Some fifty years after the U. S. began adding fluoride to public water supplies/ 600 scientists are urging Congress to halt/ Other countries have stopped

[Guest guest]

Some fifty years after the

U. S. began adding fluoride to

public water supplies/

600 scientists are urging Congress to halt/ Other countries have stopped

============================================================== Health experts bare teeth on fluoride

- Glass - Politico.com Aug 9,

2007 ... So, to Introduce Water Fluoridation, they Hired the

Brilliant ... The ADA concern

is largely focused on the systemic toxic

effect that they ...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5322.html

- 148k - similar pages Health experts bare

teeth on fluoride By:

Glass Aug 9, 2007 06:51 PM EST

More than 600

scientists and health experts are urging Congress to halt the addition of

fluoride to public drinking water until the controversial treatment is proven

safe.

In a strong statement

Thursday, the health professionals called upon lawmakers to stop fluoridation

in communities across the nation until their safety concerns are reviewed at

congressional hearings. The group, the Fluoride Action Network, cited fresh

scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is

ineffective and carries serious health risks

No hearings on fluoridation are currently planned before any Senate or House

committee.

Among the petitioners is Arvid Carlsson,

84, a Swedish scientist best known for his work with the neurotransmitter

dopamine and its effects in Parkinson's disease and a co-recipient the 2000

Nobel Prize for Medicine. “Fluoridation is against all principles of

modern pharmacology,” he said. “It's really obsolete.”

The anti-fluoride signers are challenging the powerful American Dental Association,

which is well-entrenched on Capitol Hill and calls fluoridation one of the best

public health ideas ever.

Dr. Sally Cram, an ADA spokeswoman, told a Baskin, an investigative reporter for WJLA-TV,

“Absolutely, fluoride is safe, it’s effective, it has reduced the

decay rate in the population by about 20 to 40 percent over the last 60

years.” Baskin’s report aired on the Washington ABC-TV affiliate

Thursday.

Baskin also interviewed Bob Carton, a former toxic substance scientist at the

Environmental Protection Agency, who told her that adding fluoride to water was

a mistake from the beginning. “It was a foolish thing to do years

ago,” Carton said. “They didn’t have enough information. It

hadn’t really been tested.”

Baskin cited a recent study by

the National Academy of Sciences that concluded toxic levels of fluoride can

lead to severe, permanent pitting of the enamel in children’s teeth and

that fluoride can also build up in the bones to cause pain, stiff joints and

skeletal abnormalities when they get older. She reported, however, that

“the Environmental Protection Agency isn’t about to make any quick

decisions about the academy’s finding that toxic levels of fluoride must

be drastically lowered.”

Baskin’s WJLA report also featured an interview with Grumbles,

an EPA water quality specialist, who told her, “We take [the

academy’s] recommendations very seriously. We also have a commitment to

get additional information and validate it and work with other public health

authorities.”

Supporters of fluoridation cite research by the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention that shows fluoridation of drinking correlates to

reductions in tooth decay on the order of 15 percent to 40 percent in

municipalities across the United

States .

Excessive amounts of the chemical, however, can lead not only to irreversible

tooth discoloration, a condition called “fluorosis,” but also to

other health issues, including an increased risk of bone breakage, particularly

among the elderly.

The problem, according to the Fluoride Action Network, is that the very water

that is treated for dental purposes is also used in the preparation of many

food products -- from baby formula and cereal to juices, sodas, wines, beers

and even fresh produce. These scientists hold that since most toothpastes also

contain added fluoride, many people are ingesting far more fluoride than they

should.

Water fluoridation by public authorities has often provoked controversy.

Advocates say that it is similar to fortifying salt with iodine, milk with

vitamin D and orange juice with vitamin C and claim it is an effective method

of preventing tooth decay.

The Fluoride Action Network and other opponents, however, contend that

fluoridation can have harmful health effects such as bone cancer and

osteoporosis. Another issue is the potential discoloration of children's second

teeth once the baby teeth are gone. Besides being embarrassing, there is no

cure. Several studies

have also shown how low-to-moderate doses of fluoride can lead to eczema,

reduced thyroid activity, hyperactivity, IQ deficits and premature puberty.

Some opponents also claim that releasing fluoride compounds into municipal

water supplies takes away individual choice as to the substances a person

ingests and amounts to forced mass medication.

On the other side, concerns have risen that our increased reliance on nonfluoridated

bottled water instead of fluoride-treated tap water, especially among

teenagers, may be leading to increases in tooth decay.

The Food and Drug Administration has long required warning labels to keep

toothpaste out of the reach of children under 6 years old. “If more than

used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a

Poison Control Center right away,”

the mandatory labels say.

In 2005, Baskin reported, some 22,000 Americans did so.

“Too much of any good thing can be a

bad thing,” the ADA ’s

Cram told Baskin in their on-air interview. However, Cram added, “we

prevent a lot of suffering and pain that is totally unnecessary and

preventable, both in adults and children.”

Fluoride, Teeth,

and the Atomic Bomb Some fifty

years after the United

States began adding fluoride to public water

supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth,

declassified government ...

http://www.fluoridation.com/atomicbomb.htm

- 42k - similar pages Introduction: "....The

report offers a glimpse into the history of fluoride, a bio-accumulative toxic

that Americans ingest every day. The authors, Griffiths and Bryson, spent more

than a year on research. With the belief that the information should be withheld

no longer, the authors gave their report to Waste Not, and others, with a short

note: "use as you wish."

The science of fluoridating public drinking water systems has been, from day

one, shoddy at best. As we learn from this report, the basis of that science

was rooted in protecting the U.S. Atomic bomb program from litigation. Americans have been convinced that

fluoride will save their teeth and we drink more fluoridated water than any

other nationality on earth. We learned about the dirty politics involved in the

science and selling of fluoridation to a trusting public. We spent three months

researching fluoride which resulted in the longest newsletter we've ever

produced: Waste Not # 373. We learned that fluoride is a poison that

accumulates in our bones. It has been associated with cancer in young males;

osteoporosis; reduced I.Q.; and hip fractures in the elderly, to name a few.

Orwell would have been dazzled by the promotion of this toxic by dental

and public health officials and concurrently, the avoidance of this issue by

the environmental community. We think it has a lot to do with the sordid

50-year history of the promotion of fluoridation by the

U.S. Department

of Public Health and the American Dental Association. Rather than acknowledge

the accumulating evidence of fluoride's threat to human health, they have

en-trenched themselves in a position that has produced tactics that include the

harassment of scientists and dentists who speak out." Introduction to "Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb"

from Waste

Not #414 (September 1997)

where the article was first published FLUORIDE, TEETH, AND THE ATOMIC BOMB

By Griffiths and Bryson Some fifty years after the

United States began adding fluoride

to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth, declassified

government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that

still-controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection

between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age. Today, two thirds of

U.S. public drinking water is

fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the

government's assurances of safety. Since the days of World War II, when this nation prevailed by

building the world's first atomic bomb, U.S. public health leaders have

maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for

children's teeth. That safety verdict should now be re-examined in the light of

hundreds of once-secret WWII documents obtained by Griffiths and Bryson –

including declassified papers of the Manhattan Project, the

U.S. military

group that built the atomic bomb. Fluoride was the key chemical in atomic bomb production, according

to the documents. Massive quantities of fluoride – millions of tons

– were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium

for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. One of the most toxic chemicals

known, fluoride rapidly emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the

U.S atomic bomb program--both for workers and for nearby communities, the

documents reveal. Other revelations include: Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for

humans in low doses was generated by A-bomb program scientists, who had been

secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against

defense contractors for fluoride injury to citizens. The first lawsuits against

the U.S. A-bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage, the

documents show. Human studies were required. Bomb program researchers

played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive

U.S. study of the health effects of fluoridating

public drinking water--conducted in Newburgh ,

New York from 1945 to 1956. Then,

in a classified operation code-named "Program F," they secretly

gathered and analyzed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizens, with the cooperation of State Health Department personnel. The original secret version--obtained by these

reporters--of a 1948 study published by Program F scientists in the Journal of

the American Dental Association shows that evidence of adverse health effects

from fluoride was censored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) –

considered the most powerful of Cold War agencies – for reasons of

national security. The bomb program's fluoride safety studies were

conducted at the University of Rochester , site of one

of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War, in which

unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive

plutonium. The fluoride studies were conducted with the same ethical mind-set,

in which "national security" was paramount. The U.S. government's conflict of interest--and its

motive to prove fluoride "safe" – has not until now been made

clear to the general public in the furious debate over water fluoridation since

the 1950's, nor to civilian researchers and health professionals, or

journalists. The declassified documents resonate with growing body of

scientific evidence, and a chorus of questions, about the health effects of

fluoride in the environment. Human exposure to fluoride has mushroomed since World War II, due

not only to fluoridated water and toothpaste, but to environmental pollution by

major industries from aluminum to pesticides: fluoride is a critical industrial

chemical. The impact can be seen, literally, in the smiles of our children.

Large numbers of U.S. young people--up to 80 percent in some cities--now have dental fluorosis, the

first visible sign of excessive fluoride exposure, according to the U.S.

National Research Council. (The signs are whitish flecks or spots, particularly

on the front teeth, or dark spots or stripes in more severe cases.) Less-known to the public is that fluoride also accumulates in bones

– "The teeth are windows to what's happening in the bones,"

explains Connett, Professor of Chemistry at St. Lawrence University

(N.Y.). In recent years, pediatric bone specialists have expressed alarm about

an increase in stress fractures among

U.S. young people. Connett and

other scientists are concerned that fluoride – linked to bone damage by

studies since the 1930's – may be a contributing factor. The declassified

documents add urgency: much of the original proof that low-dose fluoride is

safe for children's bones came from

U.S. bomb program scientists,

according to this investigation. Now, researchers who have reviewed these declassified documents

fear that Cold War national security considerations may have prevented

objective scientific evaluation of vital public health questions concerning

fluoride. "Information was buried," concludes Dr. Phyllis

Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston , and

now a critic of fluoridation. Animal studies Mullenix and co-workers conducted

at Forsyth in the early 1990's indicated that fluoride was a powerful central

nervous system (CNS) toxin, and might adversely affect human brain functioning,

even at low doses. (New epidemiological evidence from

China adds

support, showing a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and

diminished I.Q. in children.) Mullenix's results were published in 1995, in a

reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal. During her investigation, Mullenix was astonished to discover

there had been virtually no previous

U.S. studies of fluoride's effects

on the human brain. Then, her application for a grant to continue her CNS

research was turned down by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where

an NIH panel, she says, flatly told her that "fluoride does not have

central nervous system effects." Declassified documents of the

U.S. atomic-bomb program indicate

otherwise. An April 29, 1944 Manhattan Project memo reports: "Clinical

evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central

nervous system effect.... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride]

component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor." The memo – stamped "secret" – is addressed

to the head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, Colonel Stafford

Warren. Colonel Warren is asked to approve a program of animal research on CNS

effects: "Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be

necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after

exposure...This is important not only to protect a given individual, but also

to prevent a confused workman from injuring others by improperly performing his

duties." On the same day, Colonel Warren approved the CNS research program.

This was in 1944, at the height of the Second World War and the nation's race

to build the world's first atomic bomb. For research on fluoride's CNS effects

to be approved at such a momentous time, the supporting evidence set forth in

the proposal forwarded along with the memo must have been persuasive. The proposal, however, is missing from the files of the U.S.

National Archives. "If you find the memos, but the document they refer to

is missing, its probably still classified," said Reeves, chief

librarian at the Atlanta branch of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, where the

memos were found. Similarly, no results of the Manhattan Project's fluoride CNS

research could be found in the files. After reviewing the memos, Mullenix declared herself

"flabbergasted." She went on, "How could I be told by NIH that

fluoride has no central nervous system effects when these documents were

sitting there all the time?" She reasons that the Manhattan Project did do

fluoride CNS studies – "that kind of warning, that fluoride workers

might be a danger to the bomb program by improperly performing their duties--I

can't imagine that would be ignored" – but that the results were

buried because they might create a difficult legal and public relations problem

for the government. The author of the 1944 CNS research proposal was Dr. Harold C.

Hodge, at the time chief of fluoride toxicology studies for the

University of

Rochester division of the Manhattan

Project. Nearly fifty years later at the Forsyth Dental Center in Boston , Dr.

Mullenix was introduced to a gently ambling elderly man brought in to serve as

a consultant on her CNS research--Harold C. Hodge. By then Hodge had achieved

status emeritus as a world authority on fluoride safety. "But even though

he was supposed to be helping me," says Mullenix, "he never once

mentioned the CNS work he had done for the Manhattan Project." The "black hole" in fluoride CNS research since the days

of the Manhattan Project is unacceptable to Mullenix, who refuses to abandon

the issue. "There is so much fluoride exposure now, and we simply do not

know what it is doing," she says. "You can't just walk away from

this." Dr. Noronha, an NIH scientific review advisor familiar

with Dr. Mullenix's grant request, says her proposal was rejected by a

scientific peer-review group. He terms her claim of institutional bias against

fluoride CNS research "farfetched" he adds, "We strive very hard

at NIH to make sure politics does not enter the picture." Fluoride and National Security

The documentary trail begins at the height of WW2, in 1944, when a severe

pollution incident occurred downwind of the E.I. du Pont du Nemours Company

chemical factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. The factory was then producing

millions of pounds of fluoride for the Manhattan project, the ultra-secret U.S. military program racing to produce the world's first atomic bomb. The farms downwind in Gloucester and Salem counties were famous for their

high-quality produce – their peaches went directly to the Waldorf Astoria

Hotel in New York .

Their tomatoes were bought up by 's

Soup. But in the summer of 1943, the farmers began to report that their

crops were blighted, and that "something is burning up the peach crops

around here." Poultry died after an all-night thunderstorm, they reported. Farm

workers who ate the produce they had picked sometimes vomited all night and

into the next day. "I remember our horses looked sick and were too stiff

to work," these reporters were told by Mildred Giordano, who was a

teenager at the time. Some cows were so crippled they could not stand up, and

grazed by crawling on their bellies. The account was confirmed in taped interviews, shortly before he

died, with Philip Sadtler of Sadtler Laboratories of Philadelphia, one of the

nation's oldest chemical consulting firms. Sadtler had personally conducted the

initial investigation of the damage. Although the farmers did not know it, the attention of the

Manhattan Project and the federal government was riveted on the

New Jersey incident,

according to once-secret documents obtained by these reporters. After the war's

end, in a secret Manhattan Project memo dated March 1, 1946, the Project's

chief of fluoride toxicology studies, Harold C. Hodge, worriedly wrote to his

boss Colonel Stafford L. Warren, Chief of the Medical Division, about

"problems associated with the question of fluoride contamination of the

atmosphere in a certain section of New

Jersey . There seem to be four distinct (though

related) problems," continued Hodge; "1. A question of injury of the peach crop in 1944."

"2. A report of extraordinary fluoride content of vegetables grown in this

area."

"3. A report of abnormally high fluoride content in the blood of human

individuals residing in this area."

"4. A report raising the question of serious poisoning of horses and

cattle in this area." The New Jersey farmers waited until the war was over, then sued du Pont and the Manhattan

Project for fluoride damage – reportedly the first lawsuits against the

U.S. A-bomb program. Although seemingly trivial, the lawsuits shook the government, the

secret documents reveal. Under the personal direction of Manhattan Project

chief Major General R.Groves, secret meetings were convened in

Washington, with compulsory attendance by scores of scientists and officials

from the U.S War Department, the Manhattan Project, the Food and Drug

Administration, the Agriculture and Justice Departments, the U.S Army's

Chemical Warfare Service and Edgewood Arsenal, the Bureau of Standards, and du Pont

lawyers. Declassified memos of the meetings reveal a secret mobilization of the

full forces of the government to defeat the

New Jersey farmers: These agencies "are making scientific investigations to

obtain evidence which may be used to protect the interest of the Government at

the trial of the suits brought by owners of peach orchards in ...

New Jersey ," stated

Manhattan Project Lieutenant Colonel B. , in a memo c.c.'d to

General Groves. 27 August 1945 Subject: Investigation of Crop Damage at Lower Penns Neck,

New Jersey

The Commanding General, Army Service Forces, Pentagon Building,

Washington D.C. "At the request of the Secretary of War the Department of

Agriculture has agreed to cooperate in investigating complaints of crop damage

attributed... to fumes from a plant operated in connection with the Manhattan

Project." Signed, L.R. Groves, Major General U.S.A "The Department of Justice is cooperating in the defense of

these suits," wrote General Groves in a Feb. 28, 1946 memo to the Chairman

of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy. Why the national-security emergency over a few lawsuits by

New Jersey farmers? In

1946 the United States had begun full-scale production of atomic bombs. No other nation had yet tested

a nuclear weapon, and the A-bomb was seen as crucial for U.S leadership of the

postwar world. The New Jersey fluoride lawsuits were a serious roadblock to that strategy. "The specter of endless lawsuits haunted the military,"

writes Lansing Lamont in his acclaimed book about the first atomic bomb test,

"Day of Trinity." In the case of fluoride, "If the farmers won, it would open

the door to further suits, which might impede the bomb program's ability to use

fluoride," said Kittrell, a

Tennessee public interest lawyer

specializing in nuclear cases, who examined the declassified fluoride

documents. (Kittrell has represented plaintiffs in several human radiation

experiment cases.) She added, "The reports of human injury were especially

threatening, because of the potential for enormous settlements – not to

mention the PR problem." Indeed, du Pont was particularly concerned about the

"possible psychologic reaction" to the

New Jersey pollution incident, according to

a secret 1946 Manhattan Project memo. Facing a threat from the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) to embargo the region's produce because of "high

fluoride content," du Pont dispatched its lawyers to the FDA offices in

Washington , where an

agitated meeting ensued. According to a memo sent next day to General Groves,

Du Pont's lawyer argued "that in view of the pending suits...any action by

the Food and Drug Administration... would have a serious effect on the du Pont

Company and would create a bad public relations situation." After the

meeting adjourned, Manhattan Project Captain Davies approached the FDA's

Food Division chief and "impressed upon Dr. White the substantial interest

which the Government had in claims which might arise as a result of action

which might be taken by the Food and Drug Administration." There was no embargo. Instead, new tests for fluoride in the

New Jersey area would be

conducted – not by the Department of Agriculture – but by the U.S.

Army's Chemical Warfare Service because "work done by the Chemical Warfare

Service would carry the greatest weight as evidence if... lawsuits are started

by the complainants." The memo was signed by General Groves. Meanwhile, the public relations problem remained unresolved

– local citizens were in a panic about fluoride. The farmer's spokesman, Willard B. Kille, was personally invited

to dine with General Groves – then known as "the man who built the

atomic bomb" – at his office at the War Department on March 26,

1946. Although he had been diagnosed with fluoride poisoning by his doctor,

Kille departed the luncheon convinced of the government's good faith. The next

day he wrote to the general, wishing the other farmers could have been present,

he said, so "they too could come away with the feeling that their

interests in this particular matter were being safeguarded by men of the very

highest type whose integrity they could not question." In a subsequent secret Manhattan project memo, a broader solution to the public relations problem was suggested

by chief fluoride toxicologist Harold C. Hodge. He wrote to the Medical Section

chief, Col. Warren: "Would there be any use in making attempts to

counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents of

Salem and Gloucester counties through lectures on F toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of F in

tooth health?" Such lectures were indeed given, not only to

New Jersey citizens but

to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War. The New Jersey farmers' lawsuits were ultimately stymied by the government's refusal to reveal

the key piece of information that would have settled the case – how much

fluoride du Pont had vented into the atmosphere during the war.

"Disclosure... would be injurious to the military security of the

United States ,"

wrote Manhattan Project Major C.A Taney, Jr. The farmers were pacified with

token financial settlements, according to interviews with descendants still

living in the area. "All we knew is that du Pont released some chemical that

burned up all the peach trees around here," recalls Angelo Giordano, whose

father was one of the original plaintiffs. "The trees were no good

after that, so we had to give up on the peaches." Their horses and cows,

too, acted stiff and walked stiff, recalls his sister Mildred. "Could any

of that have been the fluoride ?" she asked. (The symptoms she detailed to

the authors are cardinal signs of fluoride toxicity, according to veterinary

toxicologists.) The Giordano family, too, has been plagued by bone and joint

problems, Mildred adds. Recalling the settlement received by the Giordanos,

Angelo told these reporters that "my father said he got about $200." The farmers were stonewalled in their search for information, and

their complaints have long since been forgotten. But they unknowingly left

their imprint on history – their claims of injury to their health

reverberated through the corridors of power in

Washington , and triggered intensive secret

bomb-program research on the health effects of fluoride. A secret 1945 memo

from Manhattan Project Lt. Col. to General Groves stated: "Because

of complaints that animals and humans have been injured by hydrogen fluoride

fumes in [the New Jersey] area, although there are no pending suits involving

such claims, the University of Rochester is conducting experiments to determine

the toxic effect of fluoride." Much of the proof of fluoride's safety in low doses rests on the

postwar work performed by the University of Rochester , in

anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. Fluoride and the Cold War

Delegating fluoride safety studies to the

University of Rochester was not surprising. During WWII the federal government had become involved, for

the first time, in large-scale funding of scientific research at

government-owned labs and private colleges. Those early spending priorities

were shaped by the nation's often-secret military needs. The prestigious upstate New

York college, in particular, had housed a key wartime

division of the Manhattan Project, studying the health effects of the new

"special materials," such as uranium, plutonium, beryllium and

fluoride, being used to make the atomic bomb. That work continued after the

war, with millions of dollars flowing from the Manhattan Project and its

successor organization, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). (Indeed, the bomb

left an indelible imprint on all

U.S. science in the late 1940's and

50's. Up to 90% of federal funds for university research came from either the

Defense Department or the AEC in this period, according to Noam Chomsky's 1996

book "The Cold War and the University.") The University of Rochester medical

school became a revolving door for senior bomb program scientists. Postwar

faculty included Stafford Warren, the top medical officer of the Manhattan

Project, and Harold Hodge, chief of fluoride research for the bomb program. But this marriage of military secrecy and medical science bore

deformed offspring. The University of

Rochester 's classified fluoride studies – code-

named Program F – were conducted at its Atomic Energy Project (AEP), a

top-secret facility funded by the AEC and housed in

Strong Memorial Hospital . It was there

that one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War took

place, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses

of radioactive plutonium. Revelation of this experiment in a Pulitzer

prize-winning account by Eileen Wellsome led to a 1995

U.S. Presidential investigation, and a multimillion-dollar cash settlement for

victims. Program F was not about children's teeth. It grew directly out of

litigation against the bomb program and its main purpose was to furnish

scientific ammunition which the government and its nuclear contractors could

use to defeat lawsuits for human injury. Program F's director was none other

than Harold C. Hodge, who had led the Manhattan Project investigation of

alleged human injury in the New

Jersey fluoride-pollution incident. Program F's purpose is spelled out in a classified 1948 report. It

reads: "To supply evidence useful in the litigation arising from an

alleged loss of a fruit crop several years ago, a number of problems have been

opened. Since excessive blood fluoride levels were reported in human residents

of the same area, our principal effort has been devoted to describing the

relationship of blood fluorides to toxic effects." The litigation referred to, of course, and the claims of human

injury were against the bomb program and its contractors. Thus, the purpose of

Program F was to obtain evidence useful in litigation against the bomb program.

The research was being conducted by the defendants. The potential conflict of interest is clear. If lower dose ranges

were found, hazardous by Program F, it might have opened the bomb program and

its contractors to lawsuits for injury to human health, as well as public

outcry. Comments lawyer Kittrell: "This and other documents indicate

that the University of

Rochester 's fluoride research grew out of the

New Jersey lawsuits and

was performed in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human

injury. Studies undertaken for litigation purposes by the defendants would not

be considered scientifically acceptable today, " adds Kittrell,

"because of their inherent bias to prove the chemical safe." Unfortunately, much of the proof of fluoride's safety rests on the

work performed by Program F Scientists at the

University of Rochester .

During the postwar period that university emerged as the leading academic

center for establishing the safety of fluoride, as well as its effectiveness in

reducing tooth decay, according to Dental School spokesperson

H. Bowen, MD. The key figure in this research, Bowen said, was Harold

C. Hodge – who also became a leading national proponent of fluoridating

public drinking water. Program F's interest in water fluoridation was not just

'to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents,' as Hodge

had earlier written. The bomb program needed human studies, as they had needed

human studies for plutonium, and adding fluoride to public water supplies

provided one opportunity. The A-Bomb Program and Water Fluoridation

Bomb-program scientists played a prominent – if unpublicized – role

in the nation's first-planned water fluoridation experiment, in

Newburgh , New

York . The Newburgh Demonstration Project is

considered the most extensive study of the health effects of fluoridation,

supplying much of the evidence that low doses are safe for children's bones,

and good for their teeth. Planning began in 1943 with the appointment of a special New York

State Health Department committee to study the advisability of adding fluoride

to Newburgh 's

drinking water. The chairman of the committee was Dr. Hodge, then chief of

fluoride toxicity studies for the Manhattan Project. Subsequent members included Henry L. Barnett, a captain in the

Project's Medical section, and W. Fertig, in 1944 with the office of

Scientific Research and Development, the Pentagon group which sired the

Manhattan Project. Their military affiliations were kept secret: Hodge was

described as a pharmacologist, Barnett as a pediatrician. Placed in charge of

the Newburgh project was B. Ast, chief

dental officer of the State Health Department. Ast had participated in a key

secret wartime conference on fluoride held by the Manhattan Project, and later

worked with Dr. Hodge on the Project's investigation of human injury in the

New Jersey incident,

according to once-secret memos. The committee recommended that

Newburgh be fluoridated. It also selected the

types of medical studies to be done, and "provided expert guidance"

for the duration of the experiment. The key question to be answered was:

"Are there any cumulative effects – beneficial or otherwise, on

tissues and organs other than the teeth – of long-continued ingestion of

such small concentrations...?" According to the declassified documents,

this was also key information sought by the bomb program, which would require

long-continued exposure of workers and communities to fluoride throughout the Cold

War. In May 1945, Newburgh 's

water was fluoridated, and over the next ten years its residents were studied

by the State Health Department. In tandem, Program F conducted its own secret

studies, focusing on the amounts of fluoride Newburgh citizens retained in their blood and tissues - key information sought by the

bomb program: "Possible toxic effects of fluoride were in the forefront of

consideration," the advisory committee stated. Health Department personnel

cooperated, shipping blood and placenta samples to the Program F team at the

University of

Rochester . The samples were collected by

Dr. B. Overton, the Department's chief of pediatric studies at

Newburgh . The final report of the Newburgh Demonstration Project, published

in 1956 in the Journal of the American Dental Association, concluded that

"small concentrations" of fluoride were safe for U.S.citizens. The

biological proof – "based on work performed ... at the

University of

Rochester Atomic Energy Project "

– was delivered by Dr. Hodge. Today, news that scientists from the atomic bomb program secretly

shaped and guided the Newburgh fluoridation

experiment, and studied the citizen's blood and tissue samples, is greeted with

incredulity. "I'm shocked – beyond words," said present-day

Newburgh Mayor Audrey Carey, commenting on these reporters' findings. "It

reminds me of the Tuskegee experiment that was

done on syphilis patients down in Alabama ."

As a child in the early 1950's, Mayor Carey was taken to the old

firehouse on Broadway in Newburgh ,

which housed the Public Health Clinic. There, doctors from the

Newburgh fluoridation project studied her teeth, and a

peculiar fusion of two finger bones on her left hand she had been born with.

Today, adds Carey, her granddaughter has white dental-fluorosis marks on her

front teeth. Mayor Carey wants answers from the government about the secret

history of fluoride, and the Newburgh fluoridation experiment. "I absolutely want to pursue it," she said.

"It is appalling to do any kind of experimentation and study without

people's knowledge and permission." Contacted by these reporters, the director of the

Newburgh experiment, B. Ast, says he was unaware

Manhattan Project scientists were involved. "If I had known, I would have

been certainly investigating why, and what the connection was," he said.

Did he know that blood and placenta samples from Newburgh were being sent to bomb program researchers at the

University of Rochester ?

"I was not aware of it," Ast replied. Did he recall participating in

the Manhattan Project's secret wartime conference on fluoride in January 1944,

or going to New Jersey with Dr. Hodge to investigate human injury in the du Pont case--as secret memos

state? He told the reporters he had no recollection of these events. A spokesperson for the University of Rochester Medical Center, Bob

Loeb, confirmed that blood and tissue samples from

Newburgh had been tested by the University's

Dr. Hodge. On the ethics of secretly studying U.S citizens to obtain

information useful in litigation against the A-bomb program, he said,

"that's a question we cannot answer." He referred inquiries to the

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), successor to the Atomic Energy Commission. A spokesperson for the DOE in Washington, Jayne Brady, confirmed

that a review of DOE files indicated that a "significant reason" for

fluoride experiments conducted at the University of Rochester after the war was

"impending litigation between the du Pont company and residents of

New Jersey areas."

However, she added, "DOE has found no documents to indicate that fluoride

research was done to protect the Manhattan Project or its contractors from

lawsuits." On Manhattan Project involvement in

Newburgh , the spokesperson stated,

"Nothing that we have suggests that the DOE or predecessor agencies

– especially the Manhattan Project – authorized fluoride

experiments to be performed on children in the 1940's." When told that the reporters had several documents that directly

tied the Manhattan Project's successor agency at the University of Rochester,

the AEP, to the Newburgh experiment, the DOE spokesperson later conceded her

study was confined to "the available universe" of documents. Two days

later spokesperson Jayne Brady faxed a statement for clarification: "My

search only involved the documents that we collected as part of our human

radiation experiments project – fluoride was not part of our research

effort. "Most significantly," the statement continued, relevant

documents may be in a classified collection at the DOE Oak Ridge National

Laboratory known as the Records Holding Task Group. "This collection

consists entirely of classified documents removed from other files for the

purpose of classified document accountability many years ago," and was

"a rich source of documents for the human radiation experiments

project," she said. The crucial question arising from this investigation is: Were

adverse health findings from Newburgh and other bomb-program fluoride studies suppressed? All AEC-funded studies had

to be declassified before publication in civilian medical and dental journals.

Where are the original classified versions? The transcript of one of the major secret scientific conferences

of WW2--on "fluoride metabolism"--is missing from the files of the

U.S. National Archives. Participants in the conference included key figures who

promoted the safety of fluoride and water fluoridation to the public after the

war - Harold Hodge of the Manhattan Project, B. Ast of the Newburgh

Project, and U.S. Public Health Service dentist H.Trendley Dean, popularly

known as the "father of fluoridation." "If it is missing from

the files, it is probably still classified," National Archives librarians

told these reporters. A 1944 WW2 Manhattan Project classified report on

water fluoridation is missing from the files of the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project ,

the U.S. National Archives, and the Nuclear Repository at the

University of Tennessee ,

Knoxville . The

next four numerically consecutive documents are also missing, while the remainder

of the "MP-1500 series" is present. "Either those documents are

still classified, or they've been 'disappeared' by the government," says

Clifford Honicker, Executive Director of the American Environmental Health

Studies Project, in Knoxville , Tennessee ,

which provided key evidence in the public exposure and prosecution of

U.S. human

radiation experiments. Seven pages have been cut out of a 1947

Rochester bomb-project

notebook entitled "Du Pont litigation." "Most unusual,"

commented chief medical school archivist Hoolihan. Similarly, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by these

authors over a year ago with the DOE for hundreds of classified fluoride

reports have failed to dislodge any. "We're behind," explained Amy

Rothrock, FOIA officer for the Department of Energy at their

Oak Ridge operations. Was information suppressed? These reporters made what appears to

be the first discovery of the original classified version of a fluoride safety

study by bomb program scientists. A censored version of this study was later

published in the August 1948 Journal of the American Dental Association.

Comparison of the secret with the published version indicates that the U.S. AEC

did censor damaging information on fluoride, to the point of tragicomedy. This was a study of the dental and physical health of workers in a

factory producing fluoride for the A-bomb program, conducted by a team of

dentists from the Manhattan Project. The secret version reports that most of the men had no

teeth left. The published version reports only that the men had fewer cavities.

The secret version says the men had to wear rubber

boots because the fluoride fumes disintegrated the nails in their shoes. The

published version does not mention this. The secret version says the fluoride may have acted

similarly on the men's teeth, contributing to their toothlessness. The

published version omits this statement. The published version concludes that "the men were unusually

healthy, judged from both a medical and dental point of view." Asked for comment on the early links of the Manhattan Project to

water fluoridation, Dr Harold Slavkin, Director of the National Institute for

Dental Research, the U.S. agency which today funds fluoride research, said, "I wasn't aware of any input

from the Atomic Energy Commission." Nevertheless, he insisted, fluoride's

efficacy and safety in the prevention of dental cavities over the last fifty

years is well-proved. "The motivation of a scientist is often different

from the outcome, " he reflected. "I do not hold a prejudice about

where the knowledge comes from." After comparing the secret and published versions of the censored

study, toxicologist Phyllis Mullenix commented, "This makes me ashamed to

be a scientist." Of other Cold War-era fluoride safety studies, she asks,

"Were they all done like this?" About the authors:

Griffiths is a medical writer in New

York City , author of a book on radiation hazards and

numerous articles for medical and popular publications. Bryson holds a

Masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and

has worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, The Manchester Guardian.

Archival research: by Clifford Honicker

Fluoridation of Water

A Health Benefit Or a Toxic Drink? Fluoridation of Water A Health

Benefit Or a Toxic Drink, Fluoride, teeth,

toxins,

Dental fluorosis, tooth decay, toronto ,

tap water.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/medical/teeth010107.htm

- 29k - similar pages Teeth, Gums, Dentistry, Health Fluoride, teeth, toxins Fluoridation of Water A Health Benefit Or

a Toxic Drink? By Dr. W. Gifford

January, 2007 "Doctor, I'd suggest fluoride treatment to protect your

teeth". I agreed with my dentist. After all, I'd been told since I was

knee-high that fluoride prevents cavities. I've also used fluoride toothpaste

for years. But I recently decided to research this topic to see if there was a

downside to this treatment. , a three year old Brooklyn boy, had his first dental

checkup in 1974. Fluoride gel was spread over the teeth. Following that he was

handed a glass of water by the hygienist who failed to inform him to swish the

solution in his mouth and spit it out. Instead, he drank the water and a few

hours later he was dead from fluoride poisoning. Fluoride is an acute toxin

with a rating higher than lead. Next, I discovered that 98 percent of Europe is fluoride-free.

Sweden , Germany ,

Norway , Holland ,

Denmark and

France stopped

using fluoridation over 25 years ago. These are not backward nations. In 1980 a

New Zealand dentist, an ardent

supporter of fluoride therapy, was sent by the government on a world tour to study

fluoridation. He returned an outspoken critic of the treatment. Later in 1999 Dr. Hardy Limeback,

Professor of Dentistry at the University of Toronto, and former

supporter of fluoridation, reported that fluoride may be destroying our bones,

teeth and overall health. He claimed that children under three should never

use fluoridated toothpaste, drink fluoridated water and mothers should never

use Toronto tap water to prepare baby formula. The sole argument favouring fluoridation

is that it reduces tooth decay. But this is a contentious issue. Several

studies involving as many as 480,000 children found no beneficial difference

between fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities. In fact, one study showed

decay was greater in the fluoridated area! Moreover, dental health in

Europe has improved since 1970 without fluoride. Most parents are unaware of dental

fluorosis, a discolouration of teeth due to excess fluoride. In 1940 this

mottling condition occurred in 10 percent of children's teeth. Today in some

areas it's as high as 55 percent. One reason, children's toothpaste tastes good

and they swallow too much of it. Dental fluorosis is the first indication

that the body is getting excess fluoride. But bones also collect fluoride and

can develop skeletal fluorosis. Since 1990 numerous studies have reported an

association between fluoridated water and hip fractures. Fluoridation is also

known to increase osteoporosis (brittle bones). In 1992 a

U.S. study found a strong link

between fluoridation and osteosarcoma, a bone cancer in young males. The rates

of this malignancy were three to seven times higher in fluoridated areas. Other studies in China show reduced IQ in children

overexposed to fluoride from drinking water. Further effects include decreased

concentration, memory loss and confusion. There's also concern that

fluoridation is implicated in Alzheimer's Disease since fluoride combines with

aluminum to cross the blood brain barrier. I didn't know that Torontonians have

double the fluoride levels in hip bones than Montrealers whose city water is

not fluoridated. Since studies also show that fluoride causes decreased levels

of sperm and testosterone, I wonder if that's why "they make love in

Montreal and only money in

Toronto !" Carl Sagan, the noted astromoner, was

right when discussing authoritarian judgments. He remarked that "arguments

from authority do not count; too many authorities have been mistaken too

often". There is no convincing reason that water

should contains 1.5 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride when our bodies have no

use for it and when its risk is greater than its benefit. Toothpaste has up to

1,500 ppm and treatment in a dentist's office another whopping 10,000 to 20,000

ppm! Besides, unlike calcium, magnesium and other nutrients our body does not

need fluoride. The first rule of medicine is "Do no

harm". But how can we control consumption of a toxic substance when consumers

drink varying amounts of water? How do we stop young children absorbing

fluoride from toothpaste? The best way is ban fluoridation of water and stop

buying toothpaste with fluoride. I imagine you've guessed what I'll say when

next asked "Do you want the fluoride treatment".

W. Gifford-

M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken graduate of The

Harvard

Medical School .

He's been a ship's surgeon, hotel physician and family doctor and later trained

in surgery at McGill in Montreal ,

University of

Rochester N.Y. and Harvard. His medical

column is published by 60 Canadian newspapers and several in the

U.S. He is the

author of seven books. Dr. has a medical practice in

Toronto . His Web site is: www.mydoctor.ca/gifford-jones. He can be

reached at letters@...