Fluoridation Safety & Efficacy is Doubted, Researchers Report
Three expert committees (NRC, SCHER, YORK) revealed “that there is uncertainty surrounding both the safety and the efficacy of fluoridation, report Israeli researchers, Anat Gesser-Edelsburg, PhD, Head of Health Promotion Department, School of Public Health, University of Haifa, and Dr. Yaffa Shir-Raz ( Journal of Risk Research, August 2016)
Fluoridation is the addition of fluoride chemicals into public water supplies ostensibly to reduce tooth decay.
The Israeli researchers further report that “A [UK] Cochrane systematic review (2015) “concluded that there is very little updated and high-quality evidence indicating that fluoridation reduces dental caries, while there is significant association between fluoride levels and dental fluorosis [white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth].”
Israel policy-makers and public health officials ignored or denied valid evidence, produced by experts in their fields and respected science groups to push through a fluoridation mandate in Israel, report Gesser-Edelsburg and Shir-Raz.
They report that “policy makers themselves …[carry] out what they accuse others [fluoridation opposers] of doing. They share only partial, biased information in order to support their [pro-fluoridation] case, and convey information in terms that misrepresent the actual situation.”
The same is true in the US
From the beginning, respected US scientists and physicians criticized fluoridation but were ignored (i.e., Waldbott). Voices of opposition were suppressed since the early days, according to Chemical and Engineering News.
Criticism persists today, i.e. Legal Scholar Rita Barnett-Rose; Historian Catherine Carstairs, Phd; Social Scientist Brian Martin PhD; investigative reporters in Scientific American, Chemical & Engineering News, Newsweek and ABC-TV.
In fact, US public health bureaucrats ignore their own published evidence of fluoride’s potential harm i.e. New York State Department of Health and Virginia Department of Health.
The ignored1990 NYS Department of Health report alerted bureaucrats about fluoride's potential harm to kidney patients, diabetics and the fluoride hypersensitive even at optimal levels.
Gesser-Edelsburg and Shir-Raz explain that some studies, including recent ones, show no benefit from fluoridation; some even report adverse effects and that those studies were ignored by officials.
Today’s PR gurus coach fluoridationists to avoid mentioning risks because then “opponents are likely to win.” (slide 18) And they disallow fluoridation opponents from partaking in fluoridation discussions. This occurred in New York State.
Coming on the heels of evidence showing that fluoridation is useless and more harmful to the poor, researchers continue to report that fluoridation's tooth decay reduction are still not scientifically proven.
“Fluoridated water [does] not seem, based on the existing literature, to hold sufficient evidence for the reduction of dental caries,” report Italian researchers in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dentistry (December 2016).
Swedish researchers, in PLOS one, February 2015, reported a “systematic review concerned the caries-preventive effect of water fluoridation [McDonagh]… was graded as low.”
In July 2012, Cagetti, et al. reported “Studies of the effectiveness of water fluoridation have been based on observational study designs… these studies are regarded as low in quality and the weight of the evidence derived from cross-sectional and observational studies can be questionable”
In 2011 the West Virginia University Rural Health Research Center reported "...it was found that fluoridation rates were not significantly related to the measures of either caries or overall condition of the teeth for urban or rural areas."
Even respected dental researchers have reported in dental textbooks that fluoridation is based more on unproven theories than scientific evidence.
Countries that do not fluoridate the water have experienced a dramatic decline in tooth decay.
See how fluoridation has failed New York State http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/12/fluoridation-fails-new-york-state.html
4600 professionals (hundreds of MD's and dentists) agree that fluoridation should cease immediately http://fluoridealert.org/researchers/professionals-statement/text/