Fluoride Questions
One concern about fluoride in water is that it can harm your thyroid. Some say that it can lead to psychological problems in adults. Also, a Chinese study showed that fluoride in children’s water was linked to low IQ numbers. The more fluoride in their water, the lower their IQ’s were dropping. Another study in New Zealand showed that children’s teeth were actually better, had less decay rates, and had less cavities in places without fluoride in their water. Or in other words, according to their study, the fluoride wasn’t doing very much to help the kid’s teeth. But, some of the more serious effects of fluoride are that it inactivates 62 enzymes, increases the aging process, increases the incidence of cancer and tumor growth, disrupts the immune system, causes genetic damage, interrupts DNA repair-enzyme activity, increases arthritis, and is a systemic poison. Heres one website I used that actually scared me quite a bit.
I think we should have fluoride in our water, because it can very good for you as long as you don’t get too much. It just scares me because if we do get too much it can be very harmful and even life threatening. Most of the side effects previously stated are due to when you have too much fluoride. In small amounts, it keeps your teeth healthier, protects the enamel on your teeth, and prevents cavities. But, these are just a few of the many things that fluoride can do for you. Studies have shown that people’s teeth have been healthier since fluoride has been added to the water.
The main technological advance that had to made before fluoride could be added to toothpastes and mouthwashes, was that they had to “marry” the fluoride with a compatible abrasive. For example, the easiest fluoride choice is sodium fluoride. Sodium fluoride isn’t very soluble in the presence of calcium phosphates, which is the abrasive used in most early toothpastes. The company that was the first to find a fluoride- abrasive combination that worked, pairing stannous fluoride with calcium pyrophosphate was Procter & Gamble in 1955. The toothpaste was called Crest, and it was the beginning of the modern Crest.
The side effect of having fluoride in water that most concerns me is that it can cause cancer. Cancer is probably one of my biggest fears, because a couple of my family members have died from it, and some kids in our school have it. I’ve seen what cancer can do to you and how it makes you feel, and I think that would be one of the worst days to die. Another concern about fluoride is that it can cause DNA repair damage, which would be very bad and could possibly alter your DNA. But, also I’m afraid that I might get too much fluoride without even knowing it, which could be very harmful according to what I have found out about the effects fluoride can have when you get too much of it.
