Fluoridation of your drinking water

[Guest guest]

As many of you will know, there is a massive connection

between fluoride and hypothyroidism - but the water authorities refuse to

listen. For those of you who are not aware of this connection, please read the

following paper written by Dr Peatfield: If you would like to know whether you

are living in a fluoridated area in the UK, Bill has sent me the following

link: FLUORIDATED

POST CODES AREAS OF THE UK with

percentages of population with fluoridated water supply.

FLUORIDE: The Effects of Fluoride on the Thyroid Gland

There is a daunting amount of research studies showing that

the widely acclaimed benefits of fluoride dental health are more imagined than

real. My main concern however, is the effect of sustained fluoride intake on

general health. Again, there is a huge body of research literature on this

subject, freely available and in the public domain.

But this body of work was not considered by the York Review

when their remit was changed from “Studies of the effects of fluoride on

health” to “Studies on the effects of fluoridated water on

health.” It is clearly evident that it was not considered by the BMA

(British Medical Association), British Dental Association (BDA), BFS (British

Fluoridation Society) and FPHM, (Faculty for Public Health and Medicine) since

they all insist, as in the briefing paper to Members of Parliament - that

fluoridation is safe and non-injurious to health.

This is a public disgrace; I will now show by reviewing the

damaging effects of fluoridation, with special reference to thyroid illness.

It has been known since the latter part of the 19th century

that certain communities, notably in Argentina, India and Turkey were

chronically ill, with premature aging, arthritis, mental retardation, and

infertility; and high levels of natural fluorides in the water were

responsible. Not only was it clear that the fluoride was having a general

effect on the health of the community, but in the early 1920s Goldemberg,

working in Argentina showed that fluoride was displacing iodine; thus

compounding the damage and rendering the community also hypothyroid from iodine

deficiency.

Highly damaging to the thyroid gland

This was the basis of the research in the

1930s of May, Litzka, Gorlitzer, von Mundy, who used fluoride preparations to

treat over-active thyroid illness. Their patients either drank fluoridated

water, swallowed fluoride pills or were bathed in fluoridated bath water; and

their thyroid function was as a result, greatly depressed. The use in 1937 of

fluorotyrosine for this purpose showed how effective this treatment was; but

the effectiveness was difficult to predict and many patients suffered total

thyroid loss. So it was given a new role and received a new name, Pardinon. It

was marketed not for over-active thyroid disease but as a pesticide. (Note the

manufacturer of fluorotyrosine was IG Farben who also made sarin, a gas used in

World War II).

This bit of history illustrates the fact

that fluorides are dangerous in general and in particular highly damaging to

the thyroid gland, a matter to which I shall return shortly. While it is

unlikely that it will be disputed that fluorides are toxic - let us be reminded

that they are Schedule 2 Poisons under the Poisons Act 1972, the matter in

dispute is the level of toxicity attributable to given amounts; in today’s

context the degree of damage caused by given concentrations in the water

supply. While admitting its toxicity, proponents rely on the fact that it is

diluted and therefore, it is claimed, unlikely to have deleterious effects.

They could not be more mistaken

It seems to me that we must be aware of

how fluoride does its damage. It is an enzyme poison. Enzymes are complex

protein compounds that vastly speed up biological chemical reactions while

themselves remaining unchanged. As we speak, there occurs in all of us a vast

multitude of these reactions to maintain life and produce the energy to sustain

it. The chains of amino acids that make up these complex proteins are linked by

simple compounds called amides; and it is with these that fluorine molecules react,

splitting and distorting them, thus damaging the enzymes and their activity.

Let it be said at once, this effect can occur at extraordinarily low

concentrations; even lower than the one part per million which is the dilution

proposed for fluoridation in our water supply.

The body can only eliminate half

Moreover, fluorides are cumulative and

build up steadily with ingestion of fluoride from all sources, which include

not just water but the air we breathe and the food we eat. The use of fluoride

toothpaste in dental hygiene and the coating of teeth are further sources of

substantial levels of fluoride intake. The body can only eliminate half of the

total intake, which means that the older you are the more fluoride will have

accumulated in your body. Inevitably this means the ageing population is

particularly targeted. And even worse for the very young there is a major

element of risk in baby formula made with fluoridated water. The extreme

sensitivity of the very young to fluoride toxicity makes this unacceptable.

Since there are so many sources of fluoride in our everyday living, it will

prove impossible to maintain an average level of 1ppm as is suggested.

What is the result of these toxic effects?

First the immune system. The distortion of

protein structure causes the immune proteins to fail

to recognise body proteins, and so instigate an attack on them, which is

Autoimmune Disease. Autoimmune diseases constitute a body of disease processes

troubling many thousands of people: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus

Erythematosis, Asthma and Systemic Sclerosis are examples; but in my particular

context, thyroid antibodies will be produced which will cause Thyroiditis

resulting in the common hypothyroid disease, Hashimoto’s Disease and the

hyperthyroidism of Graves ’ disease.

Musculoskeletal damage results further

from the enzyme toxic effect; the collagen tissue, of which muscles, tendons,

ligaments and bones are made, is damaged. Rheumatoid illness, osteoporosis and

deformation of bones inevitably follow. This toxic effect extends to the

ameloblasts making tooth enamel, which is consequently weakened and then made

brittle; and its visible appearance is, of course, dental fluorosis.

The enzyme poison effect extends to our

genes; DNA cannot repair itself, and chromosomes are damaged. Work at the

University of Missouri showed genital damage, targeting ovaries and testes.

Also affected is inter-uterine growth and development of the foetus, especially

the nervous system. Increased incidence of Down’s Syndrome has been

documented.

Fluorides are mutagenic. That is, they can

cause the uncontrolled proliferation of cells we call cancer. This applies to

cancer anywhere in the body; but bones are particularly picked out. The

incidence of osteosarcoma in a study reporting in 1991 showed an unbelievable

50% increase. A report in 1955 in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a

400% increase in cancer of the thyroid in San Francisco during the period their

water was fluoridated.

My particular concern is the effect of fluorides on the

thyroid gland

Perhaps I may remind you about thyroid

disease. The thyroid gland produces hormones which control our metabolism - the

rate at which we burn our fuel. Deficiency is relatively common, much more than

is generally accepted by many medical authorities: a figure of 1:4 or 1:3 by

mid life is more likely. The illness is insidious in its onset and progression.

People become tired, cold, overweight, depressed, constipated; they suffer

arthritis, hair loss, infertility, atherosclerosis and chronic illness. Sadly,

it is poorly diagnosed and poorly managed by very many doctors in this country.

What concerns me so deeply is that in concentrations as low as 1ppm, fluorides

damage the thyroid system on four levels.

1. The enzyme manufacture of thyroid

hormones within the thyroid gland itself. The process by which iodine is

attached to the amino acid tyrosine and converted to the two significant

thyroid hormones, thyroxine (T4) and liothyronine (T3), is slowed.

2. The stimulation of certain G proteins

from the toxic effect of fluoride (whose function is to govern uptake of

substances into each of the cells of the body), has the effect of switching off

the uptake into the cell of the active thyroid hormone.

3. The thyroid control mechanism is

compromised. The thyroid stimulating hormone output from the pituitary gland is

inhibited by fluoride, thus reducing thyroid output of thyroid hormones.

4. Fluoride competes for the receptor

sites on the thyroid gland which respond to the thyroid stimulating hormone; so

that less of this hormone reaches the thyroid gland and so less thyroid hormone

is manufactured.

These damaging effects, all of which occur

with small concentrations of fluoride, have obvious and easily identifiable

effects on thyroid status. The running down of thyroid hormone means a slow

slide into hypothyroidism. Already the incidence of hypothyroidism is

increasing as a result of other environmental toxins and pollutions together

with widespread nutritional deficiencies.

141 million Europeans are at risk

One further factor should give us deep

anxiety. Professor Hume of Dundee, in his paper given earlier this year to the

Novartis Foundation, pointed out that iodine deficiency is growing worldwide.

There are 141 million Europeans at risk; only 5 European countries are iodine

sufficient. The UK now falls into the marginal and focal category. Professor

Hume recently produced figures to show that 40% of pregnant women in the

Tayside region of Scotland were deficient by at least half of the iodine

required for a normal pregnancy. A relatively high level of missing, decayed,

filled teeth was noted in this non-fluoridated area, suggesting that the iodine

deficiency was causing early hypothyroidism which interferes with the health of

teeth. Dare one speculate on the result of now fluoridating the water?

Displaces iodine in the body

These figures would be worrying enough,

since they mean that iodine deficiency, which results in hypothyroidism

(thyroid hormone cannot be manufactured without iodine) is likely to affect

huge numbers of people. What makes it infinitely worse, is that fluorine, being

a halogen (chemically related to iodine), but very much more active, displaces

iodine. So that the uptake of iodine is compromised by the ejection, as it

were, of the iodine by fluorine. To condemn the entire population, already

having marginal levels of iodine, to inevitable progressive failure of their

thyroid system by fluoridating the water, borders on criminal lunacy. I would

like to place a scenario in front of those colleagues who favour fluoridation.

A new pill is marketed. Some trials not altogether satisfactory, nevertheless,

show a striking improvement in dental caries. Unfortunately, it has been found

to be thyrotoxic, mutagenic, immunosuppressive, cause arthritis and infertility

in comparatively small doses over a relatively short period of time.

Do you think it should be marketed?

Fluoridation of the nation’s water supply will do little for our dental

health; but will have catastrophic effects on our general health. We cannot,

must not, dare not, subject our nation to this appalling risk.

References:

L Goldemberg - La Semana Med 28:628 (1921) - cited in RH, DeEds F

-“The Synergistic Action Of Thyroid On Fluoride Toxicity”

Endocrinology 26:851 (1940).

G

Litzka - “Die experimentellen Grundlagen der Behandlung des Morbus

Basedow und der Hyperthyreose mittels Fluortyrosin”

Med Wochenschr 63:1037-1040 (1937) (discusses the basis of the use of fluorides

in anti-thyroid medication, documents activity on liver, inhibition of

glycolysis, etc.).

W

May - “Behandlung der Hypothyreosen einschlieblich des schweren genuinen

Morbus Basedow mit Fluor” Klin Wochenschr 16: 562 - 564 (1937).

Sarin:

(GB: isopropyl methylphosono-fluoridate) is a colorless, odorless volatile

liquid, soluble in water, first synthesized at IG Farben in 1938. It kills

mainly through inhalation.

Cyclosarin (GF) and Thiosarin

are variants. Pennsylvania Department of Health

Sarin:

(GB: CH3-P(=O)(-F)(-OCH(CH3)2)

Source: A FOA Briefing Book on Chemical Weapons

Gerhard Schrader, a chemist at IG Farben, was given the task of developing a

pesticide. Two years later a phosphorus compound with extremely high toxicity

was produced for the first time.

IG

Farben: “...the board of American IG Farben had three directors from the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most influential of the various Federal

Reserve Banks. American IG Farben. also had interlocks with Standard Oil of New

Jersey, Ford Motor Company, Bank of Manhattan (later to become the Chase

Manhattan Bank), and AEG. (German General Electric) Source: Moody’s

Manual of Investments; 1930, page 2149.”

Other

fluoride information: EU ruling which affects flouridation in the UK

In

view of the current UK Government push to supply more of the UK with

fluoridated water a few of the papers and reports on the adverse effects of

fluoride on the thyroid are listed below. These listed are not in any

particular order.International Fluoride Information Network reported in August

2003 that following the news that Basel, Switzerland had halted water

fluoridation after 41 years the Korean Medical Association and Pharmaceutical

Association have withdrawn their support for fluoridation and four city

councils have stopped fluoridation.

The report notes that the English speaking countries are getting more and more

isolated in their pursuit of this obsolete form of medicine. Areas in the U.K

rejecting fluoridation at this date include Liverpool, Bradford, Lancaster,

Brighton and Calderdale.

A Guardian report by Bob Wolfenden on 25.6.03

That after Finland, Cuba, Canada and East

Germany all abandoned water fluoridation Basel in Switzerland had recently

given it up as it was not found to prevent tooth decay. This article notes in a

revue of fluoridation and tooth decay that " we could discover no reliable

good quality evidence in the fluoridation literature world wide "

fluoridation helps reduce decay. On adverse effects the article notes the

accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland the EFFECTS ON THE THYROID by

displacement of iodine and the growth of this problem in the USA which is

heavily fluoridated. The University of Illinois in connection with bone cancer

state that this would pose a significant risk if imposed on the UK population.

SCOTTISH WATER IN THE HOUSE

There was a report on 2.7.1997 in The

Daily Telegraph, one of several reports over many years that the restaurants at

Westminster have been buying bottles of spring water for M.P.'s since before

November, 1987. Other reports show that both the organic food bought for the

restaurants and the bottled spring water is taxpayer subsidised, one report

giving over £11,000 as the cost of bottled water.

ENVIRONMENTAL FLUORIDE by Dyson Rose and J.A. Marrier for the

National Research Council of Canada 1977

This gives details of a report in 1972, in

areas where goitre was already endemic, an increase due to hydrofluorosis and

quotes from a Medical Research Council (U.K.) report that in " in some

areas, even moderate concentrations of fluoride in drinking waters could block

iodine absorption. It is known iodine concentrations are lower in soft waters

than in hard waters. If fluoride is added to soft waters a proportion of the

population may come to have subnormal iodine intake. The effects might be

subtle and slow to develop, and would certainly not be picked up by the crude

screening used at present. This paper refers to other studies which show in

animals fluoride is connected to hypothyroid function.

FUNDAMENTALS OF CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGY by Hall, et al, Pitman

Press 1974

Classification of causes of

hypothyroidism notes radiation and some evidence that fluoride in areas of

iodine deficiency might act as a goitrogen.

FLUORIDATION - THE GREAT

DILEMMA by G.L.Walbott MD 1978 This book gives several references to

fluoride and hypothyroidism including court cases in the US following exposure

to industrial fluorides from aluminium smelters and also the effects from

drinking water in many areas around the world. (Note high levels of industrial

fluorides have been found by others e.g. Dr. K. Melanby in his book

‘Pesticides and Health’ where he notes levels of fluoride in fields

down wind of brick works at 2000 parts per million. The nuclear industry also

utilises large amounts of fluorides).

THE BRITISH NATIONAL FORMULARY (BNF) by the BMA and Royal

Pharmaceutical Soc. of Great Britain.

The book doctors in the UK prescribe from

says of fluoride that where it is used as a gel on teeth " Extreme caution

is necessary to prevent a child swallowing any excess " (There has been

compensation paid for just such a death in the USA).

This same

book says of the drug Amiodarone Hydrochloride for heart arrhymias that

side-effects can be hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism.

Note: There are many

prescribed drugs having this effects e.g. the phenothiazines. I have one report

in 2000 of fluoxetine the SSRI drug containing fluoride causing hypothyroidism

due to its inhibition of P450 leading to thyroid hormone reduction.

PARENTS OF FLUORIDE POISONED CHILDREN OCTOBER 2000

Schuld, the director of this organisation

in the USA, explained how hyperthyroidism, caused by added iodine to the public

water supply in the early 1920's, led to the use of fluoride as an antithyroid

medication.

The international bible of pharmacology THE MARTINDALE (cost about £200) gives

some references to effects of fluoride on thyroid.

WOMAN TO SUE OVER FLUORIDE. A report from the Birmingham Evening Mail on a

woman suing for severe thyroid problems caused by the fluoride added to tap

water in Birmingham. (I have not seen the result of this case but I know of one

in the UK where out-of-court compensation was paid for possible ill health by

fluoridated water)

DISEASES OF THE THYROID by D.C.Evered Bsc. MD, MRCP 1976 cites fluoride as

interfering with thyroid function