(NaturalNews) Fluoride is now being added to the water systems of Los Angeles and San Diego, in spite of the substance's classification as a toxin by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Fluoride refers to any compound made with the element fluorine, one of the most reactive elements known. Because fluorine reacts easily with other chemicals, it is widely used in industrial applications such as metal manufacture, glass, ceramics, Teflon, pesticide, rat poison and the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.
The EPA limits the fluoride content of water to four milligrams per liter, and suggests 0.8 milligrams per liter as the optimum concentration. But the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council has said that 10 to 20 years of exposure to 10 to 20 milligrams of fluoride per day may result in "crippling skeletal fluorosis." At the EPA's maximum concentration, this could be achieved by drinking less than three liters of water per day.
Because fluoride builds up in the body, longer exposure to lower levels of fluoride can lead to the same effects.
In spite of early studies implicating fluoride as a toxin, the United States began adding it to public water supplies in the 1940s. Fluoridation of Southern California's water supply was discussed and defeated by citizen opposition in 1966, 1968 and 1975. But in the late 1990s, Los Angeles began adding fluoride to the water. San Diego's Metropolitan Water District followed in December 2007.
Water fluoridation has been controversial from its inception, with critics pointing out that while dental associations claim that fluoride strengthens tooth enamel on contact, adding the substance to water exposes people on a systemic level.
A number of studies have linked ingestion of fluoride to neurological and skeletal effects, including causing brain and thyroid damage and bone cancer in adolescent boys. Recent research has found a number of fluoride compounds to be endocrine disruptors, which mimic the body's hormones with the potential for serious reproductive and developmental harm.
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