Fluoride Findings
A report by the National Research Council (NRC) is cited as suggesting negative effects of fluoride in “Second Thoughts about Fluoride,” by Dan Fagin. But the NRC notes that its report was not initiated because of concerns about the low levels of fluoride used in community water fluoridation, nor did it examine that issue. Instead the report is part of a routine review by the Environmental Protection Agency to address whether the higher levels of naturally occurring fluoride currently allowed in drinking water pose a health risk. The EPA is evaluating the report.
The article rightly points out that enamel fluorosis only has a health impact in the severest cases, yet Fagin incorrectly refers to it as a “disease.” It is rather a disruption in enamel formation that affects the way teeth look. The American Dental Association (ADA) offers information on reducing the risk of fluorosis at www.ada.org.
The ADA’s support for fluoridation is based on more than six decades of research, thousands of studies, and the experience of more than 170 million Americans. We welcome additional peer-reviewed scientific studies that will add to the body of knowledge on the use of fluoride.
Mark Feldman
President, American Dental Association
Cosmic Growth Spurt
In “Making Space for Time” [News Scan], Scott Dodd explains that cosmic microwave background radiation shows that 380,000 years after its birth, the universe was filled with hot gas. He then writes,
“Eventually the early cosmos underwent inflation....” This statement is misleading. It implies that the exponential expansion of the universe called inflation occurred hundreds of thousands of years after the big bang. According to inflationary cosmology, inflation occurred around 10^–35 second after the big bang.
Mark Egdall
Hollywood, Fla.
Sunlit Path?
“A Solar Grand Plan,” by Ken Zweibel, James Mason and Vasilis Fthenakis, calls for the conversion of 30,000 square miles of pristine desert into photovoltaic farms. A better alternative exists: utilize rooftops. Although this strategy will not take advantage of the concentrated sunshine of the Southwest and will not be as efficient, it will distribute power generation across all time zones and weather conditions, without paving over additional land.
Mathieu Federspiel
via e-mail
Has anyone looked into the effects of installing 30,000 square miles of low-albedo surface material? Solar panels, by design, have a much lower albedo than most flat ground in the Southwest. How would their greater heat absorption affect the local environment?
Talon Swanson
Seattle
THE AUTHORS REPLY: In regard to the first letter, a common and valid criticism of our solar plan is that we undermodeled distributed energy systems, such as rooftop photovoltaics (PVs) and solar hot-water systems. If the price of residential systems is drastically reduced and local storage is provided, dispersed installations can play a much larger role than our article describes.
As to the second letter, locally we would experience differences in temperature and air movements because of albedo change. Although studies on this effect have not yet been conducted for large PV plants, observations and global models suggest some tentative conclusions. Tom Hansen, manager of Tucson Electric Power Company’s PV plant in Springerville, Ariz., has measured a two- to three-degree-Fahrenheit increase at the center of the PV field and a wind vortex from its periphery toward its center. An area of 50,000 square kilometers would receive about 3 x 10^14 watt-hours of solar energy daily. With a 20 percent albedo differential between desert and PV surfaces, this would amount to a net excess of 6 x 10^13 watt-hours per day. Similar albedo changes have also been caused by the major cities of the Southwest with no apparent effects. One should also consider that albedo heating will, nationally, be counterbalanced by avoidance of the heating caused by thermoelectric plants. Greg Nemet of the University of Wisconsin–Madison has studied global net radiative forcing by supplying 50 percent of the world’s energy with PVs, taking into account the albedo effect, and concludes that they are one of the most effective solutions to anthropogenic global warming.
See what we're tweeting about
8 Comments
Add CommentThe first ten-year human fluoridation experiment (Newburgh/Kingston study)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbegan in 1945. After ten years, it showed that adding fluoride chemicals into the drinking water is a health hazard. That inconvenient truth was ignored and fluoridation spread to over 2/3 of Americans on public water supplies and virtually 100% via the food supply. Today tooth decay is a growing epidemic, dental fluorosis (discolored teeth from fluoride overdosed) afflicts up to 48% of school children. But fluoridated toothpaste has become a multi-billion dollar international business which handsomely supports organized dentistry who lobbies our legislators to pass laws that puts money in their pockets and less fillings in our mouths.
I still like the idea of orbital solar platforms which can transmit power, perhaps as microwaves to recieving stations any where on earth, including off shore platforms. As microwaves are commenly used today, provided their density over a givin area is not too high, this might be advantageous. The advantage would be 24/7 power that would transmit the power any where on Earth, with out the need for new, long distance power transmission lines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFluoride Findings: This is exactly why why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would like to clarify a few things about fluoride as it seems to be often misunderstood. Fluoride is an element that readily binds well with hydroxiapetite, the calcium and phosphorus crystal structure of enamel. As a result this makes the enamel more dense.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTooth decay has dramatically decreased since the widespread use of fluoride throughout the US and Canada. During my 14 years experience as a dental hygienist, fluorosis has rarely been seen. It shows up in cases where fluoride supplements were recommended to a child, but too much was given by the parent.
Fluoride, as stated in the article, is very well researched and understood and is a valuable part of oral health. It would be cynical to assume that health professionals are just immoral, money grabbing crooks.
--
Edited by Symmetry at 05/09/2008 9:57 PM
Dental professionals are not lying immoral crooks; but they are fluoride-misinformed as the dental hygienist brings to our attention. Fluoride overdose is indeed a problem with up to 48% of school children sporting dental fluorosis, according to the CDC. See: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s403a1t23.gif
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeveral studies have been done showing that dentists are not up to speed on current fluoride science. See:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/2007research/07.html
Even brushing twice a day with fluoridated toothpaste puts young children over the daily threshold of fluoride ingestion, according to a recent article in the NYS Dental Journal by Dincer
The American Dental Association itself tells anyone who takes the time to search their website that children under six who consume fluoride supplements risk dental fluorosis.
Studies show that babies fed fluoride contaminated food, such as jarred chicken baby food, daily risk fluorosis from the one source alone.
The article should be captioned "Should we continue to poison our citizens with a toxic substance under the guise that it is good for their teeth while ignoring the fact that the effect on the bones is to weaken and cause more fractures,not to mention the horrible effect on the thyroid.I guess if the cure kills and degrades our intellect its ok because their teeth will look great in the grave,too.ADA members makes lots of money from resurfacing teeth because of the damage caused by yrs of sodium fluoride (a toxin listed as deadly in almost any amount,used in rat and roach poison).I guess my question is when is the ADA going to finally acknowledge that they were wrong about fluorine and they were also wrong about using amalgams for filling caries?Mercury is the only substance that is more toxic than a fluoridated substance for human ingestion.Just makes you want to give your dentist a big hug!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo an observer living in a high-rise apartment in New York covering West Taxas and New Mexico with solar collectors may seem logical. After all there's nothing there but lizards and jack rabbits. Right? But to those of us who find the area sunny and refreshing the idea is preposterous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe American Dental Association's (ADA) Mark Feldman should be embarrassed by implying that the NRC report has nothing to do with fluoridation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBased on the NRC findings, the National Kidney Foundation dropped it's fluoridation endorsement and caution kidney patients, not just those on dialysis, to monitor their fluoride intake because malfunctioning kidneys can't filter fluoride properly and can cause fluoride induced bone damage.
The National Kidney Foundation forced the ADA to stop listing their organization among their dubious list of fluoridation supporters, last month.