Fluoridatin's Unhappy Birthday

Sixty-three years ago, January 25, 1945, sodium fluoride was slowly poured into Grand Rapids, Michigan’s public water supply to prove that fluoridation reduces children’s tooth decay. Nearby Muskegon was left fluoridation-free as the experiment’s control city for comparison purposes.

The study failed; but early fluoridationists ignored this inconvenient truth. Named a “demonstration project” so as not to alarm residents about what was actually occurring, the experiment was meant to last 15 years. After only five years, cavities went down in both Grand Rapids and

Muskegon. So officials fluoridated Muskegon which scientifically nullified the study.(1)

Today Americans are fluoride overdosed, suffer from fluoride’s toxic effects while cavity rates rise. There are many errors in the Grand Rapids experiment. (2) When a firm of professional statisticians was employed to study the data published from the trial, they concluded: "the lack of sophistication shown in selecting the sample leads to complete bewilderment as to the precise effects or the extent of the effect of fluoridation" (De Stefano 1954).

The Grand Rapids experiment never proved fluoridation was effective and didn’t even look for adverse health effects. But that hasn’t stopped public officials and organized dentistry from saying it did. In fact, two monuments have been built in fluoridation’s honor in Grand Rapids. The first one crumbled and fell apart just as over-fluoridated children’s teeth tend to do.

So what’s happening today? Grand Rapids children are showing high rates of tooth decay and fluoride overdose - dental fluorosis, white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted enamel.(3)According to the Grand Rapids Press, one pediatric dentist said in 2007 “…we see children under the age of 2 with active decay…Rather than just a few cavities, we're seeing a lot of cavities. It's not unusual to see a child with 8 to 10 cavities." (4) The state of Michigan is now 86% fluoridated and Detroit is 100% fluoridated. A study shows that, although fluoridated tap water is the most consumed item, 83% of low-income Detroit African-American adults, 14-years-old and over, have severe tooth decay.(5) Almost all Detroit’s African-American 5-year-olds have cavities, most of them go unfilled.(6)

The Michigan Department of Community Health reports: Cavity rates in six to eight-year-olds are: -- 75% for American Indian/Alaska Natives -- 72% of Hispanics, -- 57% of White non-Hispanic -- 57% of Black non-Hispanic -- 50% of Asians