Fluoride Kills |
Is it true that there is enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a small child?
BFS suggested answer
Used sensibly, fluoride toothpaste presents no risks to children. Fluoride toothpaste has brought about massive improvements in dental health since its introduction in the early 1970s. Everyone – children and adults – should brush their teeth thoroughly with an appropriate fluoride toothpaste twice a day. Parents of children under the age of 7 should supervise children’s brushing and use a small pea-sized amount or a smear of toothpaste. Children should be encouraged to spit out excess toothpaste.
BFS suggested answer refuted
The Nassau County toxicologist testified that the amount of fluoride put on William’s teeth, which he subsequently swallowed was three times the amount needed to be fatal. The court awarded damages of $750,000.
New York Times, 20 January 1979
There are many conditions attributed to fluoride intake that increase death rates by damaging the immune system or promoting conditions such as osteoporosis. That fluoride is responsible is hotly debated. But there have been some cases of death where there is no dispute. Fluoride can kill.
Why don’t dentists need to know . . .
According to dentists, fluorides are safe – but what do they know? The following advice was given to British dentists on page 300 of the 15 September 1970 issue of the British Dental Journal. It advised its readers:
Perhaps the greatest deterrent to meaningful political engagement of dentists in the promotion of water fluoridation is the mistaken but widespread assumption that to do so they must have full and complete knowledge of the detailed and voluminous scientific literature on the relationship of water fluoridation to dental and general health. They do not . . . as soon as dentists recognise their responsibility in the politics of fluoridation, their performance will be outstanding. In politics, the emphasis is on propagandising rather than education.
Consider also this statement by the American Dental Association in 1979:
Individual dentists must be convinced that they need not be familiar with scientific reports and field investigations on fluoridation to be effective participants and that non-participation is overt neglect of personal responsibility.
. . . that fluoride can kill
If dentists do not have to know about possible side effects of fluoride, how can they possibly expect to give informed guidance to their patients on its use? It is precisely because a dentist was unaware that fluoride was toxic that a young boy died in 1974 after having his teeth cleaned. The resultant court case was reported in the 20 January 1979 edition of the New York Times.
The 3-year-old boy, William Kennerly, was taken to the dentist for a routine checkup. No caries was found and the boy was handed over to the hygienist for a routine tooth cleaning. After this, the boy’s teeth were swabbed with a fluoride gel. He was then given a glass of water to swill out his mouth. As he was not instructed to spit it out, he swallowed it.
William began vomiting, sweating and complaining of headache and dizziness. His mother, appealing to the dentist, was told that the child had only been given routine treatment. But she was not satisfied, and was sent to the Brookdale Ambulatory Pediatric Care unit in the same building.
After waiting for two and a half hours, while his mother continually appealed for help, the child lapsed into a coma, had adrenalin pumped into his heart to revive him and was taken to a nearby hospital. Here, after another wait of over an hour, William lapsed back into a coma and died.
The Nassau County toxicologist testified that the amount of fluoride put on William’s teeth, which he subsequently swallowed, was three times the amount needed to be fatal. The court awarded damages of $750,000.
This case is not an isolated one either in the USA or the rest of the world.
Although the BFS seems unconcerned about possible risks to infants of ingesting toothpaste, the danger to children is taken seriously by some. On 2 March 1999, a new packaging rule came into force in the USA. The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a rule requiring all household products containing more than 50 mg or 0.5 per cent elemental fluoride to be packed in child-proof containers ‘to protect children under 5 years of age from serious personal injury and serious illness resulting from handling or ingesting a toxic amount of elemental fluoride’.1
It is significant that, under this rule, commodities such as ‘safe’ fluoridated toothpaste and tea will also have to be so packaged.
In Canada, Parents of Fluoride-Poisoned Children commissioned a government-approved laboratory to test for the fluoride content of tea.2 The test showed a soluble elemental fluorine content of 69 ppm in black tea (1 teabag + 8 ounces of fluid) and 88 ppm in green tea. That is 17.25 mg and 22 mg per cup, respectively. Based on these data, it should be clear that, even under normal living conditions, merely drinking one cup of tea is highly risky.
1.Consumer Product Safety Commission, 16 CFR, Part 1700, Final rule: Requirements for child-resistant packaging; Household products with more than 50 mg of elemental fluoride and more than 0.5 per cent elemental fluoride; and Modification of exemption for oral prescription drugs with sodium fluoride. 63 Fed Reg 105 (2 June 1998).
2.Schuld A (Parents of Fluoride-Poisoned Children). Reply to Dr Coggon, http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/reply_to_dr._coggon.htm. Accessed 11 February 2000.