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by Barry Forbes
The Tribune, Mesa, AZ/Thompson
Newspapers. Reprinted with Permission.
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 of 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 ... "
" ... 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 thedeadly 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.
Related Articles:
Canadian
Dental Association Advises AGAINST Fluoride Supplements in Young Children
Links
for Fluoride Information
Fluoridation
Increases Lead Absorption In Children
The
Fluoride Controversy
Toothpaste
and Other Fluoride Sources Can Damage Preschoolers' Teeth
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