“Fluoridation of drinking water is scientifically untenable, and should not be part of a public health initiative or program,” says the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) in a new published statement.

CAPE is Canada’s leading voice on environmental health issues.

Even small amounts of fluoride consumed from tap water can damage your bones, teeth, brain, disrupt your thyroid function, lower IQ and/or cause cancer, according to evidence revealed in a groundbreaking 2006 National Research Council (NRC) fluoride report produced by a panel of experts who reviewed hundreds of published fluoride studies.

Fluoridation cheerleaders such as the American Dental Association (ADA) and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claim this report has nothing to do with fluoridation (the addition of fluoride chemicals into public water supplies). However, because of the NRC report, both the ADA and CDC now recommend that infant formula NOT be mixed with fluoridated water.

Fluoridation was adopted more by politicking than by science according to Edward Groth III, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, with Consumers Union, publishers of the popular Consumers Reports magazine.

Canadian children are ingesting too much cavity-fighting fluoride and it can ruin their teeth. U.S. children ingest even more fluoride but no such sound advice is evident from US officials.

To avoid fluoride-induced yellow and tan discolored teeth (moderate dental fluorosis), fluoride chemicals injected into Canadian water supplies should be lowered, says an expert panel, including two Americans, convened by Health Canada.

Less fluoride in children’s toothpaste and infant formula is also recommended.

New science indicating fluoride’s dangers to the brain and other organs will be presented by prominent fluoride research scientists during back-to-back conferences of the International Society for Fluoride Research (ISFR) and the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) in Toronto August 7-11, 2008.

Fluoride, added to water supplies to prevent tooth decay, is also in virtually all non-organic foods and beverages. Fluoride's brain effects were never examined prior to water fluoridation.

On June 19, 2008 the American Dental Association updated its website indicating that fluoride is a concern to all kidney patients, not just those on dialysis.

Along with false assurances of safety, fluoride chemicals are added to some public and bottled water in the unscientific belief it reduces cavities.

"I’ll take a burger and fries, hold the fluoride.” Fluoride?

Serious scientists, who look, find fluoride in the darnedest places. Researchers from the University of Indiana School of Dentistry report in the scientific journal “Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology” that McDonald’s French fries deliver more than guilty pleasure.

Your teeth bite into 0.13 milligrams fluoride along with that small portion of McDonald’s fries that goes upward to 0.38 mg in the supersize.

So why do we need to know that?

Because of fluoridation, where water engineers purposely add fluoride to water supplies to reduce tooth decay, and the billion dollar fluoride products industry, many Americans are fluoride over-dosed. As a result, almost half of US children sport dental fluorosis, white-spotted, yellow or brown permanently stained teeth. This unanticipated fluoride side effect created a lucrative new market for dentists who can get thousands of dollars to cover or fix fluorosed teeth.

This study shows children risk fluorosis from their daily diet even when their water supplies are not fluoridated.

Unsightly fluorosis is expensive to cover up. In fact, Americans spend more to cover-up fluorosis than they would save filling cavities if fluoridation reduced tooth decay. Too much ingested fluoride also damages bones, without any overt outward signs. So we must use children’s teeth as the “canary” that warns the population of danger.

Like most drugs, fluoride causes what it purports to cure - cavities. Dentists ignore science that shows Americans are fluoride-overdosed and prescribe more and more fluoride either directly or through the water supply.

After over 60 years of water fluoridation, tooth decay rates are increasing in our most fluoridated population - todders - indicating fluoridation is either a failure or causing tooth decay.

Dentists tell us that drinking “optimal” levels of fluoridated water - 1 part per million or 1 milligram fluoride per liter (quart) - each day, reduces tooth decay without serious side effects. But this dental dogma has never been proven scientifically. However, research shows, above optimal fluoride levels causes tooth decay; and most Americans get more fluoride then they need.

The severe outward sign of fluoride overdose is dental fluorosis - yellow, brown or black stained teeth. Cavities increase in people with severe fluorosis according to a dentistry textbook entitled, “Dentistry, Dental Practice and the Community,” by Burt and Eklund.

This phenomenon has been demonstrated in the United States from National Institute of Dentistry and Craniofacial Research studies in seven communities in northern Illinois. These data suggest that the true relationship between water fluoride levels and dental decay is the J-shaped curve, with the turning point in the J being something between 3 and 4 times the optimal level, they write.