This article is not about nuclear power, but some say that the fluoride is a result of the industrial waste stream of uranium enrichment. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I want to discuss water fluoridation.
Last year, Brigham City had a referendum on fluoridating our water (Proposition 3).
Of course, all of the dentists in Brigham City were for fluoridation and only crackpots were against it. You know, experts versus nose pickers
The election results were 2,342 No (keep fluoridating) and 1,149 Yes (stop fluoridating). Thus, Brigham City will continue to fluoridate our water. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
I was curious about the process of fluoridation, so I called the director of public works, Tyler Pugsley and asked him specifically what chemical the city uses. They use hexafluorosilicic acid purchased from Thatcher Chemical. The target dose is 0.7 milligrams per liter of water.
Next, I looked up the Cochrane study on fluoride in the water. These are their conclusions.
There is very little contemporary evidence, meeting the review's inclusion criteria, that has evaluated the effectiveness of water fluoridation for the prevention of caries.
The available data come predominantly from studies conducted prior to 1975, and indicate that water fluoridation is effective at reducing caries levels in both deciduous and permanent dentition in children. Our confidence in the size of the effect estimates is limited by the observational nature of the study designs, the high risk of bias within the studies and, importantly, the applicability of the evidence to current lifestyles. The decision to implement a water fluoridation programme relies upon an understanding of the population's oral health behaviour (e.g. use of fluoride toothpaste), the availability and uptake of other caries prevention strategies, their diet and consumption of tap water and the movement/migration of the population. There is insufficient evidence to determine whether water fluoridation results in a change in disparities in caries levels across SES. We did not identify any evidence, meeting the review's inclusion criteria, to determine the effectiveness of water fluoridation for preventing caries in adults.
There is insufficient information to determine the effect on caries levels of stopping water fluoridation programmes.
There is a significant association between dental fluorosis (of aesthetic concern or all levels of dental fluorosis) and fluoride level. The evidence is limited due to high risk of bias within the studies and substantial between-study variation.
This is my interpretation of their study:
No evidence exists for the reduction of cavities in adults for water fluoridation
Evidence that water fluoridation prevents cavities in children comes mostly from before 1975, when fluoride toothpaste became widespread. (If most children are now using fluoride toothpaste, why do they need to ingest fluoridated water?)
Interestingly there was a case of fluoride poisoning in a remote Alaskan village where half the town became very ill and one person died as the result of too much fluoride added to the drinking water because of a poorly designed and maintained system.
These results indicate that excess fluoride entered a community water system in a rural Alaska village, causing 1 death and almost 300 nonfatal cases of fluoride intoxication. The symptoms can be explained by well-described mechanisms. Fluoride and hydrogen ions combine in the stomach to form hydrofluoric acid, which causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Fluoride has a direct toxic effect on intracellular metabolism that includes the inhibition of glycolytic enzymes and cholinesterases. Profound hyperkalemia may result. Finally, fluoride forms a complex with calcium in extracellular fluid that causes hypocalcemia; the fate of the complex is not known. Our findings suggest that serum magnesium concentrations may also be reduced; the mechanism for this reduction is unknown. Death from fluoride poisoning is believed to occur from cardiac dysrhythmias due to hyperkalemia or hypocalcemia.
Curious that the mechanism for toxicity is the hexafluorosilicic acid turns into hydrofluoric acid in the stomach. If you're not aware of what hydrofluoric acid is, it will eat through living flesh until it reaches bone. Very nasty stuff, if it's concentrated.
The bloody question is why do we need to ingest it? Its alleged mode of benefit is combining in the tooth enamel. There is no reason to ingest this crap. If you believe the ADA, have your kids use fluoride toothpaste.
But Hey, Vox Populi, Vox Dei (except when raising taxes, or certain other things that the voting public just doesn’t understand.)
P.S. If you want to get this out of your drinking water the way to do it is with a remote reverse osmosis filter. This is the one I bought. If and when I test both the tap water and the filtered water, I will write about it.