OVERVIEW
When fluoride was first added to water in the 1940s as a means of preventing tooth decay, not a single dental product contained fluoride: no fluoride toothpastes, no fluoride mouthrinses, no fluoride varnishes, and no fluoride gels. In the past 60 years, as one fluoride product after another entered the market, exposure to fluoride increased considerably, particularly among children.
Exposure from other sources has increased as well. Other sources include processed foods made with fluoridated water, fluoride-containing pesticides, bottled teas, fluorinated pharmaceuticals, teflon pans, and mechanically deboned chicken. Taken together, the glut of fluoride sources in the modern diet has created a toxic cocktail, one that has caused a dramatic increase in dental fluorosis (a tooth defect caused by excess fluoride intake) over the past 60 years. The problem with fluoride, therefore, is not that children are receiving too little, but that they are receiving too much.
Even advocates of fluoridation have begun to recognize this problem. In January 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced its recommendation that water fluoridation programs (which generally add 1 ppm fluoride to water) should lower the levels added to 0.7 ppm. This reduction, however, does little to solve the problem, as many children will continue to ingest more fluoride than is recommended, or safe.
Sources of Fluoride
- Dental Products: Many dental products now contain fluoride, including over 95% of toothpaste. Studies show that a significant number of children swallow more fluoride from toothpaste alone than is recommended as a total daily ingestion.
- Processed Beverages & Foods: Even if you don’t live in a community that adds fluoride to its water supply, you will still be exposed to fluoridated drinking water. This is because once fluoride is added en masse to water it winds in almost all processed beverages and foods. In the U.S., studies have shown that sodas, juices, sports drinks, beers, and many other processed foods, including infant foods, now have elevated fluoride levels.
- Pesticides: Due its toxicity, fluoride is used in some pesticides to kill insects and other pests. As a result of fluoride pesticide use, some food products–particularly grape products, dried fruit, dried beans, cocoa powder, and walnuts–have high levels of fluoride. Read more.
- Tea Drinks: Tea plants absorb fluoride from the soil. As a result, tea leaves–particularly old tea leaves–contain high levels of fluoride. Brewed black tea averages about 3 to 4 parts ppm fluoride, while commercial iced tea drinks contain between 1 and 4 ppm. As a result of these elevated levels, numerous studies have linked excessive tea consumption to a bone disease (skeletal fluorosis) caused by too much fluoride intake.
- Fluorinated Pharmaceuticals: Many pharmaceuticals are fluorinated, meaning they contain a carbon-fluorine bond. fluorine.” Although the carbon-fluoride bond in most drugs is strong enough to resist breaking down into fluoride within the body, this is not always the case as research has found that some fluorinated drugs, including cipro, do break down into fluoride and can thus be a major source of fluoride exposure for some individuals.
- Mechanically Deboned Meat: Foods made with mechanically separated meat (e.g., chicken fingers, nuggets, etc), contain elevated levels of fluoride due to the contamination from bone particles that occurs during the mechanical deboning processed. Mechanically processed chicken meats have the highest levels, with chicken sticks containing an average of 3.6 ppm. Read more
- Teflon Pans: Cooking food, or boiling water, in teflon pans may increase the fluoride content of food. In one study, it was found that boiling water in a teflon pan for just 15 minutes added an additional 2 ppm of fluoride to the water, thus bringing the final concentration to 3 ppm. Read more (Full & Parkins 1975).
- Workplace Exposure: Fluoride is a common air contaminant in industrial workplaces. As a result, workers in many heavy industries — including the aluminum, fertilizer, iron, oil refining, semi-conductor, and steel industries — can be routinely exposed to high levels of fluoride exposure. In addition to being a significant risk factor for respiratory disease; airborne fluorides can be a huge daily source fluoride intake.
What Doesn’t Contain Fluoride?
The mass fluoridation of water, and the resulting contamination of processed foods, can make it seem like everything has elevated levels of fluoride. The good news, however, is that most fresh foods and fresh water contains very little fluoride. As a general rule, therefore, one will receive very little fluoride when drinking spring water and eating unprocessed fruit, vegetables, grains, eggs, milk, and meat. While there are some exceptions to this rule (e.g., seafood, tea, water from deep wells, and fresh fruit/vegetables sprayed with fluoride pesticides), it is a good rule of thumb to go by if you wish to reduce your fluoride exposure. To learn more, click here.
How to Reduce Your Fluoride Exposure
- Top 10 Ways to Reduce Fluoride Exposure
- FAN’s Grocery Store Guide: 7 Ways to Avoid Fluoride in Beverages and Food
- Top 5 Ways to Reduce Fluoride Exposure from Infant Formula
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Fluoride in Drinking Water Should Be Capped, HHS Says
Fluoride in the U.S. water supply should be limited because the additive is damaging children’s teeth, federal officials said in announcing the first restrictions in almost 50 years. Drinking water should contain the lowest amount of the mineral recommended as the Environmental Protection Agency reviews the maximum level allowable, the Department
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Are we getting too much fluoride?
Toronto -- If fluoride is in our water supply, toothpaste, mouthwash and those foul-tasting rinses and pastes to which our dentists subject us, are some of us getting too much? Health advocates have wondered about this for decades. Now the concern is getting some ivory-tower support, and that's cranked up the
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No Link Found Between (Low-Fluoride) Bottled Water and Tooth Decay
Over the past decade, there has been a steady drumbeat of press warning of the risks from drinking bottled water. The idea -- kept alive by press releases from dental associations -- is that because most bottled waters have low levels of fluoride, people switching from tap water (which is usually fluoridated) to bottled
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The Lancet: Fluoride Studies in a Patient with Arthritis
It is possible that fluoride intake from tea may be sufficient to cause fluorosis, and I report here a case which gives some evidence for this.
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Tea Intake Is a Risk Factor for Skeletal Fluorosis
A number of recent studies have found that heavy tea drinkers can develop skeletal fluorosis - a bone disease caused by excessive intake of fluoride.
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Dental Fluorosis in the U.S. 1950-2004
Before the widespread use of fluoride in dentistry, dental fluorosis was rarely found in western countries. Today, with virtually every toothpaste now containing fluoride, and most U.S. water supplies containing fluoride chemicals, dental fluorosis rates have reached unprecedented levels. In the 1950s, it was estimated that only 10% of children in
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Fluoride Content of Bottled Water
As with other fresh water supplies (e.g., spring water, lake water, river water), bottled waters have low levels of fluoride. Fresh surface water contains an average of just 0.05 ppm. To put this in perspective, artificially fluoridated water (using industrial-grade fluoride chemicals) contains 0.7 to 1.2 ppm fluoride, which is 14 to
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Naturally Occurring Levels of Fluoride in Fresh Food
Over the past 100 years, the levels of fluoride in foods purchased at the grocery store have increased. The reasons for this increase include: (1) the mass fluoridation of water supplies in some countries, (2) the introduction of fluoride-based pesticides, (3) the use of mechanical deboning processes, and, perhaps, (4)
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Fluoride Content of Various Processed Beverages
When fluoride is added to public water supplies, it does not just go into the water, it goes all into all of the food products made with that water (e.g., soda, juice, beer, cereal, soup, etc). As a result, people living in non-fluoridated communities of heavily fluoridated countries like the
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