posted 07-06-2003 11:08 PM            

12th Apr 2000

The following article exposes the biggest on-going medical experiment ever carried out by the United States Government on an unsuspecting population. Although commissioned by the Christian Science Monitor in early Spring of 1997, it has not yet been published. Readers are invited to inquire when publication can be expected, by calling the Christian Science Monitor at 1-800-288-7090. . . . . . about the authors Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb By Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson July 1997 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 World War II 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. Human studies were required. Bomb program researchers played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water - conducted in Newburgh, New York from 1945 to 1956. Then, in a classified operation code-named "Program F," they secretly gathered and analysed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizens, with the cooperation of State Health Department personnel. The original secret version - obtained by these reporters - of a 1948 study published by Program F scientists in the Journal of the American Dental Association shows that evidence of adverse health effects from fluoride was censored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) - considered the most powerful of Cold War agencies - for reasons of national security. The bomb program's fluoride safety studies were conducted at the University of Rochester, site of one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. The fluoride studies were conducted with the same ethical mind-set, in which "national security" was paramount. The U.S. government's conflict of interest - and its motive to prove fluoride "safe" - has not until now been made clear to the general public in the furious debate over water fluoridation since the 1950's, nor to civilian researchers and health professionals, or journalists. The declassified documents resonate with a growing body of scientific evidence, and a chorus of questions, about the health effects of fluoride in the environment. Human exposure to fluoride has mushroomed since World War II, due not only to fluoridated water and toothpaste, but to environmental pollution by major industries from aluminum to pesticides: Fluoride is a critical industrial chemical. The impact can be seen, literally, in the smiles of our children. Large numbers of U.S. young people - up to 80 percent in some cities - now have dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of excessive fluoride exposure, according to the U.S. National Research Council. (The signs are whitish flecks or spots, particularly on the front teeth, or dark spots or stripes in more severe cases.) Less-known to the public is that fluoride also accumulates in bones - "The teeth are windows to what's happening in the bones," explains Paul Connett, Professor of Chemistry at St. Lawrence (N.Y.) University. In recent years, pediatric bone specialists have expressed alarm about an increase in stress fractures among U.S. young people. Connett and other scientists are concerned that fluoride - linked to bone damage by studies since the 1930's - may be a contributing factor. The declassified documents add urgency: Much of the original proof that low-dose fluoride is safe for children's bones came from U.S. bomb program scientists, according to this investigation. Now, researchers who have reviewed these declassified documents fear that Cold War national security considerations may have prevented objective scientific evaluation of vital public health questions concerning fluoride. Information was buried," concludes Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston, and now a critic of fluoridation. Animal studies Mullenix and co-workers conducted at Forsyth in the early 1990's indicated that fluoride was a powerful central nervous system (CNS) toxin, and might adversely affect human brain functioning, even at low doses. (New epidemiological evidence from China adds support, showing a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and diminished I.Q. in children.) Mullenix's results were published in 1995, in a reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal. During her investigation, Mullenix was astonished to discover there had been virtually no previous U.S. studies of fluoride's effects on the human brain. Then, her application for a grant to continue her CNS research was turned down by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where an NIH panel, she says, flatly told her that "fluoride does not have central nervous system effects." Declassified documents of the U.S. atomic-bomb program indicate otherwise. An April 29, 1944 Manhattan Project memo reports: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect.... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor." The memo - stamped "secret" - is addressed to the head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, Col. Stafford Warren. Colonel Warren is asked to approve a program of animal research on CNS effects: "Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure... This is important not only to protect a given individual, but also to prevent a confused workman from injuring others by improperly performing his duties." On the same day, Colonel Warren approved the CNS research program. This was in 1944, at the height of the Second World War and the nation's race to build the world's first atomic bomb. For research on fluoride's CNS effects to be approved at such a momentous time, the supporting evidence set forth in the proposal forwarded along with the memo must have been persuasive. The proposal, however, is missing from the files of the U.S. National Archives. "If you find the memos, but the document they refer to is missing, it's probably still classified," said Charles Reeves, chief librarian at the Atlanta branch of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, where the memos were found. Similarly, no results of the Manhattan Project's fluoride CNS research could be found in the files. After reviewing the memos, Mullenix declared herself "flabbergasted." She went on, "How could I be told by NIH that fluoride has no central nervous system effects when these documents were sitting there all the time?" She reasons that the Manhattan Project did do fluoride CNS studies - "that kind of warning, that fluoride workers might be a danger to the bomb program by improperly performing their duties - I can't imagine that would be ignored" - but that the results were buried because they might create a difficult legal and public relations problem for the government. The author of the 1944 CNS research proposal was Dr. Harold C. Hodge, at the time chief of fluoride toxicology studies for the University of Rochester division of the Manhattan Project. Nearly fifty years later at the Forsyth Dental Center in Boston, Dr. Mullenix was introduced to a gently ambling elderly man brought in to serve as a consultant on her CNS research - Harold C. Hodge. By then Hodge had achieved status emeritus as a world authority on fluoride safety. "But even though he was supposed to be helping me," says Mullenix, "he never once mentioned the CNS work he had done for the Manhattan Project." The "black hole" in fluoride CNS research since the days of the Manhattan Project is unacceptable to Mullenix, who refuses to abandon the issue. "There is so much fluoride exposure now, and we simply do not know what it is doing," she says. "You can't just walk away from this." Dr. Antonio Noronha, an NIH scientific review advisor familiar with Dr. Mullenix's grant request, says her proposal was rejected by a scientific peer-review group. He terms her claim of institutional bias against fluoride CNS research "farfetched." He adds, "We strive very hard at NIH to make sure politics does not enter the picture." Fluoride and National Security The documentary trail begins at the height of World War II, in 1944, when a severe pollution incident occurred downwind of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company chemical factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. The factory was then producing millions of pounds of fluoride for the Manhattan Project, the ultra-secret U.S. military program racing to produce the world's first atomic bomb. The farms downwind in Gloucester and Salem counties were famous for their high-quality produce - their peaches went directly to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Their tomatoes were bought up by Campbell's Soup. But in the summer of 1943, the farmers began to report that their crops were blighted, and that "something is burning up the peach crops around here." Poultry died after an all-night thunderstorm, they reported. Farm workers who ate the produce they had picked sometimes vomited all night and into the next day. "I remember our horses looked sick and were too stiff to work," these reporters were told by Mildred Giordano, who was a teenager at the time. Some cows were so crippled they could not stand up, and grazed by crawling on their bellies. The account was confirmed in taped interviews, shortly before he died, with Philip Sadtler of Sadtler Laboratories of Philadelphia, one of the nation's oldest chemical consulting firms. Sadtler had personally conducted the initial investigation of the damage. Although the farmers did not know it, the attention of the Manhattan Project and the federal government was riveted on the New Jersey incident, according to once-secret documents obtained by these reporters. After the war's end, in a secret Manhattan Project memo dated March 1, 1946, the Project's chief of fluoride toxicology studies, Harold C. Hodge, worriedly wrote to his boss, Colonel Stafford L. Warren, Chief of the Medical Division, about "problems associated with the question of fluoride contamination of the atmosphere in a certain section of New Jersey. There seem to be four distinct (though related) problems," continued Hodge: "1. A question of injury of the peach crop in 1944. "2. A report of extraordinary fluoride content of vegetables grown in this area. "3. A report of abnormally high fluoride content in the blood of human individuals residing in this area. "4. A report raising the question of serious poisoning of horses and cattle in this area." The New Jersey farmers waited until the war was over, then sued du Pont and the Manhattan Project for fluoride damage - reportedly the first lawsuits against the U.S. A-bomb program. Although seemingly trivial, the lawsuits shook the government, the secret documents reveal. Under the personal direction of Manhattan Project chief Major General Leslie R. Groves, secret meetings were convened in Washington, with compulsory attendance by scores of scientists and officials from the U.S. War Department, the Manhattan Project, the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture and Justice Departments, the U.S Army's Chemical Warfare Service and Edgewood Arsenal, the Bureau of Standards, and du Pont lawyers. Declassified memos of the meetings reveal a secret mobilization of the full forces of the government to defeat the New Jersey farmers: These agencies "are making scientific investigations to obtain evidence which may be used to protect the interest of the Government at the trial of the suits brought by owners of peach orchards in ... New Jersey," stated Manhattan Project Lieutenant Colonel Cooper B. Rhodes, in a memo c.c.'d to General Groves. "27 August 1945 "Subject: Investigation of Crop Damage at Lower Penns Neck, New Jersey "To: The Commanding General, Army Service Forces, Pentagon Building, Washington D.C. "At the request of the Secretary of War the Department of Agriculture has agreed to cooperate in investigating complaints of crop damage attributed... to fumes from a plant operated in connection with the Manhattan Project." Signed, L.R. Groves, Major General, U.S. Army "The Department of Justice is cooperating in the defense of these suits," wrote General Groves in a February 28, 1946 memo to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy. Why the national-security emergency over a few lawsuits by New Jersey farmers? In 1946 the United States had begun full-scale production of atomic bombs. No other nation had yet tested a nuclear weapon, and the A-bomb was seen as crucial for U.S leadership of the postwar world. The New Jersey fluoride lawsuits were a serious roadblock to that strategy. "The specter of endless lawsuits haunted the military," writes Lansing Lamont in his acclaimed book about the first atomic bomb test, "Day of Trinity." In the case of fluoride, "If the farmers won, it would open the door to further suits, which might impede the bomb program's ability to use fluoride," said Jacqueline Kittrell, a Tennessee public interest lawyer specializing in nuclear cases, who examined the declassified fluoride documents. (Kittrell has represented plaintiffs in several human radiation experiment cases.) She added, "The reports of human injury were especially threatening, because of the potential for enormous settlements - not to mention the PR problem." Indeed, du Pont was particularly concerned about the "possible psychologic reaction" to the New Jersey pollution incident, according to a secret 1946 Manhattan Project memo. Facing a threat from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to embargo the region's produce because of "high fluoride content," du Pont dispatched its lawyers to the FDA offices in Washington, where an agitated meeting ensued. According to a memo sent next day to General Groves, Du Pont's lawyer argued "that in view of the pending suits... any action by the Food and Drug Administration... would have a serious effect on the du Pont Company and would create a bad public relations situation." After the meeting adjourned, Manhattan Project Captain John Davies approached the FDA's Food Division chief and "impressed upon Dr. White the substantial interest which the Government had in claims which might arise as a result of action which might be taken by the Food and Drug Administration." There was no embargo. Instead, new tests for fluoride in the New Jersey area would be conducted - not by the Department of Agriculture - but by the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service - because "work done by the Chemical Warfare Service would carry the greatest weight as evidence if... lawsuits are started by the complainants." The memo was signed by General Groves. Meanwhile, the public relations problem remained unresolved - local citizens were in a panic about fluoride. The farmer's spokesman, Willard B. Kille, was personally invited to dine with General Groves - then known as "the man who built the atomic bomb" - at his office at the War Department on March 26, 1946. Although he had been diagnosed with fluoride poisoning by his doctor, Kille departed the luncheon convinced of the government's good faith. The next day he wrote to the general, wishing the other farmers could have been present, he said, so "they too could come away with the feeling that their interests in this particular matter were being safeguarded by men of the very highest type whose integrity they could not question." In a subsequent secret Manhattan Project memo, a broader solution to the public relations problem was suggested by chief fluoride toxicologist Harold C. Hodge. He wrote to the Medical Section chief, Colonel Warren: "Would there be any use in making attempts to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents of Salem and Gloucester counties through lectures on F toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of F in tooth health?" Such lectures were indeed given, not only to New Jersey citizens but to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War. The New Jersey farmers' lawsuits were ultimately stymied by the government's refusal to reveal the key piece of information that would have settled the case - how much fluoride du Pont had vented into the atmosphere during the war. "Disclosure... would be injurious to the military security of the United States," wrote Manhattan Project Major C.A. Taney, Jr. The farmers were pacified with token financial settlements, according to interviews with descendants still living in the area. "All we knew is that du Pont released some chemical that burned up all the peach trees around here," recalls Angelo Giordano, whose father James was one of the original plaintiffs. "The trees were no good after that, so we had to give up on the peaches." Their horses and cows, too, acted stiff and walked stiff, recalls his sister Mildred. "Could any of that have been the fluoride?" she asked. (The symptoms she detailed to the authors are cardinal signs of fluoride toxicity, according to veterinary toxicologists.) The Giordano family, too, has been plagued by bone and joint problems, Mildred adds. Recalling the settlement received by the Giordanos, Angelo told these reporters "my father said he got about $200." The farmers were stonewalled in their search for information, and their complaints have long since been forgotten. But they unknowingly left their imprint on history - their claims of injury to their health reverberated through the corridors of power in Washington, and triggered intensive secret bomb-program research on the health effects of fluoride. A secret 1945 memo from Manhattan Project Lt. Colonel Rhodes to General Groves stated: "Because of complaints that animals and humans have been injured by hydrogen fluoride fumes in [the New Jersey] area, although there are no pending suits involving such claims, the University of Rochester is conducting experiments to determine the toxic effect of fluoride." Much of the proof of fluoride's safety in low doses rests on the postwar work performed by the University of Rochester, in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. Fluoride and the Cold War Delegating fluoride safety studies to the University of Rochester was not surprising. During World War II the federal government had become involved, for the first time, in large scale funding of scientific research at government-owned labs and private colleges. Those early spending priorities were shaped by the nation's often-secret military needs. The prestigious upstate New York college, in particular, had housed a key wartime division of the Manhattan Project, studying the health effects of the new "special materials," such as uranium, plutonium, beryllium and fluoride, being used to make the atomic bomb. That work continued after the war, with millions of dollars flowing from the Manhattan Project and its successor organization, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). (Indeed, the bomb left an indelible imprint on all U.S. science in the late 1940's and 50's. Up to 90% of federal funds for university research came from either the Defense Department or the AEC in this period, according to Noam Chomsky's 1996 book "The Cold War and the University.") The University of Rochester medical school became a revolving door for senior bomb program scientists. Postwar faculty included Stafford Warren, the top medical officer of the Manhattan Project, and Harold Hodge, chief of fluoride research for the bomb program. But this marriage of military secrecy and medical science bore deformed offspring. The University of Rochester's classified fluoride studies - code-named Program F - were conducted at its Atomic Energy Project (AEP), a top-secret facility funded by the AEC and housed in Strong Memorial Hospital. It was there that one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War took place, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. Revelation of this experiment in a Pulitzer prize-winning account by Eileen Welsome led to a 1995 U.S. Presidential investigation, and a multimillion-dollar cash settlement for victims. Program F was not about children's teeth. It grew directly out of litigation against the bomb program, and its main purpose was to furnish scientific ammunition which the government and its nuclear contractors could use to defeat lawsuits for human injury. Program F's director was none other than Harold C. Hodge, who had led the Manhattan Project investigation of alleged human injury in the New Jersey fluoride-pollution incident. Program F's purpose is spelled out in a classified 1948 report. It reads: "To supply evidence useful in the litigation arising from an alleged loss of a fruit crop several years ago, a number of problems have been opened. Since excessive blood fluoride levels were reported in human residents of the same area, our principal effort has been devoted to describing the relationship of blood fluorides to toxic effects." The litigation referred to, of course, and the claims of human injury were against the bomb program and its contractors. Thus, the purpose of Program F was to obtain evidence useful in litigation against the bomb program. The research was being conducted by the defendants. The potential conflict of interest is clear. If lower dose ranges were found hazardous by Program F, it might have opened the bomb program and its contractors to lawsuits for injury to human health, as well as public outcry. Comments lawyer Kittrell: "This and other documents indicate that the University of Rochester's fluoride research grew out of the New Jersey lawsuits and was performed in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. Studies undertaken for litigation purposes by the defendants would not be considered scientifically acceptable today," adds Kittrell, "because of their inherent bias to prove the chemical safe." Unfortunately, much of the proof of fluoride's safety rests on the work performed by Program F Scientists at the University of Rochester. During the postwar period that university emerged as the leading academic center for establishing the safety of fluoride, as well as its effectiveness in reducing tooth decay, according to Dental School spokesperson William H. Bowen, M.D. The key figure in this research, Bowen said, was Harold C. Hodge - who also became a leading national proponent of fluoridating public drinking water. Program F's interest in water fluoridation was not just "to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents," as Hodge had earlier written. The bomb program needed human studies, as they had needed human studies for plutonium, and adding fluoride to public water supplies provided one opportunity. The A-Bomb Program and Water Fluoridation Bomb-program scientists played a prominent - if unpublicized - role in the nation's first-planned water fluoridation experiment, in Newburgh, New York. The Newburgh Demonstration Project is considered the most extensive study of the health effects of fluoridation, supplying much of the evidence that low doses are safe for children's bones, and good for their teeth. Planning began in 1943 with the appointment of a special New York State Health Department committee to study the advisability of adding fluoride to Newburgh's drinking water. The chairman of the committee was Dr. Hodge, then chief of fluoride toxicity studies for the Manhattan Project. Subsequent members included Henry L. Barnett, a captain in the Project's Medical section, and John W. Fertig, in 1944 with the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, the Pentagon group which sired the Manhattan Project. Their military affiliations were kept secret: Hodge was described as a pharmacologist, Barnett as a pediatrician. Placed in charge of the Newburgh project was David B. Ast, chief dental officer of the State Health Department. Ast had participated in a secret wartime conference on fluoride held by the Manhattan Project, and later worked with Dr. Hodge on the Project's investigation of human injury in the New Jersey incident, according to once-secret memos. The committee recommended that Newburgh be fluoridated. It also selected the types of medical studies to be done, and "provided expert guidance" for the duration of the experiment. The key question to be answered was: "Are there any cumulative effects - beneficial or otherwise, on tissues and organs other than the teeth - of long-continued ingestion of such small concentrations...?" According to the declassified documents, this was also key information sought by the bomb program, which would require long-continued exposure of workers and communities to fluoride throughout the Cold War. In May 1945, Newburgh's water was fluoridated, and over the next ten years its residents were studied by the State Health Department. In tandem, Program F conducted its own secret studies, focusing on the amounts of fluoride Newburgh citizens retained in their blood and tissues - the information sought by the bomb program: "Possible toxic effects of fluoride were in the forefront of consideration," the advisory committee stated. Health Department personnel cooperated, shipping blood and placenta samples to the Program F team at the University of Rochester. The samples were collected by Dr. David B. Overton, the Department's chief of pediatric studies at Newburgh. The final report of the Newburgh Demonstration Project, published in 1956 in the Journal of the American Dental Association, concluded that "small concentrations" of fluoride were safe for U.S. citizens. The biological proof - "based on work performed ... at the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project" - was delivered by Dr. Hodge. Today, news that scientists from the atomic bomb program secretly shaped and guided the Newburgh fluoridation experiment, and studied the citizen's blood and tissue samples, is greeted with incredulity. "I'm shocked - beyond words," said present-day Newburgh Mayor Audrey Carey, commenting on these reporters' findings. "It reminds me of the Tuskegee experiment that was done on syphilis patients down in Alabama." As a child in the early 1950's, Mayor Carey was taken to the old firehouse on Broadway in Newburgh, which housed the Public Health clinic. There, doctors from the Newburgh fluoridation project studied her teeth, and a peculiar fusion of two finger bones on her left hand she had been born with. Today, adds Carey, her granddaughter has white dental-fluorosis marks on her front teeth. Mayor Carey wants answers from the government about the secret history of fluoride, and the Newburgh fluoridation experiment. "I absolutely want to pursue it," she said. "It is appalling to do any kind of experimentation and study without people's knowledge and permission." Contacted by these reporters, the director of the Newburgh experiment, David B. Ast, says he was unaware Manhattan Project scientists were involved. "If I had known, I would have been certainly investigating why, and what the connection was," he said. Did he know that blood and placenta samples from Newburgh were being sent to bomb program researchers at the University of Rochester? "I was not aware of it," Ast replied. Did he recall participating in the Manhattan Project's secret wartime conference on fluoride in January 1944, or going to New Jersey with Dr. Hodge to investigate human injury in the du Pont cases as secret memos state? He said he had no recollection of these events. A spokesperson for the University of Rochester Medical Center, Bob Loeb, confirmed that blood and tissue samples from Newburgh had been tested by the University's Dr. Hodge. On the ethics of secretly studying U.S. citizens to obtain information useful in litigation against the A-bomb program, he said, "that's a question we cannot answer." He referred inquiries to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), successor to the Atomic Energy Commission. A spokesperson for the DOE in Washington, Jayne Brody, confirmed that a review of DOE files indicated that a "significant reason" for fluoride experiments conducted at the University of Rochester after the war was "impending litigation between the du Pont company and residents of New Jersey areas." However, she added, "DOE has found no documents to indicate that fluoride research was done to protect the Manhattan Project or its contractors from lawsuits." On Manhattan Project involvement in Newburgh, the spokesperson stated, "Nothing that we have suggests that the DOE or predecessor agencies - especially the Manhattan Project - authorized fluoride experiments to be performed on children in the 1940's." When told that these reporters had several documents that directly tied the Manhattan Project's successor agency at the University of Rochester, the Atomic Energy Project, to the Newburgh experiment, the DOE spokesperson conceded her study was confined to "the available universe" of documents. Two days later spokesperson Jayne Brody faxed a statement for clarification: "My search only involved the documents that we collected as part of our human radiation experiments project - fluoride was not part of our research effort." "Most significantly," the statement continued, relevant documents may be in a classified collection at the DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory known as the Records Holding Task Group. "This collection consists entirely of classified documents removed from other files for the purpose of classified document accountability many years ago," and was "a rich source of documents for the human radiation experiments project," she said. The crucial question arising from this investigation is: Were adverse health findings from Newburgh and other bomb-program fluoride studies suppressed? All AEC funded studies had to be declassified before publication in civilian medical and dental journals. Where are the original classified versions? The transcript of one of the major secret scientific conferences of World War II - on "fluoride metabolism" - is missing from the files of the U.S. National Archives. Participants in the conference included key figures who promoted the safety of fluoride and water fluoridation to the public after the war - Harold Hodge of the Manhattan Project, David B. Ast of the Newburgh Project, and U.S. Public Health Service dentist H.Trendley Dean, popularly known as the "father of fluoridation." "If it is missing from the files, it is probably still classified," National Archives librarians said. A 1944 World War II Manhattan Project classified report on water fluoridation is missing from the files of the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project, the U.S. National Archives, and the Nuclear Repository at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The next four numerically consecutive documents are also missing, while the remainder of the "MP-1500 series" is present. "Either those documents are still classified, or they've been 'disappeared' by the government," says Clifford Honicker, Executive Director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project in Knoxville, Tennessee, which provided key evidence in the public exposure and prosecution of U.S. human radiation experiments. Seven pages have been cut out of a 1947 Rochester bomb-project notebook entitled "Du Pont litigation." "Most unusual," commented chief medical school archivist Chris Hoolihan. Similarly, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by these authors over a year ago with the DOE for hundreds of classified fluoride reports have failed to dislodge any. "We're behind," explained Amy Rothrock, chief FOIA officer at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Was information suppressed? These reporters made what appears to be the first discovery of the original classified version of a fluoride safety study by bomb program scientists. A censored version of this study was later published in the August 1948 Journal of the American Dental Association. Comparison of the secret with the published version indicates that the U.S. AEC did censor damaging information on fluoride, to the point of tragicomedy. This was a study of the dental and physical health of workers in a factory producing fluoride for the A-bomb program, conducted by a team of dentists from the Manhattan Project. The secret version reports that most of the men had no teeth left. The published version reports only that the men had fewer cavities. The secret version says the men had to wear rubber boots because the fluoride fumes disintegrated the nails in their shoes. The published version does not mention this. The secret version says the fluoride may have acted similarly on the men's teeth, contributing to their toothlessness. The published version omits this statement. The published version concludes that "the men were unusually healthy, judged from both a medical and dental point of view." Asked for comment on the early links of the Manhattan Project to water fluoridation, Dr Harold Slavkin, Director of the National Institute for Dental Research, the U.S. agency which today funds fluoride research, said, "I wasn't aware of any input from the Atomic Energy Commission," Nevertheless, he insisted, fluoride's efficacy and safety in the prevention of dental cavities over the last fifty years is well-proved. "The motivation of a scientist is often different from the outcome," he reflected. "I do not hold a prejudice about where the knowledge comes from." After comparing the secret and published versions of the censored study, toxicologist Phyllis Mullenix commented, "This makes me ashamed to be a scientist." Of other Cold War-era fluoride safety studies, she asks, "Were they all done like this?" Archival research by Clifford Honicker ABOUT THE AUTHORS Joel Griffiths is a medical writer who lives in New York City. Author of a book on radiation hazards, he has contributed numerous articles to medical and popular publications. Chris Bryson, who holds a masters degree in Journalism, is an independent reporter with ten years' professional experience. He has worked with BBC Radio and Public Television in New York, plus numerous publications, including the Christian Science Monitor and the Mansfield Guardian. Additional Notes Harold C. Hodge and the U.S. Army Dr. Hodge is deceased. However, in 1979 his chapter in a book titled "Continuing Evaluation of the Use of Fluorides" set the record straight. With regard to the "safe" dosage of fluoride for children, Hodge wrote: "The most important and widely disregarded fact about dental fluorosis is this: no safe established daily intake exists, i.e., the maximal amount in mg fluoride which consumed daily does NOT produce cosmetically damaging extensive white areas or brown stain in some individuals has not been fixed." In the same publication, Dr. Hodge also corrected his figures for crippling skeletal fluorosis. In his calculations made during the early 1950s it appears, although not spelled out, that Hodge had neglected to convert pounds to kilograms. As a result, most reviews which contain the "crippling daily dose of fluoride," including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1991 document, Review of Fluoride: Benefits and Risks, as well as the current Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and the new Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) - another document from the Institute of Medicine - use 20?80 mg/day figures. (Although these documents refer to Hodge, and the first two specifically refer to Hodge 1979, they completely ignore Hodge's 1979 correction of the older erroneous figures.) Sandra Schlicker, study director for the DRI, has acknowledged her understanding of Hodge's error, as well as the correction in 1979; yet, offers no explanation for using the older erroneous figures. In addition, this latest report dismisses the correction made by another NAS/NRC panel in 1993, falsely claiming the corrected figures for "Crippling" were meant to apply only to the earlier non-crippling stages of the disease. The bottom line is this: At currently reported intake levels, excess fluoride from multiple sources has surpassed the quantity known to cause serious adverse health effects within about forty years. (i.e., 5 mg/day will cause crippling deformities of the spine and major joints) Within about twenty years, with a daily intake of 5 mg, the symptoms to be expected include chronic joint pain as well as brittle bones. Knowing full well that five milligrams of fluoride daily would be expected to produce phase 3 crippling skeletal fluorosis in the average individual after about 40 years, the committee has determined that 10 milligrams of fluoride daily is "tolerable." The question, "Tolerable to whom?" remains unanswered. More about the Army Although facilities had been constructed to provide fluoride in the drinking water system at Ft. Detrick, key components corroded to the point that the system was shut down. Reinstating fluoridation became subject to regulations involving an environmental assessment. On 11 December 1996 Commander, Colonel Henry O. Tuell, III, wrote to U.S. Army Medical Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In this memo Colonel Tuell states: "...recent research and findings regarding efficacy of fluoridation and the adverse health effects, could be serious." In other words, drinking fluoridated water may be unsafe. As yet, the Army post at Fort Detrick, (Frederick, Maryland) remains unfluoridated.

posted 07-06-2003 11:37 PM            

Use of Sodium Fluoride for Population Behavior Control It is a matter of record that sodium

fluoride has been used for behavior control of populations. In an "Address in Reply to the

Governor's Speech to Parliament" , Mr. Harley Rivers Dickinson, Liberal Party Member of the

Victorian Parliament for South Barwon, Australia made a statement on the historical use of

fluorides for behavior control.

Mr. Dickinson reveals that, "At the end of the Second World War, the United States

Government sent Charles Elliot Perkins, a research worker in chemistry, biochemistry,

physiology and pathology, to take charge of the vast Farben chemical plants in Germany.

While there, he was told by German chemists of a scheme which had been worked out by them

during the war and adopted by the German General Staff. This scheme was to control the

population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water. In this scheme,

sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place. Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of

fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination by slowly poisoning and

narcotising a certain area of the brain, and will thus make him submissive to the will of those

who wish to govern him. Both the Germans

and the Russians added fluoride to the drinking water of prisoners of war to make them stupid

and docile."

It is interesting that Dr. George Estabrooks, an advisor to the United States Government on

hypnotism and psychological behavior control, later became chairman of the Department of

Psychology at Colgate University. Internationally, Colgate was and remains today the most

ardent producer and advocate for fluoridated toothpaste.

The use of chemicals by the government to modify behavior of select population groups is not

new. During the first two World Wars, bromides were administered to service men to dim the

libido in an attempt to inhibit forrays into local bordellos. Today, in Australia, the military

fluoridates the drinking water of the soldiers, ostensibly to protect the teeth. However, since

the mythical ability of fluorides "to prevent tooth decay" only exists for those under the age of

12, it is certain that the real purpose is less altruistic.

In volume one of Matrix III, we discussed the role of Alcoa Aluminum in the production of

fluoride, the role of Alcoa lawyer Oscar Ewing, who eventually gained control of what was to

become the United States Public Health Service, his promotion of fluoridation and the use of

advertising and false propaganda in an attempt to sell water fluoridation to an unsuspecting

public. Interestingly, it turns out that Alcoa transferred its sodium fluoride production

technology to Germany in 1939 under the Alted Agreement, and Dow Chemical Company

transmitted its experience and technology to Germany during the same period. So, we have the

U.S. transmitting technology to Germany before the war

that allows Germany to experiment on select elements of the European population, and then

after the war Nazi scientists and the results of experiments are brought back to the United

States under Operation Paperclip. Curious, isn't it?

A little research turned up the fact that I.G. Farben developed organophosphate nerve agents,

Zyklon B cyanide-based extermination gas used on the Jews during the war, and many other

interesting substances. I.G. Farben, financially supported by the United States, was the first to

develop and process heroin and cocaine. They also

developed fluorinated nerve gases Sarin and Soman. Farben had many interconnections with

companies in the United States and Britain. Consult the illustrative chart in this book.

In a letter abstracted from Fluoridation and Lawlessness, published by the Committee for

Mental Health and National Security (with obvious implications) from the aforementioned

Charles Perkins, U.S. appointed post-war head of I.G. Farben, to the Lee Foundation for

Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 2, 1954, we read the following:

"We are told by the fanatical ideologists who are advocating the fluoridation of the water

supplies in this country that their purpose is to reduce the incidence of tooth decay in children,

and it is the plausibility of this excuse, plus the gullibility of the public and the cupidity of

public officials that is responsible for the present spread of artificial water fluoridation in this

country. However - and I want to make this very definite and positive - the real reason behind

water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason, there are many

ways in which it could be done which are much easier, cheaper and far more effective. The real

puspose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination,

control and loss of liberty."

Furthermore, "When the Nazis decided to go into Poland, the German General Staff and the

Russian General Staff exchanged scientific and military ideas, plans and personnel. The

scheme of mass control through water medication was seized upon by the Russian Communists

because it fitted ideally into their plans to Communize the

world. I say this in all earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spent nearly 20 years

research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorides. Any person

who drinks artificially fluoridated water for a period of one year or more will never again be

the same person, mentally or physically."

When Major General Racey Jordan was in charge of the massive lend-lease airlift operations

from Great Falls, Montana to Russia, via Alaska, he queried the transshipment of considerable

amounts of sodium fluoride. He was told frankly that it was to put into the drinking water of

the prisoner of war camps to take away their will to resist.

It is also interesting that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who has a

background in academic chemistry, initiated a program involving astronomical expenditures of

UK revenue on a fluoridation campaign in Northern Ireland.

Last changed: May 17, 1999

Scientific Facts on the Biological Effects of Fluorides

©1996 Val Valerian, Leading Edge Research Group

1.Fluoride exposure disrupts the synthesis of collagen and leads to the breakdown of collagen

in bone, tendon, muscle, skin, cartilage, lungs, kidney and trachea.

A.K. Susheela and Mohan Jha, "Effects of Fluoride on Cortical and Cancellous Bone

Composition", IRCS Medical Sciences: Library Compendium, Vol 9, No.11, pp.1021-1022

(1981); Y.D. Sharma, "Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Collagen Cross-Link Precursors",

Toxocological Letters, Vol.10, pp97-100 (1982); A.K. Susheela and D. Mukerjee, "Fluoride

poisoning and the Effect of Collagen Biosynthesis of Osseous and Nonosseous Tissue",

Toxocologiocal European Research, Vol 3, No.2, pp. 99-104 (1981); Y.D. Sharma, "Variations

in the Metabolism and Maturation of Collagen after Fluoride Ingestion", Biochemica et

Bioiphysica Acta, Vol 715, pp.137-141 (1982);Marian Drozdz et al., "Studies on the Influence

of Fluoride Compounds upon Connective Tissue Metabolism in Growing Rats" and "Effect of

Sodium Fluoride With and Without Simultaneous Exposure to Hydrogen Fluoride on Collagen

Metabolism", Journal of

Toxological Medicine, Vol. 4, pp.151-157 (1984).

2. Fluoride stimulates granule formation and oxygen consumption in white blood cells, but

inhibits these processes when the white blood cell is challenged by a foreign agent in the

blood.

Robert A. Clark, "Neutrophil Iodintion Reaction Induced by Fluoride: Implications for

Degranulation and Metabolic Activation," Blood, Vol 57, pp.913-921 (1981).

3. Fluoride depletes the energy reserves and the ability of white blood cells to properly

destroy foreign agents by the process of phagocytosis. As little as 0.2 ppm fluoride stimulates

superoxide production in resting white blood cells, virtually abolishing phagocytosis. Even

micro-molar amounts of fluoride, below 1ppm, may seriously depress the ability of white

blood

cells to destroy pathogenic agents.

John Curnette, et al, "Fluoride-mediated Activation of the Respiratory Burst in Human

Neutrophils", Journal of Clinical Investigation, Vol 63, pp.637-647 (1979); W.L. Gabler and

P.A. Leong, ., "Fluoride Inhibition of Polymorphonumclear Leukocytes", Journal of Dental

Research, Vo. 48, No. 9, pp.1933-1939 (1979); W.L. Gabler, et al., "Effect of Fluoride on the

Kinetics of Superoxide Generation by Fluoride", Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 64, p.281

(1985); A.S. Kozlyuk, et al., "Immune Status of Children in Chemically Contaminated

Environments", Zdravookhranenie, Issue 3, pp.6-9 (1987);

4. Fluoride confuses the immune system and causes it to attack the body's own tissues, and

increases the tumor growth rate in cancer prone individuals.

Alfred Taylor and Nell C. Taylor, "Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Tumor Growth", Proceedings

of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Vol 119,p.252(1965)

Shiela Gibson, "Effects of Fluoride on Immune System Function", Complementary Medical

Research, Vol 6, pp.111-113 (1992); Peter Wilkinson, "Inhibition of the Immune Syetem With

Low Levels of Fluorides", Testimony before the Scottish High Court in Edinburgh in the Case

of McColl vs. Strathclyde Regional Council, pp. 17723-18150, 19328-19492, and Exhibit 636,

(1982); D.W.Allman and M.Benac, "Effect of Inorganic Fluoride Salts on Urine and Cyclic

AMP Concentration in Vivo", Journal of Dental Research, Vol 55 (Supplement B), p.523

(1976);

S. Jaouni and D.W. Allman, "Effect of Sodium Fluoride and Aluminum on Adenylate Cyclase

and

Phosphodiesterase Activity", Journal of Dental Research, Vol.64, p.201 (1985)

5. Fluoride inhibits antibody formation in the blood.

S.K. Jain and A.K. Susheela, "Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Antibody Formation in Rabbits",

Environmental Research, Vol.44, pp.117-125 (1987).

6. Fluoride depresses Thyroid activity.

Viktor Gorlitzer Von Mundy, "Influence of Fluorine and Iodine on the Metabolism,

Particularly on the Thyroid Gland," Muenchener Medicische Wochenschrift, Vol 105, pp182-

186 (1963); A. Benagiano, "The Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Thyroid Enzymes and Basal

Metabolism in the Rat", Annali Di Stomatologia, Vol 14, pp.601-619n (1965);Donald Hillman,

et al.,

"Hypothyroidism and Anemia Related to Fluoride in Dairy Cattle," Journal of Dairy Science,

Vol 62, No.3, pp.416-423 (1979); V. Stole and J. Podoba, "Effect of Fluoride on the

Biogenesis

of Thrroid Hormones", Nature, Vol 188, No.4753, pp.855-856 (1960); Pierre Galleti and

Gustave Joyet, "Effect of Fluorine on Thyroid Iodine Metabolism and Hyperthyroidism",

Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol. 18, pp.1102-1110 (1958).

7. Fluorides have a disruptive effect on various tissues in the body.

T.Takamorim "The Heart Changes in Growing Albino Rats Fed on Varied Contents oif

Fluorine,"

The Toxicology of Fluorine, Symposium, Bern, Switzerland, Oct 1962, pp.125-129; Vilber

A.O.

Bello and Hillel J. Gitelman, "High Fluoride Exposure in Hemodialysis Patients", American

Journal of Kidney Diseases, Vol. 15, pp.320-324 (1990); Y.Yoshisa, "Experimental Studies on

Chronic Fluorine Poisoning", Japaneses Journal of Industrial Health, Vol 1, pp.683-690

(1959).

8. Flouride promotes development of bone cancer.

J.K. Mauer, et al., "Two-year cacinogenicity study of sodium fluoride in rats", Journal of the

National Cancer Institute, Vol 82, pp1118-1126 (1990); Proctor and Gamble "Carcinogencity

studies with Sodium Fluoride in rats" National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Presentation, July 27, 1985; S.E. Hrudley et al., "Drinking Water Fluoridation and

Osteocarcoma" Canadian Journal of Public Health, Vol 81, pp.415-416 (1990); P.D. Cohn, " A

Brief Report on the Association of Drinking Water Fluoridation and Incidence of

Osteosarcoma in Young Males", New Jersey Department of Health, Trenton, New Jersey, Nov

1992; M.C. Mahoney et al.,"Bone Cancer Incidence Rates in New York", American Journal of

Public Health, Vol 81, pp.81, 475 (1991); Irwin Herskowitz and Isabel Norton, "Increased

Incidence of Melanotic Tumors Following Treatment with Sodium Fluoride", Genetics Vol 48,

pp.307-310 (1963); J.A. Disney, et al., " A Case Study in Testing the Conventional Wisdom;

School-Based Fluoride Mouthrinse Programs in the USA" Community Dentistry and Oral

Epidemiology, Vol 18, pp.46-56 (1990); D.J. Newell, "Fluoridation of Water Supplies and

Cancer - an association?", Applied Statistics, Vol 26, No.2, pp.125-135 (1977)

9. Fluorides cause premature aging of the human body.

Nicholas Leone, et al., "Medical Aspects of Excessive Fluoride in a Water Supply", Public

Health Reports, Vol 69, pp.925-936 (1954); J. David Erikson, "Mortality of Selected Cities

with Fluoridated and Non-Fluoridated Water Supplies", New England Journal of Medicine,

Vol.

298, pp.1112-1116 (1978); "The Village Where People are Old Before their Time", Stern

Magazine, Vol 30, pp.107-108,111-112 (1978);

10. Fluoride ingestion from mouthrinses and dentifrices in children is extremely hazardous to

biological development, life span and general health.

Yngve Ericsson and Britta Forsman, "Fluoride retained from mouthrinses and dentifrices in

preschool children", Caries Research, Vol.3, pp.290-299 (1969); W.L. Augenstein, et al.,

"Fluoride ingestion in children: a review of 87 cases", Pediatrics, Vol 88, pp.907-912, (1991);

Charles Wax, "Field Investigation report", State of Maryland Department of Health and Mental

Hygiene, March 19, 1980, 67pp; George Waldbott, "Mass Intoxication from Over-Fluoridation

in Drinking Water", Clinical Toxicology, Vol 18, No.5, pp.531-541 (1981)

11. Fluorides diminish the intelligence capability of the human brain.

X.S.Li et al, Fluoride, Vol 26, No.4, pp.189-192, 1995, "Effect of Fluoride Exposure on

Intelligence In Children". Presented to the 20th Conference of the International Society for

Fluoride Research, Beijing, China, September 5-9, 1994.

12. Fluoride studies in rats can be indicative of a potential for motor disruption, intelligence

deficits and learningdisabilities in humans. Humans are exposed to plasma levels of fluoride as

high as those in rat studies. Fluoride involves interruption of normal brain development.

Fluoride affects the hipppcampus in the brain, which integrates inputs from the environment,

memory, and motivational stimuli, to produce behavioral decisions and modify memory.

Experience with other developmental neurotoxicants prompts expectations that changes in

behavioral functions will be comparable across species, especially humans and rats.

Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol 17, No,2, p.176, "Neurotoxicity of Sodium Fluoride in

Rats", Muellenix, Denbesten, Schunior, Kernan, 1995.

13. Fluorides accumulate in the brain over time to reach neurologically harmful levels.

Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol 17, No,2, p.176, "Neurotoxicity of Sodium Fluoride in

Rats", Muellenix, Denbesten, Schunior, Kernan, 1995.

14. "Fluorides are general protoplasma poisons, with the capacity to modify the metabolism of

cells by inhibting certain enzymes. Sources of fluoride intoxication include drinking water

containing 1ppm or more of fluorine."

Journal of the American Medical Association, September 18, 1943.

15. "Drinking water containing as little as 1.2 ppm fluoride will cause developmental

disturbances. We cannot run the risk of producing such serious systemic disturbances. The

potentialities for harm outweigh those for good."

Journal of the American Dental Association, Editorial, October 1, 1944.

Other Facts

The contents of a family-size tube of fluoridated toothpaste is enough to kill a 25-pound child.

In 1991, the Akron (Ohio) Regional Poison Center reported that "death has been reported

following ingestion of 16mg/kg of fluoride. Only 1/10 of an ounce of fluoride could kill a 100

pound adult. According to the Center, "fluoride toothpaste contains up to 1mg/gram of

fluoride." Even Proctor and Gamble, the makers of Crest, acknowledge that a family-sized tube

"theoretically contains enough fluoride to kill a small child."

Fluorides have been used to modify behavior and mood of human beings.

It is a little known fact that fluoride compounds were added to the drinking water of prisoners

to keep them docile and inhibit questioning of authority, both in Nazi prison camps in World

War II and in the Soviet gulags in Siberia.

Fluorides are medically categorized as protoplasmic poisons, which is why they are used to kill

rodents.

1943 The Journal of the American Medical Association on September 18, 1943, states,

"fluorides are general protoplasmic poisons, changing the permeability of the cell membrane

by

inhibiting certain enzymes. The exact mechanismof such actions are obscure.".

Fluoride consumption by human beings increases the general cancer death rate.

1975 Dr. John Yiamouyiannis publishes a preliminary survey which shows that people in

fluoridated areas have a higher cancer death rate than those in non-fluoridated areas. The

National Cancer Institute attempts to refute the studies. Later in 1975, Yiamouyiannis joins

with Dr. Dean Burk, chief chemist of the National Cancer Institute (1939-1974) in performing

other studies which are then included in the Congressional Record by Congressman Delaney,

who

was the original author of the Delaney Amendment, which prohibited the addition of

cancer-causing substances to food used for human consumption.

Both reports confirmed the existence of a link between fluoridation and cancer. (Note:

Obviously Dr. Burk felt free to agree with scientific truth only after his tenure at NCI ended,

since his job depended on towing the party line).

Fluorides have little or no effect on decay prevention in humans:

In 1990 Dr. John Colquhoun is forced into early requirement in New Zealand after he conducts

a study on 60,000 school children and finds no difference in tooth decay between fluoridated

and unfluoridated areas. He additionally finds that a substantial number of children in

fluoridated areas suffered from dental fluorosis. He makes the study public. There is no

scientific data that shows that fluoride mouth rinses and tablets are safe for human use.

1989 A study by Hildebolt, et al. on 6,000 school children contradicts any alleged benefit

from the use of sodium fluorides.

In 1990 a study by Dr.John Yiamouyiannis on 39,000 school children contradicts any alleged

benefits from the use of sodium fluorides.

In 1992 Michael Perrone, a legislative assistant in New Jersey, contacts the FDA requesting

all information regarding the safety and effectiveness of fluoride tablets and drops. After 6

months of stalling, the FDA admitted they had no data to show that fluoride tablets or drops

were either safe or effective. They informed Perrone that they will "probably have to pull the

tablets and drops off the market."

The fact that fluoride toothpastes and school-based mouth rinses are packaged in aluminum

accentuates the effect on the body.

In 1976, Dr. D.W.Allman and co-workers from Indiana University School of Medicine feed

animals 1 part-per-million (ppm) fluoride and found that in the presence of aluminum in a

concentration as small as 20 parts per billion, (like in a toothpaste tube, using aluminum pans

to boil water, or drinking beverages in aluminum cans, fluoride is able to cause an even larger

increase in cyclic AMP levels.

Cyclic AMP inhibits the migration rate of white blood cells, as well as the ability of the white

blood cell to destroy pathogenic organisms. Ref: Journal of Dental Research, Vol 55, Sup B,

p523, 1976, "Effect of Inorganic Fluoride Salts on Urine and Tissue Cyclic AMP

Concentration in Vivo". (Note: It is no small accident that toothpaste tubes containing fluoride

are often made of aluminum)

"Fluoridation is the greatest case of scientific fraud of this century"

Robert Carlton, Ph.D.,former U.S. EPA scientist on "Marketplace" Canadian Broadcast

Company Nov 24, 1992

"Regarding fluorodation, the EPA should act immediately to protect the public, not just on the

cancer data, but on the evidence of bone fractures, arthritis, mutagenicity and other effects"

William Marcus, Ph.D., senior EPA toxicologist, Covert Action, Fall 1992, p.66

posted 08-02-2003 12:41 PM            

Environmental Cleanup Deals Announced

Thursday July 31, 2003 7:19 PM

By CURT ANDERSON

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Baking giant Earthgrains agreed to pay a $5.25 million penalty and stop its refrigerators from leaking a chemical that harms the Earth's ozone layer, according to a settlement announced Thursday by the Justice Department.

Department officials also announced an agreement with DuPont Co. that will settle a Clean Air Act violation, and the recovery of $10 million to offset the costs of cleaning up a Superfund site in Los Angeles.

Thomas L. Sansonetti, the assistant attorney general for environmental issues, said the three settlements are a signal to industry that it pays to comply with anti-pollution laws instead of fighting the government in court.

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency also have reached six Clean Air Act settlements over the past three months that will reduce air pollution by a combined 465,000 tons each year, Sansonetti said.

These include a $1.2 billion settlement with Virginia Electric Power Co., a $600 million agreement with Wisconsin Electric Power Co. and a $330 million settlement with Alcoa for its aluminum plant in Rockdale, Texas.

The largest of the new Clean Air Act agreements involves Earthgrains, a major bakery company that is now part of the Sara Lee Bakery Group.

Under the deal, Earthgrains has agreed to pay a $5.25 million civil penalty and an additional $5 million to phase out use of chlorofluorocarbons, which are refrigerants that damage the protective ozone layer around Earth.

The settlement affects 57 of the company's 67 facilities in 22 states, with more than 300 large appliances involved in the investigation.

The second Clean Air Act settlement announced Thursday involves a May 1997 chemical release from the DuPont Co. fluoroproducts plant in Louisville, Ky.

An accident that happened while workers were cleaning a valve at the plant triggered the release of 11,500 pounds of hydrogen fluoride into the air. Four nearby chemical plants had to be evacuated, while residents and schoolchildren were told to stay indoors for several hours.

posted 08-03-2003 11:14 AM            

Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domestic animals than any other air pollutant." - US Department of Agriculture. Air Pollutants Affecting the Performance of Domestic Animals. Agricultural Handbook No. 380. Revised. 1972. p. 109.

General

Fluorides in the Air Environment April 1973
Fluoride: Commie Plot or Capitalist Ploy? Covert Action Quarterly Fall 1992
Why Fluoride is an Environmental Issue Gar Smith, Earth Island Journal 1998
Fluoride, Teeth & the Atomic Bomb Joel Griffiths & Chris Bryson, Waste Not 414, 1997
"Air is Fluoridated" Edward Groth III, Peninsula Observer, Jan-Feb 1969
Fluoride Pollution Edward Groth III, Environment, April/May 1975
Environmental Fluoride National Research Council of Canada, 1977
Fluoride Versus Sulfur Oxides in Air Pollution Dr. George Waldbott, Fluoride, October 1974
The Ecological Aspect of Fluoride John Marier, Fluoride, April 1972
Toxicity of Hydrogen Fluoride Versus Other Acid Gases A.S. Rozhkov & T.A. Mikhailova, Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 1993
Community Experiences with Fluoride Pollution

St. Regis Syndrome Science News July 19, 1980
Air of Death Canadian Broadcasting Company 1967
The Town that Refused to Die Good Housekeeping January 1969
Ecological Russian Roulette Los Angeles Times November 22, 1994
Shattered Dreams in the Town that Cannot Smile Scotland on Sunday March 22, 1998
Tajik Aluminum - Environmental Disaster Area in Central Asia Compilation of articles, 1991-2001
Chinese Steel Plant Belches Poison China Daily August 8, 1998
Russian aluminium giant evades paying for environmental damage BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union June 30, 2001
Fluoride Pollution in Polk County Florida excerpt from Terracide: America's Destruction of Her Living Environment 1970
Corporate Country William Rodgers, Jr., Rodale Press, 1973
Air Pollution from Stauffer Chemical Phosphate Plant Ombudsman Report, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, December 29, 2000
Fluoride-tainted Pasture Grass May Harm Cattle Tampa Tribune February 16, 1984
2 dairy farmers sue chemical plant over fluoride in Montco, PA The Philadelphia Inquirer September 5, 2001
Mexicans fear DuPont's Hydrofluoric Acid plant could cause 'Next Bhopal' Los Angeles Times November 20, 1991
Fluoride pollution from aluminum plant in Tibet Compilation of material, 2001
Lung Cancer in a Steel City Fluoride July 1990
2,000 Forced to Flee Hydrofluoric Acid Cloud at Texas Refinery; 100 Injured Los Angeles Times October 31, 1987
Fluoride Implicated in Donora & Meuse Air Pollution Disasters

The Donora Death Fog: A Secret History of America's Worst Air Pollution Disaster Chris Bryson, Earth Island Journal, 1998
The Fog Disaster in the Meuse Valley, 1930: A Fluorine Intoxication Kaj Roholm, Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, Vol. 19, No. 3, 1937
Fluoride Versus Sulfur Oxides in Air Pollution Dr. George Waldbott, Fluoride, October 1974
Human health effects (Neighborhood & Occupational)

Respiratory problems from airborne fluorides - Compilation of studies
Radiological Modifications of the Skeletal System Among Aluminum Smelter Workers - Fluoride October 1989
Industrial Fluoride Pollution in the Metallurgical Industry in China - Fluoride July 1987
Industrial Fluorosis - Fluoride October 1981
Skeletal Changes in Industrial and Endemic Fluorosis - Fluoride January 1978
Fluoride-Induced Changes in 60 Retired Aluminum Workers - Fluoride July 1977
"Neighborhood" Fluorosis - Fluoride 1969
Neighborhood Fluorosis in the USA - Fluoride January 1969
Fluorine Hazards with Special Reference to Some Social Consequences of Industrial Processes - The Lancet 1946
The Fog Disaster in the Meuse Valley, 1930: A Fluorine Intoxication - Kaj Roholm, Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, 1937
Chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei in lymphocytes of workers at a phosphate fertilizer factory Mutation Research, Volume 393, 1997
Exposure to hydrogen fluoride: an experimental study in humans Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1997
Fluoride's Effects on Animals & Vegetation

The Effect of Fluorine-Containing Emissions on Conifers A.S. Rozhkov & T.A. Mikhailova, Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 1993
Fluorides and Sulfur Dioxides as Causes of Plant Damage Fluoride Vol. 3 No. 3 1970
Air quality criteria for the protection of plants from visible injury caused by gaseous fluoride Alan Davison, University of Newcastle, & Leonard Weinstein, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University.
Visible symptoms of fluoride injury. Alan Davison, University of Newcastle, & Leonard Weinstein, Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University.
Environmental Fluoride (Section 2) National Research Council of Canada 1977
Clinical Aspects of Fluorosis in Horses Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association January 15, 1971
New York State and U.S. Federal fluoride pollution standards do not protect cattle health Cornell Veterinarian April 1980
Fluoride Standards and Predicting Wildlife Effects Fluoride, January 1984
The Effect of Industrial Fluoride on Black-Tailed Deer Fluoride July 1979
Cytogenetic Effects of Gaseous Fluorides on Grain Crops Fluoride Vol 26 No.1 23-32 1993
The Influence of Fluorine Compounds on the Biological Life near an Aluminum Plant Fluoride January 1969
Fluoride's effects on Fish

Canadian Water Quality Guidelines for the protection of Aquatic Life: Inorganic fluorides Environment Canada, August 2001
Testimony of Dr. Paul Engelking, Professor of Chemistry, University of Oregon. (pdf file) April 11, 2001
Impact of Artificial Fluoridation on Salmon In the Northwest US and British Columbia by Richard G Foulkes, MD and Anne C. Anderson, RPN. Earth Island Journal.
Stoned Salmon, Pissed Environmentalists Willamette Weekly March 28, 2001
Inorganic Fluorides: Priority Substances List Assessment Report Environment Canada 1993
Fluoridated Greenhouse Gases

Sulphur Hexafluoride National Grid Group October 15, 2001
Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States Department of Energy November 9, 2001
Potent New Greenhouse Gas Discovered Environmental News Service July 31, 2000
New Greenhouse Gas Identified, Potent and Rare (but Expanding) New York Times July 28, 2000
Monitoring Sulphur Hexafluoride in the Power Utility Industry Innova Air Tech Instruments 1997

Oil Refineries

"In the Shadow of Danger: The Chemical Plant Peril" - Philadelphia Inquirer April 20, 2003
"Local refinery accident sends 13 to hospital" - KSTP News (St Paul, Minnesota) March 3, 2003
"Refinery agrees to phase out use of lung-searing chemical" - The Associated Press February 10, 2003
"Local, international activists unite against Shell" - The Natal Witness (South Africa) November 12, 2002
"Artesia man suffers burns at Navajo Refining" - October 15, 2002
"Under The Volcano" - Houston Press February 14, 2002
"Crown chemical leak sends six to area hospitals" - The Pasadena Citizen December 6, 2001
"Refinery plans for worst case: Marathon Ashland says accident could spread 25 miles" - The Beacon Journal (Ohio) February 12, 2001
"Fluoride Release from Refinery Leads to Evacuation of Texas Neighborhood" - IFIN Bulletin #319 July 10, 2001
"Hidden Dangers at Hudson Oil" - Hazardous Materials Management October/November 1999
"Local Industries Release Figures on Damage 'Worst-Case' Chemical Leaks Could Cause" - St Louis Post-Dispatch June 9, 1999
"Refinery Paints Disaster Scenes for Residents" - The Times-Picaune November 14, 1998
"Refinery Reopening Plan Raises Concerns" - Los Angeles Times October 18, 1998
"Torrance Residents Wary of Mobil Plan to Lessen Risk of Toxic Cloud" - Los Angeles Times February 7, 1995
"A 'Toxic Tour of Texas'" - The Houston Chronicle January 19, 1992
"Congressman Proposes EPA Study on Cutting Hydrofluoric Acid Use" - Los Angeles Times March 30, 1990
"Deadly risks of lead-free petrol" - New Statesman & Society October 1988
"Change of Acid at Refinery Would Reduce Risk, Report Says" - Los Angeles Times February 10, 1988
"Refinery Blast Sparks Warning on Possibility of Poisonous Gas" - Release Los Angeles Times February 2, 1988
"Acid Leak in Texas Leaves a Residue of Questions" - The New York Times December 20, 1987
"Alert Sounded on Potentially Lethal Refinery Chemical" - Los Angeles Times December 5, 1987
"2,000 Forced to Flee Acid Cloud at Texas Refinery; 100 Injured" - Los Angeles Times October 31, 1987
Coal Industry

Canadian polluters increased chemical releases by 20% from 1995 to 2001 Canada News Wire June 19, 2003
In Virginia, slowdown in cutting toxic waste from factories - The Associated Press May 6, 2002
EPA questions state permit for Peabody Energy - The Associated Press March 1, 2002
"Ohio Leads in Pollution by Utilities" - The Cleveland Plain Dealer May 12, 2000
"Power plants proving worst violators of pollutants" - The Associated Press June 7, 1999
Niagara Mohawk plants among New York's top polluters - The Associated Press June 5, 1999
BGE may be Maryland's largest polluter - The Baltimore Sun June 5, 1999
"Utilities prepare for bad environmental news" - The Associated Press June 3, 1999
"Fluoride Poisoning Strikes Over 45 Million Chinese" - Associated Press Worldstream September 22, 1994
Chemical Industry

"DuPont agrees to $1.1 mln settlement over HF leak" - Reuters February 28, 2003
"Blue Danube's Murky Future: A year after war, famed river facing toxic time bomb" - San Francisco Chronicle August 12, 2002
"Building America's Anti-Terror Machine" - Fortune Magazine July 22, 2002
"EPA helps city protect water from terrorists" - El Paso Times July 11, 2002
"Bridges stay open, but on highest alert" - El Paso Times October 8, 2001
"Quimica Fluor Speaks About Safety Issues and April Matamoros Acid Spill" - Frontera NorteSur June 2001
"Citizens Protest Re-Opening of Acid Plant" - Frontera NorteSur J uly 2000
"Norfluor Waste Shouldn't Pave The City" - Frontera NorteSur April 2000
"Norfluor S.V. Under Investigation" - Frontera NorteSur December 1999/January 2000
"Poison cloud fears grow as Allies bomb chemical sites" - The Observer May 9, 1999
"Hazardous trades bring pollution and health fears down Mexico way" - Financial Times June 6, 1997
"Mexico's Futuristic Nightmare" - The Toronto Star March 13, 1993
"Profits of Doom on the Border of Blight" - The Guardian August 21, 1992
"Border Town Mystery: Why are so many Brownsville babies being born brainless?" - New York Newsday July 12, 1992
"Mexicans fear DuPont's Hydrofluoric Acid plant could cause 'Next Bhopal'" - Los Angeles Times November 20, 1991
"Mexicans air concerns to Du Pont" - Wilmington News Journal June 7, 1991
"Mexico Plant's Acid Leak was Worse than AQMD Model" - Los Angeles Times March 4, 1990

posted 08-03-2003 11:27 AM            

Fluoride & the Pineal Gland: Study Published in Caries Research

International Fluoride Information Network
March 27, 2001

IFIN Bulletin #269: Fluoride and the pineal gland. Luke published.

Dear All,

The wheels of science grind very slowly. Finally, the first half of the work that was the subject of Jennifer Luke's Ph.D. thesis; presentation in Bellingham, Washington (ISFR conference) in 1998 and a videotaped interview I had with her (see www.fluoridealert.org/videos.htm), has been published in Caries Research (see abstract below).

In my view this work is of enormous importance and could be (or should be) the scientific straw that breaks the camel's back of fluoridation. Many of our subscribers are familiar with the details but let me repeat them here.

When Luke found out that the pineal gland - a little gland in the center of the brain, responsible for a very large range of regulating activities (it produces serotonin and melatonin) -was also a calcifying tissue, like the teeth and the bones, she hypothesized it would concentrate fluoride to very high levels. The gland is not protected by the blood brain barrier and has a very high perfusion rate of blood, second only to the kidney.

Luke had 11 cadavers analyzed in the UK. As she predicted she found astronomically high levels of fluoride in the calcium hydroxy apatite crystals produced by the gland. The average was 9000 ppm and went as high as 21,000 in one case. These levels are at, or higher, than fluoride levels in the bones of people suffering from skeletal fluorosis. It is these findings which have just been published.

It is the ramifications of these findings which have yet to be published. In the second half of her work she treated animals (Mongolian gerbils) with fluoride at a crack pineal gland research unit at the University of Surrey, UK (so there is no question about the quality of this work). She found that melatonin production (as measured by the concentration of a melatonin metabolite in the urine) was lower in the animals treated with high fluoride levels compared with those treated with low levels.

Luke hypothesizes that one of the four enzymes needed to convert the amino acid tryptophan (from the diet) into melatonin is being inhibited by fluoride. It could be one of the two enzymes which convert tryptophan to serotonin or one of the two which convert serotonin to melatonin.

Significance? Huge. Melatonin is reponsible for regulating all kinds of activities and there is a vast amount of work investigating its possible roles in aging, cancer and many other life processes. The one activity that Luke is particularly interested in is the onset of puberty. The highest levels of melatonin ( produced only at night) is generated in young children. It is thought that it is the fall of these melatonin levels which acts like a biological clock and triggers the onset of puberty. In her gerbil study she found that the high fluoride treated animals were reaching puberty earlier than the low fluoride ones.

We know from recent studies - and considerable press coverage - that young girls are reaching puberty earlier and earlier in the US. Luke is not saying that fluoride (or fluoridation) is the cause but her work waves a very worrying red flag. Fluoride's role in earlier puberty needs more thorough investigation. Of an interesting historical note, in the Newburgh versus Kingston fluoridation trial (1945-1955), it was found that the girls in fluoridated Newburgh were reaching menstruation, on average, five months earlier than the girls in unfluoridated Kingston, but the result was not thought to be significant at the time (Schlessinger et al, 1956).

When one considers the seriousness of a possible interference by fluoride on a growing child's pineal gland (and for that matter, elderly pineal glands) it underlines the recklessness of fluoridation. The precautionary principle would say, as would basic common sense, that you don't take these kind of risks with our children for a benefit which, at best, amounts to 0.6 tooth surfaces out of 128 tooth surfaces in a child's mouth (Brunelle and Carlos, 1990, Table 6).

posted 08-03-2003 11:44 AM            

What's wrong with fluoridation?
... Follow the Money
by Darlene Sherrell

posted 08-03-2003 05:11 PM            

Whelan's mission is to prove to the world that industrial chemicals are safe, particularly industrial chemicals in food.

ACSH does "independent" studies of topics like artificial sweeteners, then seeks funding from groups like the Calorie Control Council to disseminate the results. Monsanto and its subsidiaries, G.D. Searle and the Nutrasweet Co., gave ACSH $105,000 in 1992 making Monsanto "our largest funder," according to an ACSH memo.1 The close ties between ACSH and the petrochemical industry are revealed in a comment by Ms. Whelan after she lost some funding from Shell Oil: "When one of the largest international petrochemical companies will not support ACSH, the great defender of petrochemical companies, one wonders who will." http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride/whelan.htm

American Council On Science And Health
the fluoridation connection
Stephen Barrett
Michael Easley
Ronald Gots Victor Herbert
Michael Kamrin
Ian Munro
Members of the Board of Scientific and Policy Advisors

Sources of Tax Exempt $$$
The major industries with fluoride pollution problems include: coal-burning power stations, petro-chemical refineries, aluminium, zinc, copper, beryllium and magnesium producing factories, steel mills, fertilizer works, plastics manufacturers, glass factories, cement works, pottery and tile makers, brick works, chemical factories and nuclear processing plants. At risk: aircraft workers, alloy steel makers, aluminium makers, bleachers, brick cleaners, cement workers, fertilizer makers, laundry workers, petrol refinery workers, phosphate rock workers, plastic makers, rocket fuel handlers, silicon chip makers, stainless steel cleaners, uranium refiners, etc.

See Excerpts from The Secret War and The Fluoride Conspiracy, By Dr. Geoffrey E. Smith

The following groups have contributed to ACSH in the past according to ACSH's 1991 annual report. ACSH stopped disclosing corporate donors in the early 1990s.

posted 08-05-2003 11:14 AM            

Pineal gland, electromagnetic energy, spiritual sight…

Melanin is in every living thing in the entire universe. Your brain even floats around in a sack of melanated fluid. If it did not you would be tone deaf. You would also not have good reflexes and you would not heal properly or think clearly.
Melanin’s primary function is to allow living things to receive God’s Divine Life Force. It has it’s own intelligence. Without the ability to absorb Solar energy, Life force energy, Sonar [sound] vibrational energy, Electromagnetic energy your pineal gland would calcify. If your pineal gland or third eye calcifies you would not be abl