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.