Canada and United States Lonely on Pro-Fluoridation Front
95 percent of the world has rejected or is in the process of removing fluoride from their drinking water. The latest large-scale halt of artificial chemical water fluoridation came from Israel on August 26, 2014. There Health Minister Yael German followed through with her announcement to end water fluoridation after 30 years of the practice. While most of the world has opened its eyes to the dangers of artificial water fluoridation, Canada and the United States are still heavily fluoridating their citizens "to reduce tooth decay." 2012 statistics show that 40% percent of Canada's population and a whopping 67.1% of the United States population and are still receiving fluoridated water, despite the known dangers of doing so such as a recent report that the CDC has known since 2005 that the black community in America has much higher rates of damaging dental fluorosis.
While 95% of the world has rejected artificial water fluoridation and Canada and the US are still pushing it, other countries are dealing with abnormally high levels of fluoride in their drinking water and ways to remove it. One such country is India where a recent report published by The Times of India noted that fluoride use in drinking water has been linked to skeletal damage as well as other serious health concerns such as mental disorders and infertility.
In one Indian state, 2,749 water samples were taken from sources in 18 districts:
1,717 samples contained between 1 ppm and 3 ppm of fluoride
314 contained between 3 ppm and 5 ppm
99 contained more than 5 ppm
Health experts consider "1 ppm to 1.5 ppm as the upper limit" meaning anything above this level is regarded as a threat to health.
Dr. Ramavatar Jaiswal, the state nodal officer for fluorosis, shared his opinion in the story: “Fluorosis is a public health problem resulting in major health disorders like dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis and non-skeletal fluorosis besides inducing ageing. There are cases of infertility, mental disorders and others which we have found during the survey in areas with high fluoride contents in drinking water.”
Fluorosis is defined as “A chronic condition caused by excessive intake of fluorine compounds, marked by mottling of the teeth and, if severe, calcification of the ligaments.”
These findings once again confirm that Canadian and US governments are complacent in setting a reliable recommendation on an optimal daily intake of fluoride. It is impossible to say that 1 ppm of fluoride in the drinking water is safe as everyone drinks a different amount of water. If I drink 4 liters of water per day I ingest 4 milligrams of fluoride. If you drink 1 liter you ingest 1 milligram. By this logic the government is saying that me consuming 4 times the amount of the same drug as you is okay. This is preposterous, anti-science and anti-medicine propaganda.
Furthermore if I drink 4 liters of water per day at 1 ppm I would ingest 4 milligrams of fluoride. This would be the same as drinking 2 liters of water per day with 2 ppm of fluoride which is above the 1.5 ppm upper limit and is considered hazardous to health.
Safest bet? Don't ingest fluoride.
The good news is that the trend is going in the right direction. Whereas in 2007 approximately 45% of Canadians were drinking fluoridated water, in 2014, with the removal of fluoride from all of Calgary, Waterloo, Saint John, Windsor, Thunder Bay and many other communities, less than 35% of Canadians are now drinking fluoridated water.
It is the hope of everyone involved with the anti-fluoridation, pro-clean water movement that Canada and the US will open their eyes sooner than later to bring 95% of the world to 100%.