July/August 2000 Alternative Health
Fluoride is Poison
by Barry Forbes
"Why'd you do it, Doc? Why'd you toss the fluoride folks overboard?"
I had just tracked down Dr. Hardy Limeback, B.Sc., Ph.D in Biochemistry,
D.D.S., head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry for the University
of Toronto, and president of the Canadian Association for Dental
Research. (Whew.)
Dr. Limeback is Canada's leading fluoride authority and, until
recently, the country's primary promoter of the controversial additive.
In a surprising newsmaker interview this past April, Dr. Limeback
announced a dramatic change of heart.
"Children under three should never use fluoridated toothpaste,"
he counseled. "Or drink fluoridated water. And baby formula must
never be made up using Toronto tap water. Never."
Why, I wondered? What could have caused such a powerful paradigm
shift?
"It's been building up for a couple of years," Limeback told me
during a recent telephone interview. "But certainly the crowning
blow was the realization that we have been dumping contaminated
fluoride into water reservoirs for half a century. The vast majority
of all fluoride additives come from Tampa Bay, Florida smokestack
scrubbers. The additives are a toxic byproduct of the super-phosphate
fertilizer industry."
"Tragically," he continued, "that means we're not just dumping
toxic fluoride into our drinking water. We're also exposing innocent,
unsuspecting people to deadly elements of lead, arsenic and radium,
all of them carcinogenic. Because of the cumulative properties of
toxins, the detrimental effects on human health are catastrophic."
A recent study at the University of Toronto confirmed Dr. Limeback's
worst fears. "Residents of cities that fluoridate have double the
fluoride in their hip bones vis-a-vis the balance of the population.
Worse, we discovered that fluoride is actually altering the basic
architecture of human bones."
Skeletal fluorosis is a debilitating condition that occurs when
fluoride accumulates in bones, making them extremely weak and brittle.
The earliest symptoms?
"Mottled and brittle teeth," Dr. Limeback told me. "In Canada
we are now spending more money treating dental fluorosis than we
do treating cavities. That includes my own practice."
One of the most obvious living experiments today, Dr. Limeback
believes, is a proof-positive comparison between any two Canadian
cities. "Here in Toronto we've been fluoridating for 36 years. Yet
Vancouver - which has never fluoridated - has a cavity rate lower
than Toronto's." And, he pointed out, cavity rates are low all across
the industrialized world including Europe, which is 98% fluoride
free. Low because of improved standards of living, less refined
sugar, regular dental checkups, flossing and frequent brushing.
Now less than 2 cavities per child Canada-wide," he said.
"I don't get it, Doc. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) ran a puff piece all across America saying the stuff was better
than sliced bread. What's the story?"
"Unfortunately," he replied, "the CDC is basing its position on
data that is 50 years old, and questionable at best. Absolutely
no one has done research on fluorosilicates, which is the junk they're
dumping into the drinking water."
"On the other hand," he added, "the evidence against systemic
fluoride in-take continues to pour in."
"But Doc, the dentists..."
"I have absolutely no training in toxicity," he stated firmly.
"Your well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of misinformation
from public health and the dental association. Me, too. Unfortunately,
we were wrong."
Last week, Dr. Hardy Limeback addressed his faculty and students
at the University of Toronto, Department of Dentistry. In a poignant,
memorable meeting, he apologized to those gathered before him. "Speaking
as the head of preventive dentistry, I told them that I had unintentionally
mislead my colleagues and my students. For the past 15 years, I
had refused to study the toxicology information that is readily
available to anyone. Poisoning our children was the furthest thing
from my mind."
"The truth," he confessed to me, "was a bitter pill to swallow,
but swallow it I did."
South of the border, the paradigm shift has yet to dawn. After
half a century of delusion, the CDC, American Dental Association
and Public Health stubbornly and skillfully continue to manipulate
public opinion in favor of fluoridation. Meantime, study after study
is delivering the death knell of the deadly toxin. Sure, fluoridation
will be around for a long time yet, but ultimately its supporters
need to ready the life rafts. The poisonous waters of doubt and
confusion are bound to get choppier.
"Are lawsuits inevitable?" I asked the good doctor.
"Remember tobacco," was his short, succinct reply.
Welcome, Dr. Hardy Limeback, to the far side of the fluoride equation.
It's lonely over here, but in our society loneliness and truth frequently
travel hand in hand. Thank you for the undeniable courage of your
convictions.
Barry Forbes
The Tribune, Mesa, AZ
Reproduced With Permission