From ggvideo@northnet.org Sun Jan 2 11:54:08 2000 Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 15:55:02 -0500 From: Paul Connett To: wastenot@northnet.org Subject: IFIN-BULLETIN #36: Pediatricians need to be educated on fluoride. INTERNATIONAL FLUORIDE INFORMATION NETWORK DEC. 31, 1999. BULLETIN #36: Pediatricians need to be educated on fluoride. Dear All, Have just received this distressing information from Marilyn Beattie (safewater@proaxis.com) that a well know pediatrician is still advising parents to give fluoride to infants. How can someone who advises parents on health matters- not just individually, but via the HealthNetwork- be so abysmally ignorant. One fact that all doctors should know is that mothers' breast milk contains on average approximately 0.01 ppm fluoride, this is 100 TIMES LOWER than fluoridated drinking water. In other words if this pediatrician is right -then God made a mess of things. Even when a mother is getting "adequate" or "excess" supplies of fluoride, her body keeps most of this fluoride out of her milk. Why would her body do this if in the great design of things we needed fluoride for the healthy development of our teeth, bones or anything else? The simple fact is that fluoride is NOT NEEDED. As bulletin #35 made perfectly clear a child can have perfect teeth without a microgram of fluoride. Fluoride is NOT A NUTRIENT. There has never been a single animal or human study which has indicated any disease related to fluoride deficiency. Incidentally, the 0.01 ppm figure comes from the very same agency which has done more to muddy the water on this issue than any other in recent times. I refer to the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, which included (sneaked in) fluoride in the list of substances, "Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D and Fluoride" for which they determined "dietary reference intakes". In their report, the authors state, "The fluoride concentration in human milk ranges from 0.007 to 0.011 mg/liter (1 mg/liter = 1 ppm, PC)". They cite as references Ekstrand et al., 1984; Esala, et al., 1982; and Spak et al., 1982. REFERENCE: "Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride", Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, 1997 ( page 292). This same report advocates an "Upper Tolerance Limit" for fluoride (for ages 9 to 70 years) of 10 mg per day. Such a dose is sufficient to result in severe skeletal fluorosis, let alone the earlier stages! It was one of the great shocks of my involvement in this issue to witness this piece of junk science produced and defended by a body which comes under the National Academcy of Sciences. With such agencies so lacking in competency and integrity in this matter, public health protection has come to a sorry pass in this country. However, even they do not advocate that fluoride be given to infants, younger than 6 months, at levels higher than that found in mothers' breast milk. So the pediatrician cited in the report below is really out on a limb! Paul Connett. From: safewater@proaxis.com Subject: Pediatrician pushes fluoride Mime-Version: 1.0 Just a quick note..... Dr. Alix Casler, "Ask the Pediatrician" on the HealthNetwork, recently answered a fluoride question from a concerned parent. Dr. Casler endorsed the dosing of infants with fluoride, obviously unaware of the recommendations from the Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association that infants NOT receive fluoride. I think she needs to hear from a lot of people on this...I don't have time right now to research for e-mail addresses and such, but thought I'd pass it on for those who do. Marilyn Beattie For information about fluoride and health visit: http://cadvision.com/fluoride http://penweb.org/issues/fluoride http://nofluoride.com