?
Slott, shall we call you a toxidationist?
Pull your head out of the oral cavity.
I appreciate that Crystal believes what she is saying. However, her position is not backed up with the facts. Your job is to address health concerns, your focus the thyroid. If you are seeing more it simply could be because you are increasing your business practice or that you are expecting to see more because of your beliefs.
It is sad to live with hopelessness.. if you can’t smile its hard to get a job. How many kids know someone who has had trouble with cavities? If you are in pain, its hard to study, laugh, kiss…. fluoridation can help with that.
You see, most physicians, doctors, and health practitioners in town trust the scientific bodies that have done the research on this issue. I hope that others can too.
The fact is that everything is a poison if you get too much. Poison simply means that the amount you are getting of something harms the body. For example, too much Vitamin D and you will have health problems. http://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/features/the-truth-about-vitamin-d-can-you-get-too-much-vitamin-d. We have Vitamin D in milk like fluoride in water because the right amount is good for your health.
Apparently they used to recommend school water systems get more fluoride that other systems. I’m guessing that’s for schools in areas that lack fluoride – i.e. school water would be the only source. They also based that on air temperature. New standards do not take air temperature into account, so this recommendation may change. It is also not applicable to Port Angeles – the city is providing fluoride at 0.7 ppm.
Actually PA has it’s water fluoridated at a level between .8 and .95 mg/l according to Craig Fulton, director of public works and utilities. .8-1.3
is the recommended range in Washington State. Port Angeles is waiting for the Washington Department of health to update it’s standard to the new, lower recommendation.
https://www.passthebuc.com/2015/11/fluoride-yea-nay-or-somewhere-in-between/