Water ...
by Maireid Sullivan 2012, updated 2021
Work in progress
"Water is what makes life on this planet possible ...
the way we treat water is absolutely the key
to whether or not we're going to survive." - David Suzuki
Introduction
- Traditions and beliefs about water Part 1
- The Right to Water Part 2
- Fracking Part 3
- Ocean acidification Part 4
- Flouride
- Health impacts of water fluoridation Part 5 - Asbestos Exposure Part 6
- Global Strategy Proposals
An example of attitudes governing corporatization of 'natural' resources:
"We're not here because we love the state and we've got bleeding hearts, for Christ's sake. We're here to make money. We're here to do business." – Malcolm Kinnard, (1933-2014), South Australian of the Year, 2003, responding to questions on United Water's financial success and rising prices in William Birnbauer's comprehensive report on water privitization: Tapping Australia's water, The Age Newspaper, May 7 2003
Traditions and Beliefs about Water – a selected world survey by Mairéid Sullivan, 2006 We are facing a comprehensive paradigm shift in our attitudes towards water.
Excerpt:
The Earth is 72% water. Our bodies are also 72% water. Some say more.
Yet it is predicted that by 2025, nearly three billion people worldwide will face an acute scarcity of clean, fresh water, and billions more will experience shortages and soaring costs for water. Researchers in oceanography, marine biology, fisheries science, glaciology, and meteorology are revealing that our oceans and waterways are changing in every way we can measure.
Ever since the powerful players of the World Water Council - the World Bank, the big water corporations, and the aid agencies and water ministries of First World countries - declared that water is not a human right, but rather a human need best served by private investors, the issue of the human right to water has become central to the international struggle for the control of water. Now, for the first time since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 60 years ago, the UN General Assembly has recognized the Human Right to Water and Sanitation.
Every culture on earth relates a legend of a deluge or great flood, along with beliefs that life came from water. And, although the world's earliest civilizations had deep respect for this precious resource and lionized it in creation myths, contemporary Western industrial nations seem to take water for granted and view it as disposable. >>> more
Earth may have underground 'ocean'
three times that on surface Scientists say rock layer hundreds of miles down holds vast amount of water, opening up new theories on how the planet formed.
Three-quarters of the Earth's water may be locked deep underground in a layer of rock, scientists say. After decades of searching scientists have discovered that a vast reservoir of water, enough to fill the Earth’s oceans three times over, may be trapped hundreds of miles beneath the surface, potentially transforming our understanding of how the planet was formed.
The water is locked up in a mineral called ringwoodite about 660km (400 miles) beneath the crust of the Earth, researchers say.
Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen from Northwestern University in the US co-authored the study published in the journal Science and said the discovery suggested Earth’s water may have come from within, driven to the surface by geological activity, rather than being deposited by icy comets hitting the forming planet as held by the prevailing theories.
“Geological processes on the Earth’s surface, such as earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, are an expression of what is going on inside the Earth, out of our sight,” Jacobsen said.
“I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.” >>> more
1996
Human Appropriation of Renewable Fresh Water (pdf) Sandra L. Postel, Gretchen C. Daily, Paul R. Ehrlich
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Science, New Series, Vol. 271, No. 5250 (Feb. 9, 1996), pp. 785-788
Humanity now uses 26 percent of total terrestrial evapotranspiration and 54 percent of runoff that is geograhically and temporarily accessible. Increased use of evapotranspiration will confer minimal benefits globally because most land suitable for rain-fed agriculture is already in production. New dam construction could increase accessible runoff by about 10 percent over the next 30 years, whereas population is projected to increase by more than 45 percent during that period.
What are chloramines, and why are they used to treat drinking water?
EPA: Basic Information about Chloramines and Drinking Water Disinfection
Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water. Chloramines provide longer-lasting disinfection as the water moves through pipes to consumers. This type of disinfection is known as secondary disinfection. >>>more
Important Australian study September 19, 2016
The silencing of the seas: how our oceans are going quiet
Ivan Nagelkerken, Associate Professor, Marine Biology, University of Adelaide; Sean Connell, Professor, University of Adelaide; Tullio Rossi, PhD student, University of Adelaide
Excerpt:
Despite appearances, the oceans are far from silent places. If you dunk your head underwater you’ll hear a cacophony of sounds from wildlife great and small, crashing waves, and even rain. And it’s louder still for creatures attuned to these sounds.
However, humans are changing these ocean soundscapes. Our recent research showed that changes caused by people, from ocean acidification to pollution, are silencing the seas' natural noises. (We’re also filling the oceans with human noise).
This is bad news for the species that depend on these noises to find their way. >>> more
Water - Should We Desalinate or Recycle? Wednesday 9 November 2005 ABC Radio National, Late Night Live interview with Phillip Adams
- Dr Charles Essery, Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Sydney; former senior water policy officer with the NSW Government.
- Professor Greg Leslie, Associate Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry at the University of New South Wales.
- Gary Crisp, Head of the Western Australian Water Corporation's Desalination section; Director of the Australasian Desalination Association.
We're all familiar with the cliché' (truism) that we live on the driest continent on earth, and we're all becoming used to living under water restrictions. Despite this, the average Australian household still uses four or five times more water than a typical household in Asia, Africa or Latin America ... and then there's irrigation, which accounts for three-quarters of the water we use.
Water is cheap in Australia, very cheap - which means our hip pockets are spared, but our river systems, underground water reservoirs and the environment in general are paying dearly.
Now Australia is faced with the prospect of permanent water restrictions, and we must devise an alternative water-use strategy. Two options are being widely canvassed. One, popular overseas, is to turn seawater into fresh water using desalination plants. Another option is to recycle waste-water, euphemistically known as 'new water'. Indeed, some Australian cities have already started down both these tracks, to supplement natural supplies.
Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly declared, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water. The 192-member Assembly also called on United Nations Member States and international organizations to offer funding, technology and other resources to help poorer countries scale up their efforts to provide clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for everyone.
The Assembly resolution received 122 votes in favour and zero votes against, while 41 countries abstained from voting. The text of the resolution expresses deep concern that an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and a total of more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. Studies also indicate about 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water and sanitation-related diseases.>>>more
"This resolution has the overwhelming support of a strong majority of countries, despite a handful of powerful opponents. It must now be followed-up with a renewed push for water justice. We are calling for actions on the ground in communities around the world to ensure that the rights to water and sanitation are implemented. Governments, aid agencies and the UN must take their responsibilities seriously."
– Anil Naidoo, Blue Planet Project
February 2016, Dublin
Expanding from the Right2Water to the Right2Change
"If you want to know who is going to change this country, take a look in the mirror." – Maude Barlow, co-founder of The Blue Planet Project and National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ organization, founded in 1985, with members and chapters across the country.
Maude Barlow
Guest speaker at Right2Change, Feb. 13, 2016, Dublin
Introduction by ecologist Lynn Boylan, MEP, Irish representative in the European Parliament:
Maude Barlow was a senior UN adviser and led the campaign to have water recognised as a human right by the United Nations. And that recognition in 2010 – it was from that that the campaign to do the same at the EU level was born. Almost 2 million people across the EU signed a Citizens’ Initiative which call specifically on the EC to recognise water as a human right and to abandon its privatization agenda. Because they say it’s not their competency – they don’t interfere in how countries operate their water but everyone of us knows that that’s not the case and their doing it through the Troika. They‘re doing it in Greece. They’re trying to do it in Ireland. But in Ireland they have to ‘set up’ the body in order to privatise it, first. That call by the citizens was ignored, and I then took the campaign to add the parliaments voice to that call, and last September, the EU parliament, without the support, surprise, surprise, of Fine Gael, rightly demanded that the recognition of water as a human right be enshrined in EU legislation. It called for an end to cut-offs. 80,000 families in Spain are without water today because of cut-offs. And for the exclusion of water from trade deals, … such as TTIP. So the battle is far from over, but if it wasn’t for the inspiration and the tireless work of people like [Maude Barlow] we would not have achieved as much as we have. [2:23]
Defining the line between lobbying and free speech.
Controversy: 'fracking' the water table. Fracking, the drilling method that involves pumping a chemical brine underground, has already been linked to the risk of water contamination, significant methane gas leakage, and earthquakes.>>> more
See a complete list of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing HERE,
Artists Against Fracking New York-based group, Artists Against Fracking are trying to protect the environment from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The group says forcing water and chemicals deep into shale deposits to extract gas threatens drinking water and the environment.>>> more
BTEX (an acronym that stands for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) is one group of chemicals associated with hydraulic fracturing. . . >>> more
What We Know About Fracking
Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking or fraccing, is a technique used to stimulate and accelerate the flow of gas to a well or bore. The process involves high-pressure injection of sand, water and chemicals into the gas-bearing rock. The injection causes fractures in the rock allowing the gas to flow to the surface of the well. The coal seam gas industry provides this list of chemicals it says are used in coal seam gas fracking operations in Australia. The National Toxics Network has raised various concerns about the environmental and health risks associated with the chemicals associated with hydraulic fracturing and has said that these chemicals are not adequately assessed or monitored.
MAJOR WIN
for people who do not want their land turned into GAS FIELDS.
NSW, Australia: Metgasco's Bentley gas drilling suspended, referred to ICAC, for failing to undertake genuine and effective consultation with the community … Suspension is a temporary reprieve, but it's a victory for people-power, for people saying to governments: You must change your systems and your processes so that you can better hear us. Not pay lip-service to us in the regions. Not pay lip-service to the fact that no one wants this industry, and we have done all our surveys and done it ourselves. We want yo to truly listen and take notice and act. If yo govern for all of NSW then you have to govern for a particular region. – Ian Gaillard, NSW landholder. >>> more
Fracking represents a tug-of-war between the environment and economy. In reality, both will suffer if the frackers get their way: The risks posed by hydrofracking are dead serious. Those YouTube clips that show people lighting their drinking water on fire? They're not isolated cases: Duke University recently proved that drinking water wells near hydrofracking sites have 17 times more methane than wells not located near fracking. Fracking operations have generated billions of gallons of radiation-laced toxic wastewater that we can't manage properly and forced families to abandon their homes because of dangerous levels of arsenic, benzene and toluene in their blood. Fracking's caused earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma, ozone in Wyoming that out-smogs L.A. and a 200% increase in childhood asthma in parts of Texas. A top federal scientist admits we just don't know enough about all the different ways fracking can make us sick.>>> more
Anthropogenic elevation of atmospheric CO2 is driving global-scale ocean acidification, which consequently influences calcification rates of many marine invertebrates and potentially alters their susceptibility to predation. Ocean acidification may also impair an organism’s ability to process environmental and biological cues. These counteracting impacts make it challenging to predict how acidification will alter species interactions and community structure. To examine effects of acidification on consumptive and behavioural interactions between mud crabs (Panopeus herbstii) and oysters (Crassostrea virginica), oysters were reared with and without caged crabs for 71 days at three pCO2 levels. During subsequent predation trials, acidification reduced prey consumption, handling time and duration of unsuccessful predation attempt. These negative effects of ocean acidification on crab foraging behaviour more than offset any benefit to crabs resulting from a reduction in the net rate of oyster calcification. These findings reveal that efforts to evaluate how acidification will alter marine food webs should include quantifying impacts on both calcification rates and animal behaviour.>>> more
Salmon Confidential, the film, 2013
What is killing British Columbia’s Wild Salmon?
How Canadian Government Cover-Up on Fish Farming Threatens Your Health, and the Entire Ecosystem
Official Summary of the film:
Salmon Confidential is a new film on the government cover up of what is killing British Columbia’s wild salmon.
When biologist Alexandra Morton discovers BC’s wild salmon are testing positive for dangerous European salmon viruses associated with salmon farming worldwide, a chain of events is set off by government to suppress the findings. Tracking viruses, Morton moves from courtrooms, into British Columbia’s most remote rivers, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants. The film documents Morton’s journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC’s wild salmon. The film provides surprising insight into the inner workings of government agencies, as well as rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with managing our fish and the safety of our food supply. >>> more
Quick film review:
This film gives an excellent report: – The problem, analysis, and solution are very clearly laid out, leading to an inspiring result. – The camerawoman captured close-ups of the faces of several bureaucrats, as their eyes glazed over when they lied to the court and to the public. – The local people rose up to pursue the truth, and in so doing, came up with the best solution possible: "Department of Wild Salmon: That's us!" – local communities take responsibility for overseeing the protection and health of wild salmon habitat.
Something is happening to Pacific coast salmon.
This year [2016], B.C.'s sockeye salmon run was the lowest in recorded history.
Salmon have been swimming in Pacific Northwest waters for at least seven million years, as indicated by fossils of large saber-tooth salmon found in the area. During that time, they've been a key species in intricate, interconnected coastal ecosystems, bringing nitrogen and other nutrients from the ocean and up streams and rivers to spawning grounds, feeding whales, bears and eagles and fertilizing the magnificent coastal rainforests along the way. For as long as people have lived in the area, salmon have been an important food source and have helped shape cultural identities. >>> more
Vancouver Islanders are well aware of the damage being done by Norwegian owned farms.
Report from Barbara McPherson, Vancouver, BC
Follow Barbara's BLOG
Finally Alexandra Morton is getting the recognition she deserves.
At one point the DFO tried to have her prosecuted for blowing the whistle on the pink run collapse due to fish lice picked up from the nearby “farms”. Here, on Vancouver Island most people are well aware of the damage being done by the Norwegian owned farms. The quality of the flesh is definitely inferior. Because the fish don’t swim like the wild ones, they lack muscle tone which is the part we eat. The fish are also fed something to colour their flesh to make them more attractive. Aside from the damage done to the fish by disease, the dressed farm salmon are held for a few days before being marketed because there is some weird bacteria that they get that turns their already soft flesh to jelly. Yuk and double yuk. The fish flu is definitely present in some of the operations. Last year, fish in the millions were destroyed because of the virus. No one with an IQ above room temperature believes the virus stops at the net. On a more upbeat note, a native band on the north end of the Island has started a high tech dry land fish farm. We shall see how that one pans out.
There is now a transgenic salmon being “farmed” in Mexico. It’s a dry land operation and there’s no more chance of the GM fish escaping than the carp did from the carp farms in the US Midwest. The carp have made it all the way to the Great Lakes.
Argentina is moving the operations ever southward along the Patagonia coast as the sea beds become increasingly fouled. Argentina has embraced GM soy and has massive monocultures of it where the gauchos used to ride. ...
VANCOUVER — If carbon dioxide emissions don’t begin to decline soon, the complex fabric of marine ecosystems will begin fraying
— and eventually unravel completely, two new studies conclude...
Carbon dioxide bubbling up from seafloor seeps lowers the pH and species diversity in surrounding areas. Such sites offer a preview of climate-related ecosystem change as oceans acidify.
The diversity of ocean species thins and any survivors’ health declines as the pH of ocean water falls in response to rising carbon dioxide levels, scientists from England and Florida reported February 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. What’s more, affected species aren’t restricted to those with shells and calcified support structures — features particularly vulnerable to erosion by corrosive seawater.
Compared with nearby normal-pH sites, species richness in low-pH zones was diminished by 30 percent, Hall-Spencer reported. “Coral and some algae are gone. And the sea urchins are gone,” he said. Fish may be present, but unlike in areas with a normal pH, they won’t deposit their eggs there.>>> more
2020
Aiming to build on 75 years of proven safety and effectiveness, the Department of Health and Human Services updates its Healthy People 2030 objectives with a goal of increasing “the proportion of people whose water systems have the recommended amount of fluoride” to 77.1%.
2021
Summary: Fluoride upregulated DKK1 gene is linked to Alzheimers and cancer progression: fluoride exposure among older people is associated with altered gene expression and poorer cognitive function.
Objective
To evaluate cognitive impairment and risk factors of elders in high fluoride drinking water areas and investigate whether DKK1 is involved in this disorder. Methods
MoCA-B and AD-8 were used to measure the cognitive functions of 272 and 172 subjects over the age of 60 came from the high and normal fluoride drinking water areas respectively, general information and peripheral blood were collected, the level of SOD, GSH and MDA were measured, mRNA level of DKK1, the concentration of blood fluoride and the polymorphism of APOE were tested. Results
The blood fluoride concentration, mRNA level of DKK1 and ratio of abnormal cognitive function of subjects in high fluorine drinking water areas were higher than those in normal areas. The level of SOD of subjects in high fluorine drinking water was low compared with those in normal areas. The level of MDA and GSH had no difference between the two crowds in different fluorine drinking water areas. There were differences in cigarette smoking, education, dental status, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and APOE results between the two crowds in different fluorine drinking water areas. The mRNA level of DKK1 and the level of cognitive function showed a positive correlation and DKK1 was one of five risk factors involved in cognitive impairment of older people living in high fluorosis areas. Conclusions
The cognitive functions could be impaired in the older people living in high fluoride drinking water areas, and DKK1 may as a potential intervention point of this brain damage process need attention.
Abstract
The discovery of fluoride in dentistry has revolutionized treatment modalities with a new aspect of prevention and conservation of tooth structure coming into foreplay. Since then, there has been a lot of research on both topical and systemic fluoridation in an overzealous attempt to control the most debilitating dental problem of caries. Although topical fluoride is still being widely used as a preventive measure for dental caries, systemic administration of the same has gained major criticism worldwide due to the low margin of safety of fluoride and no control over the amount of individual intake when administered on a community level. This problem is more prevalent in countries with presence of natural fluoride belts that extend from Turkey to China and Japan through Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan increasing the chances of both dental and skeletal fluorosis and hence increasing the focus toward defluoridation. This historical review highlights the distribution of fluoride worldwide and in India and also discusses about the various claims of the antifluoride lobby.
2018 A brief history of water flouridation in the United States of America Update on the Movement Against Water Fluoridation In this interview, Paul Connett, PhD, toxicologist, environmental chemist and the founder of Fluoride Action Network (FAN), an organization that has fought to remove toxic fluoride from water supplies across the world, provides an important and exciting update on FAN's progress during this past year.
Main points covered in the report:
Over the past 18 years, the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) has facilitated the removal of fluoride from the water supplies of hundreds of communities in North America, Canada and Europe.
FAN has filed an historic lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under a provision in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Under this TSCA statute, the judge may not defer to the EPA but must weigh the evidence brought forth in trial. If the judge finds there’s an unreasonable risk, he has the authority to order EPA to begin proceedings to eliminate the risk of fluoride in drinking water.
Earlier this year, EPA tried to limit the scope of what FAN could bring to the court’s attention. Its motion was denied, and FAN will be able to request internal documents, submit interrogatories to EPA and depose EPA experts.>>> more
2017 Water Fluoridation and Human Health in Australia: Questions and Answers: (pdf)
NATIONAL HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
These Questions and Answers have been developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in consultation with the jurisdictional health departments. They aim to provide helpful information to support the NHMRC Public Statement 2017: Water fluoridation and human health in Australia.
Excerpt:
"There is consistent and reliable evidence that community water fluoridation helps to reduce tooth decay.... Water fluoridation is the process of adjusting the amount of fluoride in drinking water to an optimal level to help reduce tooth decay. NHMRC supports Australian states and territories fluoridating their drinking water supplies within the range of 0.6 to 1.1 milligrams of fluoride per litre (mg/L) (3)....
More than 400 million people around the world benefit from fluoridated drinking water – approximately 370 million accessing community water fluoridation schemes and about 50 million drinking naturally occurring optimal levels of fluoridated water (7). Countries with or planning to implement water fluoridation schemes include New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia (7). Many countries also use salt fluoridation schemes. In Australia, the first community water fluoridation program began in 1953 in Beaconsfield, Tasmania ... Most large Australian cities have fluoridated their water since the 1960s and 1970s. " >>>more
2011 The practice of adding fluoride to municipal tap water across the U.S. began in 1945.
Declassified files of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Commission have revealed the original motivation for water fluoridation was to avoid liability. Key points
The Manhattan Project Gave Birth to More than the Atomic Bomb.
Why Fluoride HAD to be Declared Safe
How the Idea for Water Fluoridation Came about
Fluoride Proponents Never Actually Tested "the Real Thing"
Fluoride Increases Heavy Metal Accumulation in Your Body
How to Eliminate Water Fluoridation—An Alternative Strategy
Excerpts
Originally, the fluoride used to fluoridate water supplies came from the aluminum and atomic bomb industries. A couple of years later, they switched to an even more hazardous waste product: hydrofluorosilicic acid from the phosphate fertilizer industry ... contains arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury . . . it does not have to be refined or filtered prior to being shipped and dumped into municipal water supplies.
Fluoride Proponents Never Actually Tested "the Real Thing"
Part of the difficulty when discussing water fluoridation is that many do not realize that the fluoride you find in drugs, for example, while harmful, is not quite as bad as what's being used for water fluoridation. The fluoride added to your drinking water is not pharmaceutical grade.
Overview of origins and health impacts of water fluoridation
Is Flouride in Our Water a Mistake?
by Philip Frazer
Note: The author states that this article was originaly published in the 11/98 issue of News on Earth, a publication of Public Concern Foundation, Inc.
Excerpts: What It Does to Bones
About half of the fluoride you drink or eat is absorbed in calcified tissues, like bones and teeth. The National Academy of Sciences and other authorities agree that a lifetime's accumulation from large daily doses of fluoride can produce crippling skeletal fluorosis. This bone damage is widespread among older people in parts of the world where there are high concentrations of naturally occurring fluorides in the water, but few cases of skeletal fluorosis have been reported in the US. Critics claim we are missing diagnoses of skeletal fluorosis because most doctors in the US have not studied the disease.
The Natick report, several articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and EPA scientists all agree that fluoride increases the rate of hip fracture in people aged 65 or older.
Fluoride makes bones denser, which is why it is used in the treatment of osteoporosis, but it also makes bones more brittle (osteosclerosis).
. . . Lead and Arsenic
Meanwhile, other research has examined fluoride by-products from aluminum and phosphate (fertilizer) production, since the fluoride gets contaminated by lead and arsenic. ...
. . . Enzymes, Brains and Alzheimer's
The Natick report found that fluoride can “seriously disturb the balance of enzymatically activated biochemical reactions,” for example, “the metabolism of a number of common oral bacteria (e.g., Streptococcus mutans)…” The Natick panelists saw this as an area needing new study.
Another such area is damage to the brain or the central nervous system. In a recent article in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Research on the effects of aluminum on brain tissue, researchers reported that it was not aluminum but low levels of fluoride that caused damage to the tissue of the brain similar to the damage found in humans with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
An earlier study by Mullenix et al., reported in Nevrotoxicology and Teratology, in 1995, found that animals exposed to fluoride at various stages of gestation suffered either permanent hyperactivity if exposed prenatally, or became “the rat version of couch potato” if exposed after birth, though there was no elaboration of exactly what that is.
The Natick folks say “there is good evidence that fluoride…affects the IQ and behavioral patterns of the developing fetus at doses that are not toxic to the mother.”
The International Society for Fluoride Research has also reported studies implicating fluoride in the rising rates of Down's syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and sleep disorders.
. . .
How to avoid it, how to get it out of your system
Public pressure has got fluoride out of the water throughout Europe, as well as in Los Angeles, Newark, Jersey City, and Bedford, Mass.
You can get some of the fluoride out of your tap with either reverse osmosis filters or water ionizers.
Check toothpaste labels for fluoride. Dabur, Natures Gate, Weleda and Higher Ideals make fluoride-free toothpaste.
Mottled teeth cannot be repaired except by cosmetic dentistry, but fluoride damage to the soft tissues, such as liver, kidneys and reproductive organs, is reversible with vitamins. When lab mice who had reproductive-organ damage induced by fluoride were given vitamin C and calcium (and no more fluoride), they recovered significantly. In another experiment with mice, vitamins E and D repaired the damage that fluoride did to liver and kidneys.
. . .
How Fluoride Got into Drinking Water, and Where Fluoride Comes From
Files of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Commission, now declassified, show that the original motivation for promoting fluoride and water fluoridation in the U.S. was to protect the atomic bomb and aluminum industries from liability.
Originally, the fluoride added to water supplies came from the wastes of aluminum and atomic bomb making, but after a short time the main source of fluoride for sale to drinking water suppliers was a hazardous waste from the phosphate fertilizer industry, hydrofluorosilicic acid. Hydrofluorosilicic acid also typically contains arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury, plus a variety of other contaminants that are part of the phosphate ore, and, believe it or not, it does not have to be refined or filtered prior to being injected into municipal water supplies.
Studies on the health effects and safety of fluoride have always used pharmaceutical grade fluoride—not the far more toxic hydrofluorosilicic acid from the phosphate fertilizer industry. Until very recently, there has been no interest in studying the effects of the continued use of hydrofluorosilicic acid. Recent studies, however, have found that it increases lead accumulation in blood up to seven times. It also increases lead absorption in bone, teeth and other calcium-rich tissues. . .>>>more
Asbestos
in the Water Supply There are an increasing number of ways that drinking water can become contaminated with asbestos and other toxins. It’s more important than ever to learn what regulations are in place to protect your health and what can be done to purify the water.
2015
The world's oldest and most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal, The Lancet, has published a report putting fluoride in the same category as arsenic, mercury, and lead. In other words, this substance, added to most water supplies in North America, has now been classified as a neurotoxin.
The news was broken by author Stefan Smyle, who cited a report published in The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, in the March 2014 edition, by authors Dr. Phillippe Grandjean and Philip J. Landrigan, MD. The report, which was officially released in 2014 and published in the journal, can be viewed by clicking here.
Fluoride Classified Along with Mercury, Lead and Others
As noted in the summary of the report, a systematic review identified five different similar industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene.
The summary goes on to state that six additional developmental neurotoxicants have also now been identified: manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The authors added that even more of these neurotoxicants remain undiscovered.
... Global Fluoride Prevention Strategy Recommended
In the Lancet report, the authors propose a global prevention strategy, saying that “untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity.”
They continue: “To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse.”
The report coincides with 2013 findings by a Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health that concluded that children in areas with highly fluoridated water have “significantly lower” IQ scores that those who live in areas with low amounts of fluoride in their water supplies.
Sodium fluoride in drinking water has also been linked to various cancers. It is functionally different than the naturally-occurring calcium fluoride, and commonly added to drinking water supplies and used by dentists who posit that it is useful for dental health
Fluoridation is Actually Uncommon in Europe
Currently, fluoride is added to water supplies across much of North America, but as this list of countries that ban or reject water fluoridation shows, the practice is actually not too common, or banned entirely throughout most of Europe and in several other developed nations across the world. >>> more
February 2014 "we propose a global prevention strategy." The Lancet Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity - Dr Philippe Grandjean – Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Dr Philip J Landrigan, MD – Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
SUMMARY
Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence. 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. We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global prevention strategy. Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity. To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse. >>> more
"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children."
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian
