People in India Devastated by Industry-Induced High Fluoride Levels

by Heidi Stevenson

14 September 2009

Rampant industrialization of India has resulted in fluoride poisoning of entire villages. The rapaciousness of agribusinesses, such as fertilizer and pesticide producers, leaves behind high fluoride-content sludge that poisons water supplies. Air is polluted with fluoride-laden, and other, highly toxic pollutants. Drink bottlers like Coca Cola™ drain aquifers, leaving high concentrations of fluoride in the remains of the water table. Bottlers give away waste materials full of fluoride and other toxic chemicals, calling it fertilizer.

In the United States, fluoride is added to water and toothpaste. It's a major component of many drugs, fertilizers, and pesticides. Fluoride's toll on people in India, where corporations are relatively uncontrolled, is evident in horribly deformed bodies wracked with pain. Is it possible that it's taking a toll in the US, too?

Bakhari and Chukru Villages—And Others

Two villages in eastern India have been devastated by fluorosis. In Bakhari, with a population of 700, two out of three suffer from deformities. In Chukru, one in two suffers from deformed limbs, cataracts, or premature aging. It started in 1980, when their disappearing water supplies were supplemented by the government digging deep wells. The fluoride concentration in deep-well water is high.

The result is debility and lives destroyed by fluorosis. Children are at greatest risk. The most minor concern is fluorosis of the teeth, which results in their discoloration and demineralization. Even that problem, though, is indicative of far worse developing. Fluoride damages the brain and kidneys, and causes breakdown of bones, leading to crippling deformities. It's a painful disease with no known cure. Fluorosis—A Manmade Crisis: Effects in India provides graphic evidence of the damage it has done to people in India.

The Times of India reports that the province of Karnataka, located in the southwestern part of the country, is suffering from water contaminated with fluoride and nitrates, which are both byproducts of fertilizer manufacturing. The paper states, "In some of the fluoride-endemic districts like Kolar, Chitradurga, Gadag and Bellary, smiles on the faces of young children have vanished as they are afflicted by dental fluorosis."

In October of 2007, the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment reported that fluorosis is "endemic in 17 states in India. It further states that 67% of the villages are exposed to excessive fluoride through their water.

Fluoride's Effects in the Human Body

Fluoride has no role in metabolism. It is a poison. Definitive studies have shown at least part of how it can lead to the human devastation seen in India, and in horses on this video.

In 2006, the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC) reported that fluoride acts as a serious hormone disruptor, causing hypoactivity of the thyroid. This should not have been a surprise, since fluoride had long been used by doctors to suppress overactive thyroids. Doses of fluoride added to water for the purpose of preventing cavities—an effect that has never been proven—are often at higher concentrations than those used by doctors!

The NAS/NRC and The Lancet have both published studies documenting that fluoride lowers IQ, with The Lancet referring to fluoride as an "emerging" neurotoxin.

A 15-year study published in 2006 in the journal, Cancer Causes Control, found that fluoridated water is associated with osteosarcoma—bone cancer—in males. Two earlier studies had shown the same effect in male rats. Osteosarcoma, the third most common cancer in children, has a death rate of 50% within five years, and most survivors lose limbs to amputation.

Fluoride's effects on the skeleton can be dramatic. Aside from causing osteosarcoma, it causes bones to break down, as can be seen in the videos, Fluorosis—A Manmade Crisis: Effects in India and Fluoride Damage in Horses from US Fluoridated Water—The Same Stuff We're Supposed to Drink. A 1990 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a correlation between fluoridated water and hip fractures in elderly women.

India's Fluoride Relationship to Levels in the U.S.

In the United States, standard dental organizations' recommendations for water fluoridation are about 1 part per million. This is in addition to any fluoride that may be in toothpaste, salt, drugs, pesticides, the environment, or already existing in water.

In India, skeletal fluorosis has been found at 7/10, 0.7, parts per million—less than the amount that dental associations want to add.

In the US, fluorosis of the teeth, once extremely rare, has become common. Aside from the fact that such teeth are damaged, more likely to decay and even crumble, we're still left with the question of what other harm is being done inside the body. Fluoride is readily taken up by the bones, and remains there. In the US, it is connected with bone cancer and likely with lowered intelligence.

Fluoride causes other chronic conditions, ones associated with aging, including arthritis and stiff, painful joints. In fact, it has been suggested that many diagnoses of rheumatic arthritis and osteoarthritis may be misdiagnoses of bone fluorosis. With the virtually epidemic rate of arthritic conditions in the US, is it possible that the cause is fluorosis from water fluoridation and use of fluoride in drugs, pesticides, and toothpaste?

Dr. John Colquhoun, a dentist who went from fluoridation advocate to opponent, stated cogently, "Common sense should tell us that if a poison circulating in a child's body can damage the tooth-forming cells, then other harm also is likely."

The Head of Preventive Dentistry at the University of Toronto, Hardy Limeback, has written:

The issue of mass medication of an unapproved drug without the expressed informed consent of each individual must also be addressed. The dose of fluoride cannot be controlled. Fluoride as a drug has contaminated most processed foods and beverages throughout North America. Individuals who are susceptible to fluoride's harmful effects cannot avoid ingesting this drug...The rights of individuals to enjoy the freedom from involuntary fluoride medication certainly outweigh the right of society to enforce this public health measure, especially when the evidence of benefit is marginal at best.

International Fluorosis Scourge

Poisoning from fluoride is rampant in areas with unchecked industry and places that suffer from its pollution. Not only are citizens of India suffering from fluorosis, so are people in Mexico, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Argentina, South African countries, and Thailand. As noted earlier in this article, it strains credulity to believe that some of the United States' chronic disease has no relationship to fluoride.

The only question now is whether US citizens will stand up and say, "No more!" Perhaps fluoride's dumbing effect has taken root in the population? Personally, I find it difficult to believe that an intelligent populace could possibly support the continuation of water fluoridation or casual use of fluoride in common products, like toothpaste, drugs, fertilizer, and pesticides.

NOTE: If you still have any question about whether fluorosis is a serious problem, see scientific studies and news reports from India in References below, under "Documentation of Fluorosis in India."