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A recently published study has found that the risk of having a
hip fracture greatly increases when
elevated levels of fluoride
are present in the water.
Hip fractures were found to be nearly
twice as frequent amongst people drinking 2.6 to 3.4
parts per million fluoride in the water, as compared to people drinking
1 ppm fluoride in the water. The rate was even higher amongst people
drinking 4.3 to 8 PPM fluoride.
According to the authors of the study, It is concluded that long-term
fluoride exposure from drinking water containing > or =4.32 PPM
increases the risk of overall fractures
as well as hip fractures.
However, the authors put an interesting twist into their conclusion.
Because the overall fracture rate was slightly higher in the "negligible
fluoride" community (less than 0.34 PPM) as compared to the
1 PPM community, the authors conclude that "water fluoride
levels at 1.00-1.06 PPM decrease the risk of overall fractures relative
to negligible fluoride in water."
No doubt, proponents of fluoridation will cling onto this statement.
However, the fact that hip fractures were more than tripled in
the 4 to 8 PPM community, and nearly doubled in the 2.6 to 3.4 PPM
community, gives artificial fluoridation a precariously small margin
of safety.
Normally pharmacologists like to have a margin of safety of around
100, when prescribing a drug. That means the toxic dose is 100 times
higher than the therapeutic dose.
Here, we have a margin of safety for hip
fracture of between 3 and 4.
That is precariously small, especially considering that with fluoridation
you can't control the dose, and that as with any drug, individual
susceptibilities vary greatly.
Along with raising serious questions about the safety of mass fluoridation
of the water supply, the study also draws into question the US EPA's
Maximum Contaminant Level for fluoride, which was raised in 1985
to 4 parts per million. According to past-president of the EPA's
Headquarters Union, Dr. Robert Carton, this study helps reveal yet
again that "there is no safety factor at the EPA standard.
Worse, the lowest effect level [for hip fracture] appears to be
less than 4.0 PPM"
J Bone Miner Res 2001 May;16(5):932-9
The above report was exerpted from a report from The
Fluoride Action Network, May 16, 2001. For more information,
visit them at www.fluoridealert.org
or email Michael Connett at mconnett@fluoridealert.org.
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