Currently, two-thirds of the U.S. public water supply has fluoride chemicals added, a move centered on a now-disproved theory that fluoride ingestion prevents cavities. Research by the Centers for Disease Control has shown that fluoride absorbs into tooth enamel topically, but ingestion of the chemical can cause adverse reactions. Also, the CDC admitted that enamel fluoride concentration was not inversely related to cavities.
Fluoridated bottled water is available in stores across the United States along with instructions to mix into formula, which is what prompted the ADA to warn its members.
"Infants could receive a greater than optimal amount of fluoride through liquid concentrate or powdered baby formula that has been mixed with water containing fluoride during a time that their developing teeth may be susceptible to enamel fluorosis," stated the ADA report, describing the condition marked by pitting and white spotting as well as yellow and/or brown teeth.
Paul Beeber, lawyer and New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF) president, noted that news releases from the NYSCOF in 2000 and 2004 cited studies that linked fluorisis to infant foods mixed with fluoridated water. However, Beeber remarked, it took the ADA until 2006 to release its alert, right after the FDA disapproved of marketing fluoridated water to babies in October and the National Research Council reported that babies are fluoride overdosed from "optimally" fluoridated water supplies.
"The ADA claims the NRC report didn't question the safety of fluoridation but it did, as the ADA now admits," Beeber said. "The NRC also revealed fluoridation's adverse effects to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and others."
He added that the ADA warning had only gone out to its members, and asked, "Who will alert parents?"
The Environmental Protection Agency, which sets allowable water fluoride levels, is required to consider the most vulnerable members of a population, so allowable fluoride levels should be near zero to protect infants.
"This should end water fluoridation," Beeber said. "Fluoridation is a failed concept that must be abandoned before more Americans are harmed."
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