A Crisis In Flint – Or Everywhere?
As many of you have heard, there is a serious crisis in Flint, Michigan. Citizens there have been drinking water with dangerously high levels of lead, a neurotoxin. The citizens are outraged – and rightly so. But across the country there have been several cities and counties whose water has shown abnormally high levels of lead – and the media hasn’t focused on it. Studies have been done to determine what effects water fluoridation has on metal and lead pipes and the results aren’t pretty. What if all of our fluoridated water is corrosive water which leeches lead from the pipes delivering it to our homes? We might all be drinking water that’s just as unsafe as what they’ve been drinking in Flint.
In many locations in the United States, local water treatment plants practice water fluoridation. Despite countries across the world moving away from such an archaic and unethical practice, an astounding 74.6% of the US population on public water systems receives fluoridated water. Many studies have been performed on the alleged benefits of water fluoridation, with the highly regarded Cochrane Group issuing what should be the deathblow to water fluoridation. Newsweek summarized the conclusions last year-
The review identified only three studies since 1975—of sufficient quality to be included—that addressed the effectiveness of fluoridation on tooth decay in the population at large. These papers determined that fluoridation does not reduce cavities to a statistically significant degree in permanent teeth, says study co-author Anne-Marie Glenny, a health science researcher at Manchester University in the United Kingdom. The authors found only seven other studies worthy of inclusion dating prior to 1975.
The authors also found only two studies since 1975 that looked at the effectiveness of reducing cavities in baby teeth, and found fluoridation to have no statistically significant impact here, either.
The scientists also found “insufficient evidence” that fluoridation reduces tooth decay in adults (children excluded).
Beyond the ethical and scientific issues of forcing medication on people (as many psychotropic drugs like Fluvox and Prozac are made of high levels of fluoride), there is a deeper issue lurking below the surface of our streets and houses.
Water fluoridation promotes high levels of lead in tap water.
An article in The Lancet published in 2014 clearly lists fluoride alongside lead as a neurotoxin-
In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants—manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers.
Why are people up in arms over the neurotoxins in Flint’s water, but not the neurotoxins being distributed to over 60% of Americans through their own water supply?
Fluoridated water is corrosive water.
And worse, water fluoridation exponentially increases lead levels in water. Water treatment plants don’t use pharmaceutical grade Sodium Fluoride to put fluoride into our water supplies, they use fluorosilicic acid. Obviously an acid is corrosive, and this is the chemical byproduct of industrial production, often of Chinese origin. What happens when you add fluorosilicic acid to water flowing through brass pipes? There was a study done in 2007 to determine how brass pipes, chlorine, chloramines, sodium fluoride and fluorosilicic acid interact. The results are frightening.
Over the first test week (after CL flushing concentrations were increased from 1.0 to 2.0 ppm) lead concentrations nearly doubled (from about 100 to nearly 200 ppb), but when FSA (fluorosilicic acid) was also included, lead concentrations spiked to over 900 ppb.
Now, this is a simple study done on the interaction of popular water treatment chemicals. The people in Flint are experiencing lead contamination levels between 5ppb and 1,000ppb in their water. Most of the tested water from Flint is found to be around 25ppb. What if the “corrosive water” is being blamed for a problem that exists in their treatment of water and in their pipes? What if Flint was one of the earliest adopters of water fluoridation and their pipes are utterly corroded after decades of a dangerous chemical cocktail intentionally mixed into their tap water, under the guise of preventing tooth decay? In Genesee County, both Flint and Flint Township provide fluoridated water – you can check this on the CDC’s “My Water’s Fluoride” page.
But it’s not just Flint that has found frightening levels of lead among people on fluoridated water supplies. A school in Washington DC was found to have lead levels of 5,000ppb in the tap water after the treatment plant switched from chlorine to chloramine. They’ve found high levels of lead in water in Greenville NC and Durham NC, with children requiring medical treatment. When water companies test their water, they do it at the treatment plant – not at your home. And when they pour Chinese manufacturing byproducts into your water and claim it’s good for your teeth, perhaps it’s time to see just how much lead is in all of our water in the United States.
Buy a testing kit and check for yourself, and your family’s safety. We know there is a compounding effect when water treated with fluorosilicic acid and chloramine travels through brass pipes. After decades of combining those chemicals it should be no surprise to find lead in the tap water of homes across America.
Flint could be the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.newsweek.com/fluoridation-may-not-prevent-cavities-huge-study-shows-348251
http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/statistics/
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(13)70278-3/fulltext#article_upsell
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161813X07001404