Connett Paul - The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

The Case Against Fluoride

For anyone who has ever wondered why cities add fluoride to waterand questioned whether they should. Written with clear and easy-to-read prose, and supporting citations, The Case Against Fluoride carefully lays out the arguments against fluoridation and reasons why it should be discontinued. The authors examine the evidence on fluoridation and conclude convincingly that it should now be considered harmful and ineffective.

DR. HARDY LIMEBACK, Professor and Head of
Preventive Dentistry, University of Toronto

Sweden rejected fluoridation in the 1970s, and in this excellent book these three scientists have confirmed the wisdom of that decision. Our children have not suffered greater tooth decay, as World Health Organization figures attest, and in turn our citizens have not borne the other hazards fluoride may cause. In any case, since fluoride is readily available in toothpaste, you dont have to force it on people.

ARVID CARLSSON, Nobel Laureate in Medicine
or Physiology (2000) and Emeritus Professor of
Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg

This book clearly shows that water fluoridation is poor public policy and must end. As a concerned citizen, I applaud the authors for bringing this issue to the worlds attention.

ED ASNER

Alfred North Whitehead said the scientific method means leaving options open for revision. An ancient Roman adage says that whatever touches all must be approved by all. These characterizations of science and democracy are the reasons for reading this book. Especially if you and your family are drinking administratively mandated fluoridated water.

RALPH NADER

THE CASE AGAINST

Fluoride

How Hazardous Waste
Ended Up in Our Drinking Water
and the Bad Science and
Powerful Politics
That Keep It There

PAUL CONNETT, PhD
JAMES BECK, MD, PhD | H. S. MICKLEM, DPhil

Foreword by
Albert W. Burgstahler, PhD

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT

Copyright 2010 by Paul Connett
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or
reproduced in any form by any means without
permission in
writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Patricia Stone
Developmental Editor: Jill Mason
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Printed in the United States of America
First printing September, 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 11 12 13 14

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Connett, P. H. (Paul H. )

The case against fluoride : how hazardous waste ended up in our drinking water and the bad science and powerful politics that keep it there / Paul Connett, James Beck, H. Spedding Micklem.

p. ; cm.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-60358-313-8

1. Water--Fluoridation--Health aspects--United States. 2.

Water--Fluoridation--United States--History. 3. Fluorides--Toxicology. I.

Beck, James S. II. Micklem, H. S. III. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Fluoridation--adverse effects--United States. 2.

Fluorides--adverse effects--United States. 3. Health Policy--United States.

4. Water--adverse effects--United States. WU 270 C752c 2010]

RA591. 7. C67 2010
363. 7394--dc22

2010024925

Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Post Office Box 428
White River Junction, VT 05001
(802) 295-6300
www.chelseagreen.com

CONTENTS

In an age of increased awareness of the hidden, often insidious, hazards of many environmental pollutants, it is tragically ironic that fluorideone of industrys most widely dispersed and persistent effluentsis inadequately assessed and poorly understood.

No doubt one of the main reasons why the toxicity of the continual exposure to comparatively low levels of fluoride is not better known is because of the generally favorable image that still surrounds the fluoridation of drinking water. Even though much contradictory evidence exists, dental and public officials persist in promoting and upholding the procedure because they evidently continue to believe it is medically safe for all people.

Fluoridation is motivated by the well-intentioned desire for better teeth and less tooth decay, but even that result is questionable or, at best, marginal. A laudable dental goal has been allowed to outweigh the extensive, well-verified medical evidence collected in this book....

The above words are from the description of a book, Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma , I coauthored in 1978. That text, and the personal context behind its writing, informs the historical significance of this current text by professors Paul Connett, James Beck, and Spedding Micklem (with important support from Peter Meiers on the historical details) and deserve a quick reflection.

While working at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS, starting in the mid-1950s, I developed a low-thyroid condition that was not relieved by taking thyroid extracts. In 1964, I became aware of clinical reports of verified illness from fluoridated water by the distinguished Michigan allergist George L. Waldbott, MD (18981982), appearing mostly in specialized foreign journals. From these reports I learned that fluoride in drinking water at the recommended level of 1 part per million (or 1 mg of fluoride per liter of water) could cause a wide variety of reversible toxic effects, including excessive tiredness, aching joints, neuromuscular pains, and other symptoms often associated with hypothyroidism. Knowing that Lawrence had fluoridated water and that I was consuming four or five times the amount mentioned by Waldbott, I switched to distilled water and found that my low-thyroid symptoms quickly began to disappear. My wife, Patricia, who had been experiencing back pain for some years, also found her discomfort was completely relieved after she also changed to distilled water.

With these experiences fresh in mind, I contacted Dr. Waldbott and arranged to visit him, and we soon became close friends. In 1966 he founded the International Society for Fluoride Research and, in 1968, inaugurated its journal, Fluoride Quarterly Reports (now simply Fluoride ). Waldbott started the new journal because major U. S. medical journals, due to unqualified endorsement of fluoridation by the U. S. Public Health Service in 1950, had systematically declined to publish reports of adverse ill effects from fluoridated water.

In 1957, Dr. Waldbott collaborated on a preliminary account of his research on fluoride in The American Fluoridation Experiment (Devin-Adair, 1957; revised 1961). Eight years later he published his monograph A Struggle With TitansForces Behind Fluoridation (Carlton Press, New York, 1965). However, he also wanted to write a more comprehensive book dealing with the ever-growing body of research on adverse health effects of fluoride.