Last week, I wrote about how to find out how much fluoride your water contains. A reader wanted to know what parts of the country contain high levels of fluoride naturally. In the first year dental school, I learned about the “Colorado Brown Stain” story where some dental researchers discovered fluoride in the water in Colorado and found a link between the fluoride and healthier teeth.
I figured that Colorado couldn’t be the only place on earth with high levels of fluoride — and that turns out to be true. There are several areas in the world where fluoride can naturally be found in the water supply.
After a lot of research, I found a research paper entitled, A Systematic Review of the Efficacy and Safety of Fluoridation published by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia. Using the data that it contained, I constructed the following map that shows the locations in the world that contain greater than 1.5 ppm of fluoride in the groundwater.
This map visually puts into perspective the fact that water fluoridation isn’t about adding some synthetic chemical to our drinking water, it is simply about adjusting the amount of fluoride in our water to an optimal level that will help prevent tooth decay.
There’s nothing natural about the fluoride that’s added to water supplies. Natural fluoride is often calcium fluoride which, in itself, can be deadly at high concentrations even though lots of the calcium stays attached to the fluoride
The fluoride chemicals that are added to most water supplies in an attempt to reduce tooth decay in tap water drinkers are usually hydrofluosiclicic acid or sodium fluoride, mostly all derived from the silicofluorides scraped from t he smokestacks of phosphate fertilizer plants. This fluoride is collected in the smokestacks because it is illegal to let it flow into the atmosphere because it has killed crops and livestock in the early 20th century.
This “fluoride” is trucked as hazardous chemicals and injected into water supplies without being purified which means it’s allowed to contain trace amounts of lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxins by NSF International, the governing body over water additives.
Recently, Kip Duchon the CDC’s chief fluoridation engineer admitted that a lot of the fluoridation chemicals come from China
A city in Massachusetts recently had to stop using its China-purchased fluoride chemicals because something was wrong with it and it was clogging up their systems. They are unable at this time to figure out what undesirable chemicals are in this new fluoride that’s making it behave this way.
For more info: Check out http://www.FluorideAction.Net
nyscof, you’re seriously confused. The fluoride that goes into fluoridated water comes from the phosphate rock BEFORE it goes to fertilizer plants. The same way that they get phosphoric acid… y’know, that stuff that is in Coke and Pepsi? It IS legal to let it flow into the atmosphere, you just have to have a permit – Intel got in trouble in Oregon for discharging it without a permit for 25 years when they requested an increase in their allowable discharge amount to 6.4 tons per year. 6.4 TONS. They paid a fine for not having a permit of $143,000 and they now have a permit. OOH 143K, they probably shook that much loose change out of their pockets! Our water already has trace amounts of all those scary toxins. There’s always been a maximum allowable amount and it doesn’t change when you add fluoride.
For REAL fluoride info instead of fearmongerers who have no actual scientific evidence to back up their claims, go to http://ilikemyteeth.org/fluoridation/
Maggie I find it off putting that you tell someone they are seriously confused and then continue to say things like “its legal” and “they now have a permit”. At this point in our enlightenment, we should not become combative. We need a respectful collaboration of information in order to sort through the consistent flow of new information.
How about we share some information on how ingesting fluoride is toxic, just because our bodies can “process” chemicals doesn’t mean it’s safe. Fluoride is only beneficial to teeth if applied topically and should not be consumed. Read the back of your toothpaste and call poison control if ingested. Fluoride is a poisonous contaminant to our bodies on a cellular level. Prove me wrong as respectfully as you can muster, please and thank you.
Hi nyscof. Thank you for the comment.
I believe that there are pros and cons to water fluoridation. I am not for water fluoridation, and I am not against water fluoridation. Right now, I find myself stuck on the fence.
You do bring up some valid points. I would prefer that the fluoride be the natural calcium fluoride that is added to our tap water rather than the silica fluorides.
As far as the fluoride being allowed to contain trace amounts of toxins you may be correct. However, the public water supply does have upper limits on the amount of hazardous chemicals that it can contain.
I searched for the incident in Massachusetts and found this opinion piece for those who are interested:
http://www.newburyportnews.com/puopinion/local_story_025234727.html?keyword=secondarystory
It is important to bear in mind that fluoride wasn’t the root cause of this problem, it was perhaps lax Chinese regulations regarding the export of their fluoride. The town did the right thing by suspending water fluoridation and should find out what it is that makes up the residue.
My question regarding this map is: are those places really naturally fluoridated? Or instead of properly containing waste products from factories, etc., do they just let the waste run into the ground? I’m sure whoever collects the research data knows that information from their water analysis, but that’s unclear from that map. Maybe it’s a little of both. I doubt a large portion of this country is improperly disposing of waste products. Just something to think about.
Hi Cindy – I’m pretty sure it is naturally fluoridated – they can tell the difference between the natural fluoride and the fluoride that is associated with by-products from industrial applications.