Fluoridation Weekly Review-Compiled and edited by Mike Dolan, PhD-#4 - December 21, 2021
Higher fluoride exposure associated with earlier menarche, study finds
Young women, particularly non-Hispanic black women, have been found to begin experiencing their menstrual cycle earlier if they have been exposed to higher levels of fluoride, according to a report from the University of Southern California and other schools published November 12 in Exposure and Health.
The researchers found that black adolescents experience menarche five months earlier for each increase of approximately 0.5 mg/L fluoride in their urine.
The study was based on data, including tap water or urine fluoride levels, collected from over 1,000 women aged 16-19 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
The investigators did not find any association between fluoride exposure and serum sex hormone levels or with plasma fluoride levels.
The authors noted that their finding of earlier menarche was consistent with an earlier report from the very beginning of water fluoridation.
“This finding is somewhat consistent with a study by Schlesinger et al. in 1956 which reported that the average age of menarche in Newburgh, New York, a city fluoridated for 10 years at 1.2 mg/L was 12 years, compared to 12.5 years in Kingston, NY, a non-fluoridated city, although these differences were not statistically significant,” they wrote.
Source: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-021-00448-y or athttps://fluoridealert.org/studytracker/41182/
Calgary investigators find pond snails’ memory impeded by fluoride exposure
The freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis suffers a long-lasting impairment of its memory after being exposed to a moderate level of fluoride in its water, according to a new report in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A by researchers at the University of Calgary.
The scientists examined a type of snail memory called configural learning, a response to two or more stimuli based on their combination.
“We first showed suppressive effects of black tea and fluoride on feeding (i.e., rasping) behavior. We then investigated how fluoride may alter cognition by introducing fluoride (1.86 mg/L) before, during, after, a day before and a week before the snails underwent the configural learning training procedure. Our results show that any 45-min exposure to fluoride (before, during or after a configural learning training procedure) blocks configural learning memory formation in Lymnaea and these effects are long-lasting. One week after a fluoride exposure, snails are still unable to form a configural learning memory and this result is upheld when the snails are exposed to a lower concentration of fluoride, one which is naturally occurring in ponds that a wild strain of Lymnaea can be found (0.3 mg/L),” they concluded.
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-021-01528-9 or athttps://fluoridealert.org/studytracker/41058/
Medical Task Force continues to recommend fluoride supplements for infants
Reflecting an attitude that is at least 30 years behind the times in that it does not consider any possible adverse effect from fluoride exposure other than severe dental fluorosis, The US Preventive Services Task Force has recommended that primary care physicians prescribe fluoride pills to children starting at 6 months.
The Task Force report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association December 7, makes claims as to the effectiveness of water fluoridation that were refuted in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weekly bulletin more than 20 years ago.
The report was written by Karina W. Davidson of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and others.
The Task Force also suggests that it is the responsibility of the primary care physician to know if the patient is consuming fluoridated water, writing, “Clinicians may consider using “My Water’s Fluoride”, a CDC tool that may assist in determining local water system fluoridation status.”
Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2786823?resultClick=24
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Opinion -- Arcora Foundation sees water fluoridation as dental access
The foundation behind the stealth campaign to fluoridate water in Spokane, Washington considers water fluoridation as a type of dental access even though it really serves as the opposite of dental access.
In a piece praising themselves on the Health Affairs website December 7, Joe Finkbonner and Vanetta Abdellatif of the Arcora Foundation write,
“Prevention—by using community-based interventions—and access—by using care setting–based interventions—remain strategic priorities. Goals for our prevention work are to expand community water fluoridation, influence healthy oral health behaviors, and address root causes of poor oral health.
“For our access work, our goals are to achieve policy changes—such as an increased investment in the pediatric Medicaid dental program and greater access to community water fluoridation statewide; to increase culturally appropriate care; to advance innovative models of care—which includes addressing oral health concerns during medical visits.”
Arcora is a project of Delta Dental of Washington, the private dental insurance company. In the USA the vast majority of dentists decline to accept Medicaid, the public insurance program for the poor, in their practices. The poor are then said to “lack access to dental care.”
By promoting water fluoridation, dentistry can then claim that it is trying to help those who “lack access.” The result is to distract our attention from the fact that while most dentists care about poor children, they don’t care enough to actually treat them.Source: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20211206.769469/full/
‘The answer is no – dogs shouldn’t have fluoride’
A report in the Dogs Naturally magazine, included in the PubMed database, advises against giving dogs fluoridated tap water or processed dog food that will contain fluoride.
To the question “Can dogs be given fluoride?” the reporter, Julie Henriques, who appears to be following the fluoride question more than most reporters, writes, “The answer is no … dogs shouldn’t have fluoride. Fluoride affects brain development, bone strength and may disrupt hormones. And that means, in most places, your dog shouldn’t drink tap water … or eat processed dog food. Fluoride won’t improve his teeth either.”
She further reports, “If fluoride causes cognitive issues in children and bone weakness in adults, it almost certainly does in dogs too. In fact, it’s likely dogs suffer even more ill effects from fluoride than people do, and not just neurological development issues. And the worst part is fluoride is very hard to avoid.”
Source: https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/is-fluoride-bad-for-dogs/
Dental fluorosis worse at higher elevations, study finds
A comparison of two Jordanian towns with endemic fluorosis and comparable levels of fluoride in drinking water found a much greater prevalence of dental fluorosis in the higher altitude town, according to a report in the Saudi Dental Journal.
Researchers from the University of Jordan found that over 50 percent of the population in Ruwaished, at an altitude 685 meters above sea level, had severe dental fluorosis while people in Kuraymah, located 195 meters below sea level, contained a sample with just a third of the people showing a comparable level of damage. The high altitude town’s sample contained not a single person with non-fluorotic teeth.
The open access study also revealed that people at the higher altitude, more fluorotic site, had worse tooth decay although this may have been attributable to greater consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
The authors noted, “Although excess fluoride in drinking water was the principal factor
for the occurrence of dental fluorosis, other parameters are involved. For example, tea is rich in fluoride and Jordanians are heavy tea drinkers, which significantly contributes to their total daily fluoride intake.”
They also noted as a factor the release of gaseous airborne fluoride from phosphate fertilizer plants, the largest industry in Jordan.
Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sdentj.2020.04.004
Dental guild suppressed vitamin D, promoted fluoridation in 1940s to knock down competition from physicians, study concludes
The American Dental Association (ADA) in 1944 abruptly ended its endorsement of vitamin D supplements, as found in cod liver oil, to reduce tooth decay, and erected topical fluoride application instead to block physicians from treating patients for tooth decay, according to a recent report in the Nutrients journal.
Based on a detailed reading of the records of the ADA’s Council on Dental Therapeutics (CDT), Philippe P. Hujoel of the University of Washington’s School of Dentistry reports that the ADA was a trailblazer in endorsing vitamin D-containing cod liver oil as an “aid in the prophylaxis against caries,” but that the ADA CDT at the end of 1944 announced, “claims for vitamin D as a factor in the prevention of tooth decay are not acceptable.”
Hujoel notes that the normal procedures for evaluating therapies were not followed, and that the change came after vitamin D supplementation had become widely accepted and supported by research. He reports that a particular advertisement in the Journal of the American Medical Association for the dental benefits of Carnation Milk triggered the dental guild’s move against vitamin D deficiency. Nutritional deficiencies were in the domain of physicians while fluoride was not.
With its success in suppressing vitamin D supplementation, the dental guild went on to dismiss other dental-related deficiencies such as vitamin C for gingival bleeding, according to Hujoel.
“The power of professional organizations of clinical specialists to shape conventional wisdoms despite a slew of red flags is remarkable. It did not matter in this case that the specialists created a conventional wisdom which was opposite of a preponderance of evidence. It did not matter that the professional organization had a self-evident conflict of interest; topical fluoride applications in dental offices were revenue-generating procedures, vitamin D prescriptions were not. It did not matter that the National Academy of Sciences and the American Medical Association came to opposite conclusions of a specialist professional organization. None of these red flags mattered—clinical specialists were considered trustworthy even when controlled trial evidence suggested that their expert opinions could be causing harm. That the WHO and other organizations ignored these red flags and blindly adopted the opinion of conflicted specialists is remarkable,” writes Hujoel.
He concludes, “Public health may well depend on looking at professional societies no different than the way we look at the pharmaceutical industry— conflicted organizations with a power to shape conventional wisdom based on fragile evidence. This historical analysis adds to the evidence that professional societies should serve their members and be kept at arm’s length from research agendas, disease definitions, clinical practice guidelines, and public health policies.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13124361
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From the archives
Exner’s papers and his approach to organizing
A few years ago I asked the retired medical reporter Joel Griffiths, who wrote many reports on fluoridation for the Medical Tribune as well as an important article in the Covert Action Quarterly, about the loss of Dr. Frederick Exner’s papers in a house fire after his death.
Exner was one of the most important activists against fluoridation. We have a few of his papers, saved from the fire, and singed around the edges, in the UMASS library.
“Was the claim that it was arson an urban legend?” I asked.
Not at all Griffiths said. He had spoken to the man who lost his house in the fire. He was convinced it was arson, as it had started in the papers where there was no apparent source of ignition.
Now with the recent donation by Paul and Ellen Connett of papers from the Fluoride Action Network to the Du Bois Library at UMASS I have read a first hand account from the victim of the fire, Len Greenall of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
In a letter to University of Toronto Professor Hardy Limeback on Feburary 26, 2001, Greenall wrote:
“When Dr. Fred Exner passed away, his wife, Mrs. Exner, gave me his huge amount of documentation (literally a small truck load), which I stored in my den. On the 23rd of April, 1979, I attended a meeting of SPEC members (Society Promoting Environmental Conservation) one of whom I didn’t realize at the time was an industry plant. In the course of the meeting, I made the mistake of mentioning that I had all of Exner’s documentation. My house was torched on April 25th, two days later, and the fire started in my den. It is interesting to note that this came a few months after Judge Flaherty’s decision in Pittsburgh, PA. My guess is that whoever paid to have my house burned down was pretty concerned about that judgement. I’ve been a lot more cautious ever since.”
In the letter Greenall recalls asking Exner about his approach to public speaking about fluoridation.
“Something else that surprised me was that with all that technical knowledge, why did he take a non-technical approach in his debating? He said, “I just observed what the audience could accept.” It permits the audience to keep faith in their doctor and dentist. Perhaps this insight was due to his background as a highschool teacher of Math and Chemistry, prior to his medical training,” Greenall wrote.
He noted that Exner rebutted the standard approach to promoting fluoridation by saying, “I am just as concerned about dental decay as you are, however that is not the issue. I am not convinced that fluoridation of communal water supplies is a safe and effective was to reduce dental decay, however, this too, is not the issue. The only issue is whether you should use your communal water supply as a vehicle.”
Greenall goes on to note, “With Dr. Exner’s non technical approach, Vancouverites refused water fluoridation again” (in 1958).
Exner was also a jazz aficionado, who started his own record label.
https://78rpm.club/record-labels/exner/
The archives of The Fluoridation Review are available at: https://fluoridealert.org/
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