If you wish to understand fluoride there are four resources I would recommend, first is the pubmed searchable portal to the medical literature, the second is the Fluoride Action Network website, the third is the National Academy of Sciences recent review on the subject and last but by no means least is Christpher Bryson’s 2004 book The Fluoride Deception.

If you are new to the topic I would further recommend starting with this book, while if you are familiar with the issues involved there is still a great deal to learn from it. I am currently reading it a second time and picking up things I missed the first time through. As a journalist, Mr Bryson spent some ten years researching this topic, from digging up personal correspondence from half a century ago to personally interviewing major figures in his narrative, his painstaking research and attention to detail is clearly evident throughout the book. Put simply this book is the definitive history of the story of water fluoridation in America.

I say this in part because, while, the first three resources I mentioned do an excellent job of documenting the science relating to the ill health effects of fluoride, looking only at these sources one is left with the question, how on earth and why would such a terrible idea of adulterating the water supply with a dangerous substance not only become entrenched but loudly proclaimed as a public health victory?  It all seems too unbelievable. What the Fluoride Deception adds is the necessary historical context to make sense of the debate. From pointing out the tremendous risk of litigation industry previously faced from fluoride related injuries to documenting the crucial role fluoride plays in the aluminum industry, pharamaceutical industry and consumer products one can begin to understand the motivation for declaring fluoride harmless. When one also remembers that uranium hexafluoride is essential to enriching uranium and thus litagation could interfere both with the nuclear power industry as well as the production of nuclear weapons one again sees why any criticism of fluoride has been squelched with all the available tools of public relations, propaganda and censorship for over half a century.

Mr Bryson also nails down with frightening detail the specifics of malfeasance. From uncovering an unpublished industry sponsored study in dogs which found that levels of fluoride gas similar to that which aluminum workers were exposed to caused emphysema and serious lung damage to unearthing correspondance showing major figures backing water fluoridation privately had expressed concerns about its health effects, the book exposes both the lies and motivations surrounding fluoride.

One of the most difficult chapters to read involves the industrial gas release in Donora Pennsylvania which sickened nearly half the town of 13,500 and killed some 20 people. An independent scientist and researcher Philip Sadtler was able to document blood levels of fluoride in the sickened townspeople consistent with acute fluoride poisoning. Shortly there after the US Public Health Service contradicted Sadler’s findings saying fluoride was not responsible. Again, however, Mr. Bryson was able to dig up an internal Public Health Service study which documented the same posionous blood levels of fluoride found by Dr. Sadtler. It would be easy for an author in discussing such an historical event to retreat to the type of rhertoric often common on the internet of yelling loudly, “those such and suchs, how dare they, what insanity is this”. But as a consummate story teller, with Bryson you do not hear his voice only the voices of those involved in the tragedy and this makes the impact of the information all the greater.

I’ve only touched on a small part of the book. There is also the story of Phyillis Mullenix the Harvard educated toxicologist who was ordered to look at the neurtoxicity of fluoride in mice. When she, to her surprise, found it to be severely neurotoxic she was quickly fired from her job, only to realize years later the hidden onion like layers of intrigue surrounding those who ordered her to do the study. There is much more worth reading in this encyclopedic treatment of the history of water fluoridation, but this is only a review and if I said what I thought of each page it would likely be longer than the book.

This is the first book review I’ve done on this site. It may be in future I’ll review books I don’t think much of, (though I generally don’t finish those;) this isn’t one of them. It made a deep impression on me, covers an area of importance to one’s health and changed my thinking 180 degrees on water fluoridation, I recommend it highly.

The Fluoride Deception is available at Amazon

I’ve also posted below a half hour interview of Christopher Bryson discussing water fluoridation, I think it is also worth a listen.  As a book keeping note would also remind anyone who is interested to take part in the poll on H1N1 vaccination on the right hand side of the page, and be sure to sign up by email or as a blog follower to keep up with the latest updates from the site.  Many thanks,
Paul