by Barry Forbes
The Tribune, Mesa, AZ
Sunday, December 5, 1999
"Why'd you do it, Doc? Why'd you toss the fluoride folks overboard?" I
had just tracked down Dr. Hardy Limeback, B.Sc., Ph.D in Biochemistry,
D.D.S., head of the Department of Preventive Dentistry for the University
of Toronto, and president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.
(Whew.) Dr. Limeback is Canada's leading fluoride authority and, until
recently, the country's primary promoter of the controversial additive.
In a surprising newsmaker interview this past April, Dr. Limeback
announced a dramatic change of heart. "Children under three should never
use fluoridated toothpaste," he counseled. "Or drink fluoridated water.
And baby formula must never be made up using Toronto tap water. Never."
Why, I wondered? What could have caused such a powerful paradigm
shift? "It's been building up for a couple of years," Limeback told me
during a recent telephone interview.
"But certainly the crowning blow was the realization that we have been
dumping contaminated fluoride into water reservoirs for half a century.
The vast majority of all fluoride additives come from Tampa Bay, Florida
smokestack scrubbers. The additives are a toxic byproduct of the
super-phosphate fertilizer industry."
"Tragically," he continued, "that
means we're not just dumping toxic fluoride into our drinking water. We're
also exposing innocent, unsuspecting people to deadly elements: lead,
arsenic and radium, all of them carcinogenic. Because of the cumulative
properties of toxins, the detrimental effects on human health are
catastrophic."
A recent study at the University of Toronto
confirmed Dr. Limeback's worst fears. "Residents of cities that fluoridate
have double the fluoride in their hip bones vis-a-vis the balance of the
population. Worse, we discovered that fluoride is actually altering the
basic architecture of human bones." Skeletal fluorosis is a debilitating
condition that occurs when fluoride accumulates in bones, making them
extremely weak and brittle. The earliest symptoms? "Mottled and brittle
teeth," Dr. Limeback told me. "In Canada we are now spending more money
treating dental fluorosis than we do treating cavities. That includes my
own practice."
One of the most obvious living experiments today,
Dr. Limeback believes, is a proof-positive comparison between any two
Canadian cities. "Here in Toronto we've been fluoridating for 36 years.
Yet Vancouver, which has never fluoridated, has a cavity rate lower than
Toronto's." And, he pointed out, cavity rates are low all across the
industrialized world, including Europe, which is 98% fluoride free. Low
because of improved standards of living, less refined sugar, regular
dental checkups, flossing and frequent brushing. Now less than 2 cavities
per child Canada-wide, he said.
"I don't get it, Doc. Last month,
the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ran a puff piece all across America
saying the stuff was better than sliced bread. What's the story?"
"Unfortunately," he replied, "the CDC is basing its position on data that
is 50 years old, and questionable at best. Absolutely no one has done
research on fluorosilicates, which is the junk they're dumping into the
drinking water." "On the other hand," he added, "the evidence against
systemic fluoride in-take continues to pour in."
"But Doc, the
dentists." "I have absolutely no training in toxicity," he stated firmly.
"Your well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of
misinformation from public health and the dental association. Me, too.
Unfortunately, we were wrong."
Last week, Dr. Hardy Limeback
addressed his faculty and students at the University of Toronto,
Department of Dentistry. In a poignant, memorable meeting, he apologized
to those gathered before him.
"Speaking as the head of preventive dentistry, I told them that I had
unintentionally mislead my colleagues and my students. For the past 15
years, I had refused to study the toxicology information that is readily
available to anyone. Poisoning our children was the furthest thing from my
mind."
"The truth," he confessed to me, "was a bitter pill to
swallow. But swallow it I did."
South of the border, the paradigm
shift has yet to dawn. After half a century of delusion, the CDC, American
Dental Association and Public Health stubbornly and skillfully continue to
manipulate public opinion in favor of fluoridation.
Meantime,
study after study is delivering the death knell of the deadly toxin. Sure,
fluoridation will be around for a long time yet, but ultimately its
supporters need to ready the life rafts. The poisonous waters of doubt and
confusion are bound to get choppier.
"Are lawsuits inevitable?" I
asked the good doctor. "Remember tobacco," was his short, succinct reply.
Welcome, Dr. Hardy Limeback, to the far side of the fluoride equation.
It's lonely over here, but in our society loneliness and truth frequently
travel hand in hand. Thank you for the undeniable courage of your
convictions.
Want more scientific information about
fluoride/fluoridation? Find it on the net.
International Society
for Fluoride Research http://www.fluoride-journal.com/
Dental Fluorosis http://www.inter-view.net/~sherrell
IAOMT Risk Assessment for ingested fluoride http://www.saveteeth.org/
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