The Fluoride Deception

The Fluoride Deception, Christopher Bryson, Seven Stories Press, 2004

"If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away." Those words, or something similar, are on every tube of fluoride toothpaste sold in America. What could be in it to cause such a warning? According to this book, it's the fluoride.

Fluoride is not some safe, innocuous substance that happens to fight cavities. It is used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, to prepare Sarin nerve gas, to produce high octane gasoline, also to make refrigerant gases and Teflon plastic. It is also used in drugs like Prozac and Cipro. Fluoride is a potential workplace poison and grave environmental hazard.

Since the 1930s, fluoride has been linked, in Europe, to a number of illnesses, like central nervous system disorders, breathing problems and a number of arthritis-like ailments. But during the Cold War, with help from researchers funded by the government and industry, no such problems were reported in America. It is as if "American" fluoride and "European" fluoride have two different sets of properties. Can anyone say "scientific fraud?"

Fluoride may actually help the teeth, but the evidence is not clear-cut. Cavity rates have fallen dramatically since the 1940s, but also in countries that don't fluoridate their water. Perhaps good nutrition, better dental care and antibiotics can explain it.

The vast majority, nearly 90 percent, of the fluoride added to drinking water is actually industrial waste, scraped from the smokestacks of Florida phosphate fertilizer mills. The companies are spared the expense of treating this "fluosilicic acid" as toxic waste. Instead, it is sold to towns all over America. Shipped in rubber-lined tanker trucks, it is dumped into municipal reserviors, supposedly to fight cavities.

On several levels, this book easily reaches the level of Wow. This well-written tale of public relations whitewash and corporate/government collusion at the people's expense has over 100 pages of footnotes, and is very much a Must Read.