Lancet classifies Fluoride as a neurotoxin

[ThaiHerbs]

Fluoridation of water supplies is an extremely controversial topic. Most of Europe does not add fluoride to their municipal water supplies and North America is a mixed bag.

My personal opinion is that whether or not fluoride reduces cavities it does not belong in drinking water, as the importance of healthy gut bacteria is well established. If I want fluoride for dental health I can get it in most brands of toothpaste. Toothpaste containing fluoride in the US must include the following warning

“Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.”

source: http://fluoridealert.org/issues/dental-products/toothpastes/

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The past few years I have only consumed (at home) filtered water that removes fluoride ("Berkey" brand water filter, google it).

Anyway, I just came across this report about Lancet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lancet ) classifying fluoride as a neurotoxin and thought I would post it here.

Lancet classifies Fluoride as a neurotoxin. About bloody time.

http://the-tap.blogspot.ca/2014/06/lancet-classifies-fluoride-as.html

Summary of the Lancet report...

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.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422%2813%2970278-3/abstract

I repeat, I am not sure if fluoride aids in prevention of dental cavities (questionable IMO) but I do believe it is not good for a healthy gut. I do not know if Thailand adds fluoride to municipal water supplies (doubt it) but I have read reports that there is an over-abundance of fluoride in ground water in the Chiang Mai region where I live, and elsewhere in Thailand.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-4-431-78399-2_15#page-2 - http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-4-431-78399-2_15

www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6831-12-16.pdf

http://www.academia.edu/5052829/Vulnerability_to_Fluoride_Toxicosis_in_Chiang_Mai_Thailand

Also, it is cheaper to filter tap water than to buy bottled water (which may or may not contain added fluoride).

Doug

[partington]

The title of this thread is completely incorrect and misleading.

The Lancet publishes papers written by professional clinicians and scientists. It does not determine whether suggestions or conclusions in these papers are correct or confirmed, and does not claim to support or validate conclusions in the individual papers that it publishes.

The Lancet, as a journal, is a medium for publication of scientific data and hypotheses. In many cases papers in the journal are followed up by The Lancet also publishing letters and follow up papers that strongly disagree with or refute the original publication.

It is therefore quite possible for two papers to be published in The Lancet that come to opposite conclusions.

It is therefore a ridiculous misunderstanding of how scientific journals work and scientific data is communicated to announce this publication as "The Lancet classifies fluoride as a neurotoxin."

In this case the Lancet has merely given the independent scientists who submitted the paper the opportunity to publish their review, that itself was only a summary of other people's work, and not new data. The fluoride reference is to a single paper published by Choi and coworkers in 2012, and the authors regard that paper as evidence, not the Lancet.

I therefore repeat : The Lancet has NOT classified fluoride as a neurotoxin, and has NOT said it believes in these conclusions, and the heading of this thread is FALSE.

[Sheryl]

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