Fluoride and the Military Industrial Complex
EXCERPT:
Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb
by Chris Bryson & Joel Griffiths

Some fifty years after the United States began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth, declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still-controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age.

Today, two thirds of U.S. public drinking water is fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the government's assurances of safety.

Since the days of World War II, when this nation prevailed by building the world's first atomic bomb, U.S. public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for children's teeth.

That safety verdict should now be re-examined in the light of hundreds of once-secret WWII documents obtained by Griffiths and Bryson --including declassified papers of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. military group that built the atomic bomb.

Fluoride was the key chemical in atomic bomb production, according to the documents. Massive quantities of fluoride-- millions of tons-- were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. One of the most toxic chemicals known, fluoride rapidly emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the U.S atomic bomb program--both for workers and for nearby communities, the documents reveal.

Other revelations include:

* Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for humans in low doses was generated by A-bomb program scientists, who had been secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against defense contractors for fluoride injury to citizens. The first lawsuits against the U.S. A-bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage, the documents show.


Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson
EXCERPT:
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Concerns over fluoridated drinking water have long been derided as the obsession of McCarthyite cranks. But this muckraking j’accuse asserts that fluoride is indeed a dire threat to public health, one foisted upon the nation by a vast conspiracy—not of Communist agents, but of our very own military-industrial complex. Investigative reporter Bryson revisits the decades-long controversy, drawing on mountains of scientific studies, some unearthed from secret archives of government and corporate laboratories, to question the effects of fluoride and the motives of its leading advocates. The efficacy of fluoridated drinking water in preventing tooth decay, he contends, is dubious. Fluoride in its many forms may be one of the most toxic of industrial pollutants, and Bryson cites scientific analyses linking fluoridated drinking water to bone deformities, hyperactivity and a host of other complaints. The post-war campaign to fluoridate drinking water, he claims, was less a public health innovation than a public relations ploy sponsored by industrial users of fluoride—including the government’s nuclear weapons program. Legendary spin doctors like Edward Bernays exploited the tenuous link between dental hygiene and fluoridation to create markets to stimulate fluoride production and to prove the innocuousness of fluoride compounds, thereby heading off lawsuits by factory workers and others poisoned by industrial fluoride pollution. Bryson marshals an impressive amount of research to demonstrate fluoride’s harmfulness, the ties between leading fluoride researchers and the corporations who funded and benefited from their research, and what he says is the duplicity with which fluoridation was sold to the people. The result is a compelling challenge to the reigning dental orthodoxy, which should provoke renewed scientific scrutiny and public debate.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

What's good for the teeth is good for the nails
EXCERPT:
DIFFERENCE – FLUORIDE STRENGTHENS

Fluoride Nail Strengtheners are the most concentrated clinically proven fluoride treatments available. They instantly penetrate the nail (even through polish) and stays in the nail as it grows out. Just as fluoride strengthens your teeth, our patented fluoride formulas harden your nails.
Our newest formula ProAdvanced with vitamin B complex, like our original formula, won’t wash off and delivers nails from peeling, flaking, breaking and tearing.

Fluoride studies
EXCERPT:
Vol. 33, No. 6, 1999
G.M. Whitforda, F.C. Sampaiob, P. Arnebergb, F.R. von der Fehrb

Department of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Ga., USA;
Department of Operative Dentistry and Endodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Oslo, Norway

Address of Corresponding Author

Caries Res 1999;33:462-467 (DOI: 10.1159/000016552)

This work was based on the hypothesis that fingernail clippings can be used as a biomarker for the subchronic exposure to fluoride. The results provide data on factors that may affect the concentration of fluoride in fingernail clippings as determined with the electrode following HMDS-facilitated diffusion. The following variables had only minor or no effects on the concentrations: (1) the surface area of the clippings (intact, minced or filed into powder) that were placed into the diffusion dishes; (2) soaking in deionized water for up to 6 h; (3) soaking in fluoridated water (1.0 ppm) for 2 h, and (4) removal of the organic material of nails by dry ashing. Fingernail fluoride concentrations were approximately 50% higher than those in toenails. A 1-month period of increased fluoride intake by one of the authors resulted in significant increases in fingernail fluoride concentrations after a lag time of approximately 3.5 months. The fluoride concentrations in fingernail clippings obtained from three groups of Brazilian children were directly related to the concentrations in the drinking water (0.1, 1.6 or 2.3 ppm). The results indicate that: (1) HMDS-facilitated diffusion completely separates fluoride from intact nail clippings, so the need for ashing or other preparative methods is obviated; (2) fingernail fluoride is derived mainly from the systemic circulation, and (3) fluoride intake is reflected by the concentrations in fingernails.

Fluoride and nails
EXCERPT:
The application of a soluble calcium compound and the further application of a suitable fluoride material accomplish calcium remineralization of fingernails. The calcium and fluoride preparations are kept separate until used. The calcium preparation is rubbed into the nail prior to the application of the fluoride; the fluoride then combines with the calcium applied in the first step within the nail allowing the nail to become harder and stronger.