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

392 Pages·2010·8.62 MB·English

by  Paul Connett

advance praise for
The Case Against Fluoride
“ For anyone who has ever wondered why cities add fluoride to
water—and 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 don’t 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 world’s attention.”
—Ed Asner
“ Alfred North Whitehead said the scientific method means leav-
ing ‘options open for revision.’ An ancient Roman adage says that
‘whatever touches all must be approved by all.’ These character-
izations of science and democracy are the reasons for reading this
book. Especially if you and your family are drinking administra-
tively mandated fluoridated water.”
—Ralph Nader
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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. Burgsthaler, PhD
chelsea green publishing
white river junction, vermont
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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
Copy Editor: Jill Mason
Proofreader: Nancy Ringer
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Designer: Peter Holm, Sterling Hill Productions
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
Our Commitment to Green Publishing
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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.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60358-287-2
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
363.739’4--dc22
2010024925
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Post Office Box 428
White River Junction, VT 05001
[phone]
www.chelseagreen.com
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CONTENTS
Foreword, v
Acknowledgments, vii
Introduction, ix
PART ONE: Ethical and General Arguments against Fluoridation
1. Poor Medical Practice, 3
2. An Inappropriate and Inefficient Practice, 13
3. The Chemicals Used, 16
4. Who Is in Charge?, 23
5. An Experimental Program, 29
PART TWO: The Evidence That Fluoridation Is Ineffective
6. Fluoridation and Tooth Decay, 37
7. The Early Evidence Reexamined, 48
8. Key Modern Studies, 55
PART THREE: The Great Fluoridation Gamble
9. The Great Fluoridation Gamble, 1930–1950, 67
10. The Great Fluoridation Gamble, 1950–, 87
PART FOUR: The Evidence of Harm
11. Dental Fluorosis, 109
12. Fluoride’s Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physiology, 115
13. Fluoride Poisoning of Humans: Early Reversible Effects, 126
14. The 2006 National Research Council Report, 137
15. Fluoride and the Brain, 148
16. Fluoride and the Endocrine System, 157
17. Fluoride and Bone, 169
18. Fluoride and Osteosarcoma, 181
19. Fluoride and the Kidneys, and Other Health Issues, 195
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PART FIVE: Margin of Safety and the Precautionary Principle
20. Margin of Safety, 201
21. The Precautionary Principle, 212
PART SIX: The Promoters and the Techniques of Promotion
22. Weak and Inadequate Science, 217
23. Promoters’ Strategies and Tactics, 225
24. Self-Serving Governmental Reviews, 238
25. A Response to Pro-Fluoridation Claims, 246
26. The Promoters’ Motivations, 258
Review and Conclusion, 269
Appendix 1: Fluoride and the Brain, 275
Appendix 2: Fluoride and Bone, 287
Endnotes, 291
About the Authors, 357
Index, 359
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FOREWORD
In an age of increased awareness of the hidden, often insidious, hazards of
many environmental pollutants, it is tragically ironic that fluoride—one of
industry’s most widely dispersed and persistent effluents—is inadequately
assessed and poorly understood.
No doubt one of the main reasons why the toxicity of the continual expo-
sure 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 offi-
cials 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 (1898–1982), 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 hypothyroid-
ism. 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
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vi foreword
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 endorse-
ment of fluoridation by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1950, had system-
atically 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 Titans—Forces 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.
When he sent me drafts of this new book, my late colleague Professor
H. Lewis McKinney (1935–2004), who taught the history of science at
the University of Kansas, and I began editing the book that became, with
McKinney and me as collaborating coauthors, Fluoridation: The Great
Dilemma (Coronado Press, Lawrence, KS, 1978). This book probably helped
set the stage for later books on fluoridation, including The Fluoride Deception
by journalist Christopher Bryson (Seven Stories Press, NY, 2004) and now
the present book, The Case Against Fluoride, by my good friend Paul Connett
and his coauthors Drs. Beck and Micklem.
In this new book, the authors have assembled their wide-ranging backgrounds
in several scientific disciplines to explore the controversy of water fluoridation.
Like Dr. Waldbott and others before them, they have followed the best science
wherever it leads. Doing this has inevitably led them to conclude, as I have, that
on ethical grounds water fluoridation never should have been started, and on
scientific grounds it should be ended as soon as possible. Anyone reading this
text with an open mind will reach the same conclusion.
It is my hope that this book will enable good science to prevail over dogma on
this issue. This is important not only to end a significant health threat to fluori-
dated populations but also because it is critical for a civil society to be informed
by honest science. This change can occur only if enough people—especially
new generations of scientists, doctors, and dentists—want it to happen.
Albert W. Burgstahler, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry
The University of Kansas
Editor, Fluoride
www.fluorideresearch.org

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost we would like to acknowledge the solid foundation
provided to us by the Health Effects Database of the Fluoride Action
Network (FAN; www.FluorideAlert.org). This comprehensive summary was
compiled by author Paul Connett’s son Michael, who ran the FAN Web site
from 2000 to 2008. Michael also provided additional help in his coauthorship
of many reports published by FAN, including submissions to both the NRC
fluoride review panel in 2003–2006 and the EPA’s Office of Pesticides. With
all these, the authors have taken full advantage of what former BBC journal-
ist Christopher Bryson has called Michael’s “encyclopedic knowledge of the
scientific literature on fluoride.” FAN’s research director, Chris Neurath, also
helped with these submissions and has been particularly helpful in reviewing
the literature on fluoride and osteosarcoma (see chapter 18), as well as prepar-
ing a graphical summary of the World Health Organization data on tooth
decay discussed in chapters 5 and 6. The FAN critique of the use of sulfuryl
fluoride was masterminded by Paul’s wife, Ellen, and sprang from her work
in maintaining the world’s largest database on the dangers posed by fluori-
nated pesticides and other fluorinated products (http://www.fluoridealert.org/
f-pesticides.htm). Ellen has also provided huge support in the monumental
task of compiling the endnotes, as well as making key supporting documents
available on the FAN site, which she manages.
We are also greatly appreciative of the help given to us on various aspects
of the book by the following individuals: Peter Meiers, who shared his unique
knowledge of the early history of fluoridation—we are especially grateful that
he coauthored chapters 7, 9, 10, and 11; Dr. Kathleen Thiessen, to whom we
are particularly grateful for allowing us to reproduce in chapter 14 excerpts
from her public statements refuting claims by the ADA and the CDC that the
2006 NRC review (on whose panel she sat) was not relevant to water fluorida-
tion; Jack Cook, who helped in many ways, ranging from preparing most of the
graphics and tables to offering sage advice on many aspects of the book; Wendy
Varney, who assisted greatly in our understanding of the history of fluoridation
in Australia, first through her text Fluoride in Australia: A Case to Answer and,
second, through an updated essay on the subject that she kindly sent to us; and
Gail Cooper, who expertly edited the text pro bono, prior to submission to the
publisher. Many members of the Fluoride Action Network around the world
have provided all kinds of help to us, ranging from moral support to very
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viii acknowledgments
specific suggestions on the text. They include Ailsa Boyden, David McRae,
Philip Robertson, and Daniel Zalec (Australia); Carole Clinch, David Hill,
and Hardy Limeback (Canada); Robert Pocock (Ireland); Miriam Westerman
(Israel); Mark Atkins, Mary Byrne, and Bruce Spittle (New Zealand); John
Graham, Vyvyan Howard, Elizabeth McDonagh, and Stephen Peckham
(United Kingdom); and Jeanette Bajorek, Albert Burgstahler, Doug Cragoe,
Mike Dolan, Danny Gottlieb, Bette Hileman, Bob Isaacson, Maureen Jones,
David Kennedy, Carol Kopf, and Eleanor Krinsky (U.S.A). Notwithstanding
all this, any errors in the text remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
We also would like to thank our publisher, Chelsea Green, for having the
courage to take on this project. Brianne, Pati, Susan, and Joni have been a joy
to work with. We would also like to acknowledge the herculean feat accom-
plished by our final copy editor, Jill Mason.
Finally, we would like to thank our wives, Elia Beck, Ellen Connett, and
Damaris Micklem, for their patience and support during the many hours
spent writing this text.
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