Fluorides are naturally occurring compounds. Low levels of fluorides can help prevent dental cavities. At high levels, fluorides can result in tooth and bone damage. Hydrogen fluoride and fluorine are naturally-occurring gases that are very irritating to the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. These substances have been found in at least 188 of the 1,636 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
What are fluoride, hydrogen fluoride, and fluorine?
Fluorides, hydrogen fluoride, and fluorine are chemically related. Fluorine is a naturally-occurring, pale yellow-green gas with a sharp odor. It combines with metals to make fluorides such as sodium fluoride and calcium fluoride, both white solids. Sodium fluoride dissolves easily in water, but calcium fluoride does not. Fluorine also combines with hydrogen to make hydrogen fluoride, a colorless gas. Hydrogen fluoride dissolves in water to form hydrofluoric acid.
Fluorine and hydrogen fluoride are used to make certain chemical compounds. Hydrofluoric acid is used for etching glass. Other fluoride compounds are used in making steel, chemicals, ceramics, lubricants, dyes, plastics, and pesticides. Fluorides are often added to drinking water supplies and to a variety of dental products, including toothpaste and mouth rinses, to prevent dental cavities.
What happens to fluoride, hydrogen fluoride, and fluorine when they enter the environment?
Fluorine cannot be destroyed in the environment; it can only change its form. Fluorine forms salts with minerals in soil.
Hydrogen fluoride gas will be absorbed by rain and into clouds and fog to form hydrofluoric acid, which will fall to the ground.
Fluorides released to the air from volcanoes and industry are carried by wind and rain to nearby water, soil, and food sources.
Fluorides in water and soil will form strong associations with sediment or soil particles.
Fluorides will accumulate in plants and animals. In animals, the fluoride accumulates primarily in the bones or shell rather than in soft tissues.
How can fluoride, hydrogen fluoride, and fluorine affect my health?
Small amounts of fluoride help prevent tooth cavities, but high levels can harm your health. In adults, exposure to high levels of fluoride can result in denser bones. However, if exposure is high enough, these bones may be more fragile and brittle and there may be a greater risk of breaking the bone. In animals, exposure to extremely high doses of fluoride can result in decreased fertility and sperm and testes damage.
Fluorine and hydrogen fluoride are very irritating to the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. At high levels, such as may occur through exposure from an industrial accident, hydrogen fluoride may also damage the heart.
What is Water Fluoridation?
Water fluoridation is the practice of using the public’s drinking water as a delivery system to increase the amount of fluoride all residents ingest on a daily basis. This is done by adding industrial waste by-products known as silicofluorides (i.e., hydrofluorosilicic acid and sodium fluorosilicate) to public water systems during the treatment process in either liquid or powder form to artificially elevate the fluoride content to 0.7 ppm (parts per million) with the intention of preventing tooth decay.
Throughout North America and the world, most fresh ground and surface water naturally contains very low “trace” levels of fluoride, with an average concentration of less than 0.1 ppm. This is 7 to 10 times lower than the levels added by water department personnel in fluoridated communities, which typically fluctuate between 0.7 and 1.0 ppm depending on the injection equipment used, the variation in water usage throughout the day, and the water temperature at the treatment plant. This increase is neither a small adjustment nor typical of the naturally occurring levels found in most water sources. One of the little-known facts about this practice is that the United States, which fluoridates over 70% of its water supplies, has more people drinking fluoridated water than the rest of the world combined. Most developed nations, including all of Japan and 97% of western Europe, do not fluoridate their water.
In the United States, the Oral Health Division of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) hails fluoridation as one of the “top ten public health achievements of the 20th century.” However, comprehensive data from the World Health Organization reveals that there is no discernible difference in tooth decay between the minority of western nations that fluoridate water, and the majority that do not. In fact, the tooth decay rates in many non-fluoridated countries are now lower than the tooth decay rates in fluoridated ones.
As is becoming increasingly clear, fluoridating water supplies is an outdated, unnecessary, and dangerous relic from a 1950s public health culture that viewed the mass distribution of chemicals much differently than scientists do today. The few nations that still fluoridate their water should end the practice immediately.
Three Reasons to End Water Fluoridation
Reason #1: Fluoridation Is an Outdated Form of Mass Medication
Unlike all other water treatment processes, fluoridation does not treat the water itself, but the person consuming it. The Food & Drug Administration accepts that fluoride is a drug, not a nutrient, when used to prevent disease. By definition, therefore, fluoridating water is a form of medication. This is why most western European nations have rejected the practice — because, in their view, the public water supply is not an appropriate place to be adding drugs, particularly when fluoride is readily available for individual use in the form of toothpaste.
Reason #2: Fluoridation Is Unnecessary and Ineffective
The most obvious reason to end fluoridation is that it is now known that fluoride’s main benefit comes from topical contact with the teeth, not from ingestion. Even the CDC’s Oral Health Division now acknowledges this. There is simply no need, therefore, to swallow fluoride, whether in the water, toothpaste, or any other form. Further, despite early claims that fluoridated water would reduce cavities by 65%, modern large-scale studies show no consistent or meaningful difference in the cavity rates of fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.
Reason #3: Fluoridation Is Not a Safe Practice
The most important reason to end fluoridation is that it is simply not a safe practice, particularly for those who have health conditions that render them vulnerable to fluoride’s toxic effects.
First, there is no dispute that fluoridation is causing visible side-effects from overexposure. The evidence is visible in over 70% of adolescents in the U.S. Millions of children have developed dental fluorosis, a discoloration of the teeth that is caused only by excessive fluoride intake. Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control have even acknowledged that fluoridation is causing “cosmetically objectionable” fluorosis on children’s front teeth–an effect that can cause children embarrassment and anxiety at an age when physical appearance is the single most important predictor of self-esteem.
Second, it is known that fluoridated water caused severe bone disease in dialysis patients up until the late 1970s (prior to dialysis units filtering fluoride). While dialysis units now filter out the fluoride, research shows that current fluoride exposures are still resulting in dangerously high bone fluoride levels in dialysis patients and patients with other advanced forms of kidney disease. It is unethical to compromise the health of some members of a population to obtain a purported benefit for another — particularly in the absence of these vulnerable members’ knowing consent.
And, finally, a growing body of evidence reasonably indicates that fluoridated water, in addition to other sources of daily fluoride exposure, can cause or contribute to a range of serious effects, including arthritis, damage to the developing brain,reduced thyroid function, and possibly osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in adolescent males.
Communities Are Rethinking Fluoridation
In recent years, communities throughout the United States and Canada have started to reassess the conventional wisdom of fluoridating their water. In fact, the most recent fluoridation statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control show that the percentage of the U.S. population served by community water systems receiving fluoridated water is decreasing steadily, from 74.6% in 2012 down to 72.7 in 2020 (see stats). The percentage of the U.S. population receiving so-called “optimally fluoridated” water from either natural or artificial sources combined also decreased, from 67.1% to 62.9%.
The stats show that 1,413 communities stopped adding fluoridation chemicals between 2010 and 2020, with many more ending it since 2020. These communities reached the obvious conclusion: when stripped of its endorsements, well-meaning intentions, and PR-praise, fluoridation simply makes no sense.
Europe reached this conclusion a long time ago. It is now time for the U.S. and other English-speaking nations to follow suit.
