Fluorine is an element. It is a gas which never occurs in its free state. When complexed with other minerals in microscopic amounts, it is often listed as a trace mineral, a nutrient for human nutrition.
But this has nothing to do with fluoride or fluoridation. The fluorides added to 90% of our drinking water are compounds of fluorine formed as a chemical byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing.
Such fluorides, in other words, are man-made. In its man-made form, fluoride has no nutrient value whatsoever. It is one of the most caustic of industrial chemicals. Fluoride is the active toxin in rat poisons and cockroach powder.
90% of the fluoride used in our drinking and bathing water is the extremely toxic silicofluoride. The remainder is sodium fluoride. Both of these very toxic fluoride compounds increase the absorption of other extremely toxic substances, such as lead, aluminum, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium, which have been shown to cause neurological dysfunction. Fluorides, like lead, attack the central nervous system but are even more toxic than lead.
Sodium fluoride is the key ingredient in sarin, the most deadly of all nerve gases.
In the 1970s, Austrian researchers proved that as little as 1 ppm fluoride concentration can disrupt DNA repair enzymes by 50%. When DNA can't repair damaged cells, the aging process speeds up. And the list goes on.
A major, often overlooked "side-effect" of fluoridated water is that a massive, well designed study involving 150,000 children has shown that fluoridated water increases the blood levels of lead in children - which in turn increases the incidence of dental cavities per a 1999 study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
For more on health effects, with documentation see Fluoride Alert and Fluoridation and this updated Fluoride Report. For more information including a list of books and special collections.
This data base should convince anyone not tied to paymasters."This database sets forth the scientific basis for FAN (Flouride Action Network’s) concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of ingested fluorides. The database is the product of over 10 years of research by FAN’s research team, led by attorney-at-law Michael Connett. In 2012, Connett conducted an exhaustive review of recent scientific findings, including research that, up to now, has only been available in Chinese and Russian. The current database reflects the findings of this new review.
Consider this: if fluoride is "harmless" why did the EPA in 2005 call for a moratorium on fluoride in drinking water?
Understand that sources of fluoride are many and varied. They include fluoridated toothpaste, fluoridated tap water, infant formula, juices, tea (especially non-organic and instant teas), processed cereals, soda, wine, beer, mechanically deboned chicken, canned fish, shellfish, cooked veal, teflon pans, fluoridated salt, aneasthetics (enflurane, isoflurane and sevoflurane), and cigarettes. Also pesticides and superphosphate fertilizer made from rock.
In addition to exploring the above websites, you may also want to read an online text of an out-of-print book, published in 1958 under the title of Your Health and Sanity in the Age of Treason by Dr.R. Swinburne Clymer, originally published by the Humanitarian Society. The book focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on sodium fluoride, using quotes from doctors, dentists, and the USDA. This article provides an interesting perspective on Clymer's revelations and how he came under attack of the medical community. Also pointed out by Swinburne is that in excess amounts, both fluorine and sodium fluoride are poisons although each have differing effects on human health.
And although the author of the following excerpt does not make a distinction between naturally occurring and man-made fluorides, the following segment provides the abbreviated version of the not-so-pretty story concerning the manner and reasons for which sodium fluoride entered the food and water supply. The following as quoted from Earl Mindell, Rph, Ph.D in his book Prescription Alternatives, 2nd edition:
"The story behind the story: During WWII we learned how to manufacture things from aluminum: airplanes, buildings, pots and pans, to name a few. We also greatly increased our production of chemical fertilizers. The downside of both these manufacturing processes was a byproduct called fluoride. Altho fluoride is a trace mineral naturally occuring in our food, in anything but those trace amounts it's a more potent poison than arsenic. Disposing of the 1000's of pounds of fluoride by-product became a major problem in American manufacturing. The manufacturers tried blowing it out their smokestacks, dumping it into rivers, and burying it in the ground, but the immediate result was dead and deformed cows and other animals within miles of the smokestacks, rivers full of dead fish and poisoned aquifers. In fact, its primary use was as a rat poison. Finally the US Public Health Service did a study that claimed to show that one part per million of fluoride in water reduced tooth decay by 60%, and thus began the trickling of fluoride into our water supply.
The price of fluoride went up 1000% almost overnite, and the problem of how to dispose of a potent toxin was solved. The practice of water fluoridation was further justified by more glowing (but flawed) studies claiming to show that communities using fluoridated drinking water had a much lower rate of tooth decay. . .
.....Japan and all continental Europe either rejected the fluoride concept from the beginning or have stopped the practice. Most of Great Britain has also discontinued the practice, and Australia and New Zealand are in the process of reversing the trend. A 1994 study of virtually all of New Zealand schoolchildren showed no benefit in dental health in fluoridated communities. . .
So much fluoride has been put into our water and toothpaste over the past 30 years that levels in our food chain are very high. While eating a normal diet, the average person EXCEEDS the recommended dose. Fluoride is a potent enzyme inhibitor that interferes with enzymes in the body, particularly in the lining of your intestines, causing stomach pain, gas and bloating. This enzyme-inhibiting effect also interferes with thyroid gland function. Some studies indicate that fluoride damages the immune system, leading to autoimmune disorders and arthritis. There is also evidence that communities with fluoridated water have a higher incidence of heart disease, and higher rates of bone cancer in young men. Some 30% of the children in fluoridated communities have fluorosis, a malformation of tooth enamel that causes discoloration (usually chalky white patches) and brittleness. This is a permanent change in the teeth that has been associated with abnormal bone structure.
. . . Fluoride is absorbed through the mucous membranes. . . There have been numerous reports of children poisoned by ingesting high levels of fluoride through school fluoride mouthwash programs, or fluoridated toothpastes full of sweeteners that children want to swallow. . . Please avoid fluoride, in all forms including toothpaste. . . "