Even the best of intention can be wrong when knowledge illuminates the truth. That’s the case when considering fluoride.
Most of us grew up thinking fluoride was good for our teeth, helping to prevent cavities. We readily took it and thought nothing of it when fluoride was put into our water. If a little was good for your teeth, wouldn’t more be better?
But through the decades, we have seen more and more studies showing a causal relationship between fluoride and disease and even reduced IQ levels in children. Growing numbers of peer-studied research link our current fluoride use to serious brain and neurological damage; development of auto-immune diseases (e.g., thyroid disease); and even to cancer.
Studies are showing that ingested fluoride does not cause the desired benefit of improved dental health. We all mean to be helpful. I often hear “fluoride helps the children, especially the disadvantaged.” Yet we continue to say that as our knowledge brings light to exactly the opposite, that fluoride is a poison that can cause bodily harm to us, especially to children.
Even Procter and Gamble, the makers of Crest toothpaste admit that “theoretically, a tube of toothpaste contains enough fluorine to kill a child.” We know more about many things since I was growing up. We’ve got smartphones and robots and computers, which simply didn’t exist when I was young. We read about the “research wars” over the effectiveness of fluoride in drinking water, but as time moves on, more and more of that research is pointing to a strong connection between fluoride in drinking water and poor health.
If you want to help our population, especially our children, then I believe forcing them to take a drug without their permission is not helpful. Ingested fluoride does not cause the desired benefit of improved dental health, yet it has been proven to be a factor in the development of serious, painful, and often irreversible disease and deterioration.
Please vote “for” 1A to end fluoridation of Durango water.
Kay Tarasewicz
Durango
