THE GREATEST "SCIENTIFIC" FLUORIDE FRAUD YET?
from Health Action Network Society, Canada
Vol 8, No. 1 - Jan. / Feb. 2001
On Thursday 12 October, six days after almost every major world newspaper announced the results of a scientific review reporting fluoridation of public water supplies to be a safe public health measure (British Medical Journal 2000;3?1:855-859, 7 October; www.bmj.com), shocking evidence was presented during an interview aired on Vancouver radio station CKST AM 1040. The review undertaken by the UK National Health Service's Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York is considered to be the final word on fluoridation , but it might well turn out be the greatest scientific fraud ever undertaken by a centre in charge of evaluating scientific information in the interests of public health.
In an interview with Andreas Schuld, head of a global organisation of parents of children poisoned by excess fluoride intake, evidence was presented showing that the York Review falsified vital information in its Report and deliberately misinformed the public on fluorides adverse health effects. The interview was conducted by Croft Woodruff, host of one of Canada's longest running health radio talk shows, past resident of the Canadian Health Food Association and founding member of the 25,000 member Canadian Health Action Network Society (HANS).
Schuld arrived for the interview with the York Report and numerous studies which had supposedly been reviewed in depth by the esteemed centre. He briefly recounted how the York Centre had changed the wording in the study protocol to avoid inclusion of specific information on fluoride and thyroid effects as well as data concerning the high amounts of fluoride in tea - an issue of obvious concern for the people in the UK.
Schuld's group had supplied the York team with evidence showing that symptoms described in the literature on fluoride's adverse health effects were identical to those observed in thyroid dysfunction, and that the condition known as "dental fluorosis" --now proclaimed by the York Review to be merely an issue of "aesthetic concern"-was actually to be seen as a direct result of fluoride-induced iodine deficiency during the time of enamel formation. The field of dentistry claims that the biochemical factors leading to the enamel defects observed in dental fluorosis are still unknown.
Schuld then cited specific examples of how the York Review had falsified results.
First on the agenda was the issue of thyroid cancer. Schuld read an excerpt from the York Report which claims that no association was found between thyroid cancer and fluoridated water supplies in a study conducted in Britain. Schuld then asked Woodruff to read from the actual data of the study. It showed an increase of 18 per cent in observed thyroid cancers in the fluoridated areas when compared to non-fluoridated areas. "No association?" Schuld asked, and then proceeded to read from newspaper articles from China, where entire villages are being relocated due to fluoride contamination and where fluoride is being openly acknowledged as the cause of thyroid cancer, Kaschin-Beck disease and iodine deficiency.
Next, Schuld presented a paper which had investigated whether fluoridation had a protective effect on slipped epiphysis, one of the most common hip disorders observed in older children and adolescents. Schuld said that this paper was especially close to his heart, as the condition has been strongly linked to hypothyroidism since the 1920s. Schuld added that this was acknowledged by the study authors themselves who had provided more than 16 references in the paper's first paragraph. The York team, which had been informed of fluorides effects on thyroid hormones, should have woken up here Schuld said.
Schuld then read excerpts from the York Report which had found "the direction of association to be positive (a protective effect) in girls and negative (increased risk) in boys", but that neither of these was statistically significant. Schuld again asked Woodruff to look at the actual data in the paper. Woodruff saw an 18 per cent increase of the disease in males in fluoridated areas. Would you consider an 18 per cent increase here significant?" Schuld asked Woodruff, who at this time joined Schuld in declaring the Review a total scientific fraud and called it an example of severe and gross scientific misconduct.
Schuld then read further excerpts from the paper in question, citing how the authors of the study had found that more cases had come from rural areas and that "in general, the rural areas had higher fluoride levels than suburban or urban regions". "In other words, the higher the fluoride levels, the more slipped epiphysis," said Schuld. "Another obvious sign showing the anti-thyroid activity of fluoride."
Schuld ridiculed the York claim that fluoridation showed protective effects in girls. "It is known that the disease almost never occurs in girls once menses has begun," exclaimed Schuld.
Schuld emphasised the issue of delayed eruption of teeth, explaining how it has been established since the 1930s that thyroid hormones control tooth eruption. He then read from the York Report: "It has been suggested that fluoridation may delay the eruption of teeth, and thus caries incidence could be delayed as teeth would be exposed to decay for a shorter period of time. Only one study compared the number of erupted teeth per child. The difference was very small and in opposite directions in the two age-groups examined."
"This is total fraud," Schuld said. "I have 50 papers right here, showing the delayed eruption of teeth in fluoridated areas, including the Newburgh-Kingston data and the papers by Kunzel which were included in the York Review and which they supposedly reviewed. The very same data which they use to prove fluoride's benefits shows this delayed eruption. There are even papers included here which explain how fluorosis gets more severe the later a tooth erupts! Delayed eruption is the single most important factor to consider in evaluating data on fluoridation," explained Schuld. "This delay will produce a delay in the onset of caries which is then interpreted as a benefit. There is no benefit. Caries onset is just delayed. Delayed eruption occurs because you have made the child hypothyroid."
Schuld then reported on studies done in the 1930s by Floyd DeEds, which reported clear results that dental fluorosis is a sign of thyroid dysfunction. According to Schuld, any anti-thyroid administered during the time of enamel formation will produce the effects seen in dental fluorosis, again citing DeEds and his work which showed how cadmium also causes mottled teeth.
Woodruff read from two separate studies by German dental researcher Kunzel (who is represented with four papers in the York Report), which showed how caries occurrence had dropped sharply after the cessation of water fluoridation. The studies were done in Cuba as well as in East Germany, where children enjoyed the greatest caries reduction in 40 years after the practice of fluoridation was halted. "Data from these cities are also in the York Report," said Schuld, "but this time misinterpreted to show a fluoridation benefit! This is an outrageous fraud. Fluorides actually cause cavities. There are countless papers-some of them, again, also found in the York Report-which clearly state that the dental defects seen in fluorosis predispose to caries. Is this also a cosmetic concern only?"
Schuld explained how hyperthyroidism, caused after iodine was added to public water supplies in the early 1920s, led to the use of fluorides as anti-thyroid medication. He also explained the biochemical activity of fluoride as a mimic of TSH (thyroid-stimulating-hormone) on G-protein activation-molecular on/off switches by which all thyroid hormone activity is regulated.
"Fluorides are the worst endocrine disruptor imaginable," he said. "What was once known as the fluoride-iodine antagonism can now be explained in detail by thousands of papers showing the fluoride power on G-protein activation. While the experts claim that the amounts of fluorides used in G-protein investigations are a thousand times higher than those found in the human organism, experiments with rats clearly show that the amounts required to cause thyroid disturbance are identical to the levels which have been identified to cause dental fluorosis."
Schuld talked briefly about the findings of Professor Anna Strunecka in Prague, that aluminium fluoride compounds can effect all the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Woodruff added the disturbing news that this disease is now observed in 30- to 40-year-olds. Schuld further spoke about his group's research into autism after parents reported great improvements in their children's conditions once fluorides were eliminated from the diet; there was a strong association with a group of G proteins, Gq/11, which are also highly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, Down's syndrome and thyroid dysfunction.
Schuld then spoke about his group's efforts to help the children of Sosnivka, Ukraine, where mothers of 3,000 sick children have been trying for five years to get their children's ill health properly addressed by the authorities after fluorides suddenly showed up in the water supplies. Other appeals for help have also been received from regions in Pakistan, where similar industrial contamination is occurring. Schuld said UNICEF has, now identified more than 25 countries where fluorides pose a great health concern. Conservative estimates by UNICEF of the people affected number in the tens of millions. Woodruff commented on the severe fluorosis observed in regions of China due to breathing airborne fluoride.
"Health care providers in those areas need to be properly informed as how to deal with the effects of this fluoride poisoning," said Schuld. "This is an urgent global concern. That the York Review and the British Medical Journal have issued press releases worldwide saying fluorides are safe, while these people are suffering incredibly, is simply a crime." He added that a third of the world's population is suffering from iodine deficiency in areas which are identical to endemic fluorosis areas.
Schuld further commented: "Here we have the York Review and its lead researchers running around telling the public that people in fluoridated areas would not be consuming more than 4 mg a day from all sources, while our September analysis of the top-selling tea brands in the UK has shown fluoride content up to 11 mg per litre in tea prepared from one teabag alone."
Meanwhile, any studies showing adverse health effects from areas with levels above 5 ppm in the water were excluded from the Review.
"We urge the people in the UK to ask for an immediate public inquiry into the scientific misconduct clearly prevalent at the York centre," he said.
Woodruff and Schuld urged the listeners to spread this information to as many people as possible, and dedicated the program to the memory of mutual friend Dr John Yiamouyiannis, who suddenly passed away on Sunday 8 October. Woodruff said that Yiamouyiannis will be remembered as one of the most brilliant scientists of the past century.
Contact Details:
• Health Action Network Society (HANS), #202-5262 Rumble Street, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 2B6, tel +1 (604) 435 0512, 1-888 432 4267 (toll free), fax +1 (605) 435 1561, e-mail hans@hans.org . The transcript of the interview can be obtained from HANS.
• Parents of Fluoride-Poisoned Children (PFPC), 78 Malta Place, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5M 4C4, e-mail pfpc@istar.ca. PFPC reference sets can be obtained via www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/references.cfml.
(Source: Health Action Network Society, 15 October 2000, e-mail hans@hans.org )
copyright 2001