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WHY
AMERICAN'S ARE SHEEPLES:
To Whom It May Concern: I, Oliver Kenneth Goff was a member of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League, from May 2, 1936 to October 9, 1939. During this period of time, I operated under the alias of John Keats and the number 18-B-2. My testimony before the Government is incorporated in Volume 9 of the Un-American Activities Report for the year 1939. While a member of the Communist Party, I attended Communist underground training schools outside the City of New York: In the Bues Hall, and 113 East Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The East Wells Street School operated under the name of the Eugene Debs School. Here, under the tutoring of Eugene Dennis, M. Sparks, Morris Childs, Jack Kling and others, we were schooled in the art of revolutionary overthrow of the established Government. We were trained on how to dismantle and assemble mimeograph machines, to use for propaganda purposes during the revolution; how to work on guide wires and fuel lines of airplanes so that they would either burst into flames or crash to the ground because of lack of control; how to work on ties and rails to wreck trains; and also the art of poisoning water supplies. We discussed quite thoroughly the fluoridation of water supplies and how we were using it in Russia as a tranquilizer in the prison camps. The leaders of our school felt that if it could be induced into the American water supply, it would bring-about a spirit of lethargy in the nation; where it would keep the general public docile during a steady encroachment of Communism. We also discussed the fact that keeping a store of deadly fluoride near the water reservoir would be advantageous during the time of the revolution, as it would give us opportunity to dump this poison into the water supply and either kill off the populace or threaten them with liquidation, so that they would surrender to obtain fresh water. We discussed in these schools, the complete art of revolution: the seizure of the main utilities, such as light, power, gas, and water; but it was felt by the leadership, that if a program of fluoridating of the water could be carried out in the nation, it would go a long way toward the advancement of the revolution. The above statements are true. /s/ Oliver Kenneth Goff STATE OF COLORADO ) ) S5 COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE ) OLIVER KENNETH GOFF, being first duly sworn upon his oath, deposes and says that he has the above and foregoing instrument and knows the contents thereof, and that the same are true of his own knowledge except as to those matters stated on the information and belief as to those he believes them to be true. (SEAL)subscribed and sworn to before me this 22rd day of June A.D., 1957. The above information was faxed to APFN on Aug. 6, 1993 from ULTRA LIFE From FAX: 618-594-7712. This FAX included the following page:
RECENT DISCLOSURES SHOW THE DANGER OF FLUORIDE AND THE SUPPRESSION OF DAMAGING INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC. FRIDAY MAY 15, 1992, WILLIAM MARCUS, Ph.D, CHIEF TOXICOLOGIST AND SENIOR ADVISOR AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, (EPA) WAS FIRED FOR HIS DISCLOSURES OF HIP FRACTURE, CARCINOGENIC, AND OTHER HEALTH AND LIFE THREATENING EFFECTS OF FLUORIDATION. JUNE 3, 1993, NEW JERSEY ASSEMBLYMAN JOHN V. KELLY, 242 WASHINGTON AVE. NUTLEY, NJ 07110, MADE A STATEMENT BEFORE THE STATE ASSEMBLY, PARTS OF WHICH ARE HEREIN QUOTED. "WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY DEFINES SODIUM FLUORIDE AS A COLORLESS CRYSTALLINE, WATER SOLUBLE, POISONOUS SOLID, USED CHIEFLY IN THE FLUORIDATION OF WATER, AS AN INSECTICIDE, AND AS A RODENTICIDE. THE NJ HEALTH DEPT RELEASED A STUDY LAST NOVEMBER SHOWING AREAS WITH FLUORIDATED WATER SUPPLIES IN NJ HAD FOUR TIMES MORE OSTEOSCAROMA, A RARE FORM OF BONE CANCER, THAN AREAS NON-FLUORIDATED." "THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS RECOMMENDED PRESCIPTION FLUORIDE SUPPLEMENTS FOR CHILDREN--FLUORIDE DROPS FOR NEW BORNS AND TABLETS FOR OLDER CHILDREN." "MY OFFICE CONTACTED AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY FOR STUDIES OF SAFETY AND EFFECTIVINESS OF THESE SUPLEMENTS" "THEY WERE NOT IN POSSESSION, ADVISED THESE COULD BE OBTAINED FROM NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL RESEARCH IN WASHINGTON, THEY DID NOT HAVE THEM AND ADVISED THESE STUDIES ARE IN DOMAIN OF U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION." FDA HAS HAD NO DRUG APPLICATION, NO STUDIES SHOWING SAFETY OR EFFECTIVENESS OF FLUORIDE DROPS OR TABLETS, ACCORDING TO FRANK FAZZARI, CHIEF OF FDA DRUG COMPLIANCE BRANCH, THESE ARE UNAPPROVED NEW DRUGS.!!! THESE POISONOUS DRUGS HAVE BEEN PRESCRIBED FOR OVER 30 YEARS TO MILLIONS OF CHILDREN. IT IS IRRESPONSIBLE TO PERMIT THESE PRODUCTS TO BE PRESCRIBED TO THE MOST VULNERABLE SEGMENT OF OUR POPULATION, OUR CHILDREN. THE UNION REPRESENTING EPA SCIENTISTS HAS BEEN VERY CRITICAL OF FLUORIDE, CHARGING THAT MANY STUDIES LINKING FLUORIDE TO A WIDE RANGE OF HEALTH PROBLEMS INCLUDING CANCER, HIP AND OTHER BONE FRACTURES, ARE SUPPRESSED. ASSEMBLYMAN KELLY THEN REQUSTED DR. D. KESSLER, COMMISSIONER, FDA IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THESE FROM THE MARKET, LETTER DATED JUNE 3, 1993. AT THIS DATE NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE TO STOP THIS NATIONWIDE POISONING. FOR MORE INFO CONTACT: FRANK FAZZARI AT FDA 301-295-8073 - DR. WM. MARCUS (301) 972-0707, DR. ROBT. CARTON, (301) 874-2948 OR (301) 619-2004, FORMER PRESIDENT EPA SCIENTIST UNION. COULD THERE BE A DEEPER, MORE SINISTER REASON FOR FORCING FLUORIDE ON THE PUBLIC? READ THE NOTORIZED STATEMENT FROM OLIVER KENNETH GOFF. YOU DECIDE IF FLUORIDATION IS ONE MAJOR REASON WHY WE ARE A NATION OF "SHEEPLE" AND "COUCH POTATOES". http://www.peg.apc.org/~nexus/fluoridebomb.html TOXIC SECRETS Fluoride & the A-Bomb Program During the ultra-secret Manhattan Project, a report was commissioned to assess the effect of fluoride on humans. That report was classified "secret" for reasons of "national security". --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 5, #3 (April-May 1998). PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. nexus@peg.apc.org Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381 From our web page at: http://www.peg.apc.org/~nexus/ Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson 1997 4 West 104th Street New York, NY 10025, USA Some 50 years after United States authorities began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth, recently discovered declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still-controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection between the use of fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age. Today, two-thirds of US public drinking water is fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the government's assurances of safety. Since the days of World War II when the US prevailed by building the world's first atomic bomb, the nation's public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people and good for children's teeth. That safety verdict should now be re-examined in the light of hundreds of once-secret WWII-era documents obtained by these reporters [authors Griffiths and Bryson], including declassified papers of the Manhattan Project-the ultra-secret US military program that produced the atomic bomb. Fluoride was the key chemical in atomic bomb production, according to the documents. Massive quantities-millions of tons-were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. One of the most toxic chemicals known, fluoride emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the US atomic bomb program, both for workers and for nearby communities, the documents reveal. Other revelations include: Ñ Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for humans in low doses was generated by A-bomb program scientists who had been secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against defence contractors for fluoride injury to citizens. The first lawsuits against the American A-bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage, the documents show. Ñ Human studies were required. Bomb program researchers played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive US study of the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water, conducted in Newburgh, New York, from 1945 to 1955. Then, in a classified operation code-named "Program F", they secretly gathered and analysed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizens with the cooperation of New York State Health Department personnel. Ñ The original, secret version (obtained by these reporters) of a study published by Program F scientists in the August 1948 Journal of the American Dental Association1 shows that evidence of adverse health effects from fluoride was censored by the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)-considered the most powerful of Cold War agencies-for reasons of "national security". Ñ The bomb program's fluoride safety studies were conducted at the University of Rochester-site of one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. The fluoride studies were conducted with the same ethical mindset, in which "national security" was paramount. EVIDENCE OF FLUORIDE'S ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS The US Government's conflict of interest and its motive to prove fluoride safe in the furious debate over water fluoridation since the 1950s has only now been made clear to the general public, let alone to civilian researchers, health professionals and journalists. The declassified documents resonate with a growing body of scientific evidence and a chorus of questions about the health effects of fluoride in the environment. Human exposure to fluoride has mushroomed since World War II, due not only to fluoridated water and toothpaste but to environmental pollution by major industries, from aluminium to pesticides, where fluoride is a critical industrial chemical as well as a waste by-product. The impact can be seen literally in the smiles of our children. Large numbers (up to 80 per cent in some cities) of young Americans now have dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of excessive fluoride exposure according to the US National Research Council. (The signs are whitish flecks or spots, particularly on the front teeth, or dark spots or stripes in more severe cases.) Less known to the public is that fluoride also accumulates in bones. "The teeth are windows to what's happening in the bones," explained Paul Connett, Professor of Chemistry at St Lawrence University, New York, to these reporters. In recent years, paediatric bone specialists have expressed alarm about an increase in stress fractures among young people in the US. Connett and other scientists are concerned that fluoride-linked to bone damage in studies since the 1930s-may be a contributing factor. The declassified documents add urgency: much of the original 'proof ' that low-dose fluoride is safe for children's bones came from US bomb program scientists, according to this investigation. Now, researchers who have reviewed these declassified documents fear that Cold War national security considerations may have prevented objective scientific evaluation of vital public health questions concerning fluoride. "Information was buried," concludes Dr Phyllis Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston and now a critic of fluoridation. Animal studies which Mullenix and co-workers conducted at Forsyth in the early 1990s indicated that fluoride was a powerful central nervous system (CNS) toxin and might adversely affect human brain functioning even at low doses. (New epidemiological evidence from China adds support, showing a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and diminished IQ in children.) Mullenix's results were published in 1995 in a reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal.2 During her investigation, Mullenix was astonished to discover there had been virtually no previous US studies of fluoride's effects on the human brain. Then, her application for a grant to continue her CNS research was turned down by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), when an NIH panel flatly told her that "fluoride does not have central nervous system effects". Declassified documents of the US atomic bomb program indicate otherwise. A Manhattan Project memorandum of 29 April 1944 states: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor." The memo, from a captain in the medical corps, is stamped SECRET and is addressed to Colonel Stafford Warren, head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section. Colonel Warren is asked to approve a program of animal research on CNS effects. "Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure... This is important not only to protect a given individual, but also to prevent a confused workman from injuring others by improperly performing his duties." On the same day, Colonel Warren approved the CNS research program. This was in 1944, at the height of World War II and the US nation's race to build the world's first atomic bomb. For research on fluoride's CNS effects to be approved at such a momentous time, the supporting evidence set forth in the proposal forwarded along with the memo must have been persuasive. The proposal, however, is missing from the files at the US National Archives. "If you find the memos but the document they refer to is missing, it's probably still classified," said Charles Reeves, chief librarian at the Atlanta branch of the US National Archives and Records Administration where the memos were found. Similarly, no results of the Manhattan Project's fluoride CNS research could be found in the files. After reviewing the memos, Mullenix declared herself "flabbergasted". "How could I be told by NIH that fluoride has no central nervous system effects, when these documents were sitting there all the time?" She reasons that the Manhattan Project did do fluoride CNS studies: "That kind of warning, that fluoride workers might be a danger to the bomb program by improperly performing their duties-I can't imagine that would be ignored." But she suggests that the results were buried because of the difficult legal and public relations problems they might create for the government. The author of the 1944 CNS research proposal attached to the 29 April memo was Dr Harold C. Hodge-at the time, chief of fluoride toxicology studies for the University of Rochester division of the Manhattan Project. Nearly 50 years later at the Forsyth Dental Center in Boston, Dr Mullenix was introduced to a gently ambling elderly man, brought in to serve as a consultant on her CNS research. This man was Harold C. Hodge. By then, Hodge had achieved status emeritus as a world authority on fluoride safety. "But even though he was supposed to be helping me," said Mullenix, "he never once mentioned the CNS work he had done for the Manhattan Project." The "black hole" in fluoride CNS research since the days of the Manhattan Project is unacceptable to Mullenix who refuses to abandon the issue. "There is so much fluoride exposure now, and we simply do not know what it is doing. You can't just walk away from this." Dr Antonio Noronha, an NIH scientific review advisor familiar with Dr Mullenix's grant request, told us that her proposal was rejected by a scientific peer-review group. He termed her claim of institutional bias against fluoride CNS research "far-fetched". He then added: "We strive very hard at NIH to make sure politics does not enter the picture." \ THE NEW JERSEY FLUORIDE POLLUTION INCIDENT The documentary trail begins at the height of World War II, in 1944, when a severe pollution incident occurred downwind of the E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company chemical factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. The factory was then producing millions of pounds of fluoride for the Manhattan Project whose scientists were racing to produce the world's first atomic bomb. The farms downwind in Gloucester and Salem counties were famous for their high-quality produce. Their peaches went directly to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City; their tomatoes were bought up by Campbell's Soup. But in the summer of 1944 the farmers began reporting that their crops were blighted: "Something is burning up the peach crops around here." They said that poultry died after an all-night thunderstorm, and that farm workers who ate produce they'd picked would sometimes vomit all night and into the next day. "I remember our horses looked sick and were too stiff to work," Mildred Giordano, a teenager at the time, told these reporters. Some cows were so crippled that they could not stand up; they could only graze by crawling on their bellies. The account was confirmed in taped interviews with Philip Sadtler (shortly before he died), of Sadtler Laboratories of Philadelphia, one of the nation's oldest chemical consulting firms. Sadtler had personally conducted the initial investigation of the damage. Although the farmers did not know it, the attention of the Manhattan Project and the federal government was rivetted on the New Jersey incident, according to once-secret documents obtained by these reporters. A memo, dated 27 August 1945, from Manhattan Project chief Major-General Leslie R. Groves to the Commanding General of Army Service Forces at the Pentagon, concerns the investigation of crop damage at Lower Penns Neck, New Jersey. It states: "At the request of the Secretary of War, the Department of Agriculture has agreed to cooperate in investigating complaints of crop damage attributed...to fumes from a plant operated in connection with the Manhattan Project." After the war's end, Dr Harold C. Hodge, the Manhattan Project's chief of fluoride toxicology studies, worriedly wrote in a secret memo (1 March 1946) to his boss, Colonel Stafford L. Warren, chief of the Medical Section, about "problems associated with the question of fluoride contamination of the atmosphere in a certain section of New Jersey". "There seem to be four distinct (though related) problems: "1. A question of injury of the peach crop in 1944. "2. A report of extraordinary fluoride content of vegetables grown in this area. "3. A report of abnormally high fluoride content in the blood of human individuals residing in this area. "4. A report raising the question of serious poisoning of horses and cattle in this area." FLUORIDE DAMAGE: THE FIRST LAWSUITS The New Jersey farmers waited until the war was over before suing DuPont and the Manhattan Project for fluoride damage-reportedly the first lawsuits against the US atomic bomb program. Although seemingly trivial, the lawsuits shook the government, the secret documents reveal. Under the personal direction of Major-General Groves, secret meetings were convened in Washington, with compulsory attendance by scores of scientists and officials from the US War Department, the Manhattan Project, the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture and Justice departments, the US Army's Chemical Warfare Service and Edgewood Arsenal, the Bureau of Standards, as well as lawyers from DuPont. Declassified memos of the meetings reveal a secret mobilisation of the full forces of the government to defeat the New Jersey farmers. In a memo (2 May 1946) copied to General Groves, Manhattan Project Lt Colonel Cooper B. Rhodes notes that these agencies "are making scientific investigations to obtain evidence which may be used to protect the interest of the Government at the trial of the suits brought by owners of peach orchards in...New Jersey". Regarding these lawsuits, General Groves wrote to the Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy in a memo of 28 February 1946, advising that "the Department of Justice is cooperating in the defense of these suits". Why the national security emergency over a few lawsuits by New Jersey farmers? In 1946 the United States began full-scale production of atomic bombs. No other nation had yet tested a nuclear weapon, and the A-bomb was seen as crucial for US leadership of the postwar world. The New Jersey fluoride lawsuits were a serious roadblock to that strategy. "The specter of endless lawsuits haunted the military," wrote Lansing Lamont in Day of Trinity, his acclaimed book about the first atomic bomb test.3 "If the farmers won, it would open the door to further suits which might impede the bomb program's ability to use fluoride," commented Jacqueline Kittrell, a Tennessee public interest lawyer who examined the declassified fluoride documents. (Kittrell specialises in nuclear-related litigation and has represented plaintiffs in several human radiation experiment cases.) "The reports of human injury were especially threatening because of the potential for enormous settlements-not to mention the PR problem," she added. Indeed, DuPont was particularly concerned about the "possible psychologic reaction" to the New Jersey pollution incident, according to a secret Manhattan Project memo of 1 March 1946. Facing a threat from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to embargo the region's produce because of "high fluoride content", DuPont dispatched its lawyers to the FDA offices in Washington, DC, where an agitated meeting ensued. According to a memo sent next day to General Groves, DuPont's lawyer argued that "in view of the pending suits...any action by the Food and Drug Administration...would have a serious effect on the DuPont Company and would create a bad public relations situation". After the meeting adjourned, Manhattan Project Captain John Davies approached the FDA's Food Division chief and "impressed upon Dr White the substantial interest which the Government had in claims which might arise as a result of action which might be taken by the Food and Drug Administration". There was no embargo. Instead, according to General Groves' memo of 27 August 1946, new tests for fluoride in the New Jersey area were to be conducted not by the Department of Agriculture but by the US Army's Chemical Warfare Service (CWS)-because "work done by the Chemical Warfare Service would carry the greatest weight as evidence if...lawsuits are started by the complainants". Meanwhile, the public relations problem remained unresolved: local citizens were in a panic about fluoride. The farmers' spokesman, Willard B. Kille, was personally invited to dine with General Groves (then known as "the man who built the atomic bomb") at his office at the War Department on 26 March 1946. Although diagnosed by his doctor as having fluoride poisoning, Kille departed the luncheon convinced of the government's good faith. Next day he wrote to the general, expressing his wish that the other farmers could have been present so that "they too could come away with the feeling that their interests in this particular matter were being safeguarded by men of the very highest type whose integrity they could not question". A broader solution to the public relations problem was suggested by Manhattan Project chief fluoride toxicologist Harold C. Hodge in a second secret memo (1 May 1946) to Medical Section chief Colonel Warren: "Would there be any use in making attempts to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents of Salem and Gloucester counties through lectures on F toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of F in tooth health?" Such lectures were indeed given, not only to New Jersey citizens but to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War. The New Jersey farmers' lawsuits were ultimately stymied by the government's refusal to reveal the key piece of information that would have settled the case: how much fluoride DuPont had vented into the atmosphere during the war. "Disclosure would be injurious to the military security of the United States," Manhattan Project Major C. A. Taney, Jr, had written in a memo soon after the war's end (24 September 1945). The farmers were pacified with token financial settlements, according to interviews with descendants still living in the area. "All we knew is that DuPont released some chemical that burned up all the peach trees around here," recalled Angelo Giordano whose father James was one of the original plaintiffs. "The trees were no good after that, so we had to give up on the peaches." Their horses and cows acted and walked stiffly, recalled his sister Mildred. "Could any of that have been the fluoride?" she asked. (The symptoms she detailed are cardinal signs of fluoride toxicity, according to veterinary toxicologists.) The Giordano family has also been plagued by bone and joint problems, Mildred added. Recalling the settlement received by the family, Angelo Giordano told these reporters that his father said he "got about $200". The farmers were stonewalled in their search for information about fluoride's effects on their health, and their complaints have long since been forgotten. But they unknowingly left their imprint on history: their complaints of injury to their health reverberated through the corridors of power in Washington and triggered intensive, secret, bomb program research on the health effects of fluoride. "PROGRAM F": SECRET FLUORIDE RESEARCH A secret memo (2 May 1946) to General Groves from Manhattan Project Lt Colonel Rhodes states: "Because of complaints that animals and humans have been injured by hydrogen fluoride fumes in [the New Jersey] area, although there are no pending suits involving such claims, the University of Rochester is conducting experiments to determine the toxic effect of fluoride." Much of the proof of fluoride's alleged safety in low doses rests on the postwar work done at the University of Rochester in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. For the top-secret Manhattan Project to delegate fluoride safety studies to the University of Rochester was not surprising. During WWII the US Federal Government became involved for the first time in large-scale funding of scientific research at government-owned labs and private colleges. Those early spending priorities were shaped by the nation's often-secret military needs. The prestigious upstate New York college in particular had housed a key wartime division of the Manhattan Project to study the health effects of the new "special materials" such as uranium, plutonium, beryllium and fluoride which were being used in making the atomic bomb. That work continued after the war, with millions of dollars flowing from the Manhattan Project and its successor organisation, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). (Indeed, the bomb left an indelible imprint on all of US science in the late 1940s and 1950s. Up to 90 per cent of all federal funds for university research came from either the Department of Defense or the AEC in this period, according to Noam Chomsky in his 1997 book, The Cold War and the University.4) The University of Rochester Medical School became a revolving door for senior bomb-program scientists. The postwar faculty included Stafford Warren, the top medical officer of the Manhattan Project, and Harold C. Hodge, chief of fluoride research for the bomb program. But this marriage of military secrecy and medical science bore deformed offspring. The University of Rochester's classified fluoride studies, code-named "Program F", were started during the war and continued up until the early 1950s. They were conducted at its Atomic Energy Project (AEP), a top-secret facility funded by the AEC and housed at Strong Memorial Hospital. It was there that one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War took place, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. Revelation of this experiment-in a Pulitzer Prize&endash; winning account by Eileen Welsome-led to a 1995 US presidential investigation and a multimillion-dollar cash settlement for victims. Program F was not about children's teeth. It grew directly out of litigation against the bomb program, and its main purpose was to furnish scientific ammunition which the government and its nuclear contractors could use to defeat lawsuits for human injury. Program F's director was none other than Dr Harold C. Hodge- who led the Manhattan Project investigation of alleged human injury in the New Jersey fluoride pollution incident. Program F's purpose is spelled out in a classified 1948 report. It reads: "To supply evidence useful in the litigation arising from an alleged loss of a fruit crop several years ago, a number of problems have been opened. Since excessive blood-fluoride levels were reported in human residents of the same area, our principal effort has been devoted to describing the relationship of blood fluorides to toxic effects." The litigation referred to and the claims of human injury were of course against the bomb program and its contractors. Thus the purpose of Program F was to obtain evidence useful in litigation against the bomb program. The research was being conducted by the defendants. The potential conflict of interest is clear. If lower dose ranges were found hazardous by Program F, this might have opened the bomb program and its contractors to public outcry and lawsuits for injury to human health. Lawyer Jacqueline Kittrell commented further: "This and other documents indicate that the University of Rochester's fluoride research grew out of the New Jersey lawsuits and was performed in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. Studies undertaken for litigation purposes by the defendants would not be considered scientifically acceptable today because of their inherent bias to prove the chemical safe." Unfortunately, much of the proof of fluoride's safety rests on the work performed by Program F scientists at the University of Rochester. During the postwar period, that university emerged as the leading academic centre for establishing the safety of fluoride as well as its effectiveness in reducing tooth decay, according to Rochester Dental School spokesperson William H. Bowen, MD. The key figure in this research, Bowen said, was Dr Harold C. Hodge-who also became a leading national proponent of fluoridating public drinking water. THE A-BOMB AND WATER FLUORIDATION Program F's interest in water fluoridation was not just "to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents", as Hodge had earlier written to Colonel Warren. The bomb program required human studies of fluoride's effects, just as it needed human studies of plutonium's effects. Adding fluoride to public water supplies provided one opportunity. Bomb-program scientists played a prominent, if unpublicised, role in the nation's first-planned water fluoridation experiment in Newburgh, New York. The Newburgh Demonstration Project is considered the most extensive study of the health effects of fluoridation, supplying much of the evidence that low doses are allegedly safe for children's bones and good for their teeth. Planning began in 1943 with the appointment of a special New York State Health Department committee to study the advisability of adding fluoride to Newburgh's drinking water. The chairman of the committee was, again, Dr Harold C. Hodge, then chief of fluoride toxicity studies for the Manhattan Project. Subsequent members of the committee included Henry L. Barnett, a captain in the Project's Medical Section, and John W. Fertig, in 1944 with the Office of Scientific Research and Development-the super-secret Pentagon group which sired the Manhattan Project. Their military affiliations were kept secret. Hodge was described as a pharmacologist, Barnett as a paediatrician. Placed in charge of the Newburgh project was David B. Ast, chief dental officer of the New York State Health Department. Ast had participated in a key secret wartime conference on fluoride, held by the Manhattan Project in January 1944, and later worked with Dr Hodge on the Project's investigation of human injury in the New Jersey incident, according to once-secret memos. The committee recommended that Newburgh be fluoridated. It selected the types of medical studies to be done, and it also "provided expert guidance" for the duration of the experiment. The key question to be answered was: "Are there any cumulative effects, beneficial or otherwise, on tissues and organs other than the teeth, of long-continued ingestion of such small concentrations?" According to the declassified documents, this was also key information sought by the bomb program. In fact, the program would require "long-continued" exposure of workers and communities to fluoride throughout the Cold War. In May 1945, Newburgh's water was fluoridated, and over the next 10 years its residents were studied by the New York State Health Department. In tandem, Program F conducted its own secret studies, focusing on the amounts of fluoride Newburgh citizens retained in their blood and tissues-information called for by the bomb program in connection with litigation. "Possible toxic effects of fluoride were in the forefront of consideration," the advisory committee stated. Health department personnel cooperated, shipping blood and placenta samples to the Program F team at the University of Rochester. The samples were collected by Dr David B. Overton, the department's chief of paediatric studies at Newburgh. The final report of the Newburgh Demonstration Project, published in 1956 in the Journal of the American Dental Association,5 concluded that "small concentrations" of fluoride were safe for US citizens. The biological proof, "based on work performed...at the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project", was delivered by Dr Hodge. Today, news that scientists from the A-bomb program secretly shaped and guided the Newburgh fluoridation experiment and studied the citizens' blood and tissue samples is greeted with incredulity. "I'm shocked...beyond words," said present-day Newburgh Mayor Audrey Carey, commenting on these reporters' findings. "It reminds me of the Tuskegee experiment that was done on syphilis patients down in Alabama." As a child in the early 1950s, Mayor Carey was taken to the old Newburgh firehouse on Broadway which housed the public health clinic. There, doctors from the Newburgh fluoridation project studied her teeth, and a peculiar fusion of two fingerbones on her left hand which she's had since birth. (Carey said that her granddaughter has white dental-fluorosis marks on her front teeth.) Mayor Carey wants answers from the government about the secret history of fluoride and the Newburgh fluoridation experiment. "I absolutely want to pursue it," she said. "It is appalling to do any kind of experimentation and study without people's knowledge and permission." When contacted by these reporters, the now 95-year-old David B. Ast, former director of the Newburgh experiment, said he was unaware that Manhattan Project scientists were involved. "If I had known, I would have been certainly investigating why, and what the connection was," he said. Did he know that blood and placenta samples from Newburgh were being sent to bomb-program researchers at the University of Rochester? "I was not aware of it," Ast replied. Did he recall participating in the Manhattan Project's secret wartime conference on fluoride in January 1944, or going to New Jersey with Dr Hodge to investigate human injury in the DuPont case, as secret memos state? He told these reporters he had no recollection of any such events. Bob Loeb, a spokesperson for the University of Rochester Medical Center, confirmed that blood and tissue samples from Newburgh had been tested by the University's Dr Hodge. On the ethics of secretly studying US citizens to obtain information useful in litigation against the A-bomb program, he said: "That's a question we cannot answer." He referred inquiries to the US Department of Energy (DOE), successor to the Atomic Energy Commission. Jayne Brady, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy in Washington confirmed that a review of DOE files indicated that a "significant reason" for fluoride experiments conducted at the University of Rochester after the war was "impending litigation between the DuPont company and residents of New Jersey areas". However, she added: "DOE has found no documents to indicate that fluoride research was done to protect the Manhattan Project or its contractors from lawsuits." On Manhattan Project involvement in Newburgh, Brady stated: "Nothing that we have suggests that the DOE or predecessor agencies-especially the Manhattan Project-authorised fluoride experiments to be performed on children in the 1940s." When told that these reporters have several documents that directly tie the AEP-the Manhattan Project's successor agency at the University of Rochester-to the Newburgh experiment, DOE spokesperson Brady later conceded her study was confined to "the available universe" of documents. Two days later, Brady faxed a statement for clarification. "My search only involved the documents that we collected as part of our human radiation experiments project; fluoride was not part of our research effort." "Most significantly," the statement continued, "relevant documents may be in a classified collection at the DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory, known as the Records Holding Task Group. This collection consists entirely of classified documents removed from other files for the purpose of classified document accountability many years ago [and was] a rich source of documents for the human radiation experiments projects." SUPPRESSION OF ADVERSE HEALTH FINDINGS The crucial question arising from the investigation is whether adverse health findings from Newburgh and other bomb-program fluoride studies were suppressed. All AEC-funded studies had to be declassified before publication in civilian medical and dental journals. Where are the original classified versions? The transcript of one of the major secret scientific conferences of World War II-on "fluoride metabolism"-is missing from the files of the US National Archives and is "probably still classified", according to the librarian. Participants in the January 1944 conference included key figures who promoted the safety of fluoride and water fluoridation to the public after the war: Harold Hodge of the Manhattan Project, David B. Ast of the Newburgh Demonstration Project, and US Public Health Service dentist H. Trendley Dean, popularly known as "the father of fluoridation". A WWII Manhattan Project c lassified report (25 July 1944) on water fluoridation is missing from the files of the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project, the US National Archives, and the Nuclear Repository at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The next four numerically consecutive documents are also missing, while the remainder of the "M-1500 series" is present. "Either those documents are still classified, or they've been 'disappeared' by the government," said Clifford Honicker, Executive Director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project in Knoxville, Tennessee, which provided key evidence in the public exposure and prosecution of US human radiation experiments. Seven pages have been cut out of a 1947 Rochester bomb project notebook entitled "DuPont Litigation". "Most unusual," commented the medical school's chief archivist, Chris Hoolihan. Similarly, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests lodged by these reporters over a year ago with the DOE for hundreds of classified fluoride reports have failed to dislodge any. "We're behind," explained Amy Rothrock, chief FOIA officer at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. So, has information been suppressed? These reporters made what appears to be the first discovery of the original classified version of a fluoride safety study by bomb program scientists. A censored version of this study was later published in the August 1948 Journal of the American Dental Association.6 Comparison of the secret version with the published version indicates that the US AEC did censor damaging information on fluoride-to the point of tragicomedy. This was a study of the dental and physical health of workers in a factory producing fluoride for the A-bomb program; it was conducted by a team of dentists from the Manhattan Project. Ñ The secret version reports that most of the men had no teeth left. The published version reports only that the men had fewer cavities. Ñ The secret version says the men had to wear rubber boots because the fluoride fumes disintegrated the nails in their shoes. The published version does not mention this. Ñ The secret version says the fluoride may have acted similarly on the men's teeth, contributing to their toothlessness. The published version omits this statement and concludes that "the men were unusually healthy, judged from both a medical and dental point of view". After comparing the secret and published versions of the censored study, toxicologist Phyllis Mullenix commented: "This makes me ashamed to be a scientist." Of other Cold War&endash;era fluoride safety studies, she asked: "Were they all done like this?" Asked for comment on the early links of the Manhattan Project to water fluoridation, Dr Harold Slavkin, Director of the National Institute for Dental Research-the US agency which today funds fluoride research-said: "I wasn't aware of any input from the Atomic Energy Commission." Nevertheless, he insisted that fluoride's efficacy and safety in the prevention of dental cavities over the last 50 years is well proved. "The motivation of a scientist is often different from the outcome," he reflected. "I do not hold a prejudice about where the knowledge comes from." Endnotes: 1. Dale, Peter P., and McCauley, H. B, "Dental Conditions in Workers Chronically Exposed to Dilute and Anhydrous Hydrofluoric Acid", Journal of the American Dental Association, vol. 37, no. 2, August 1948, pp. 131-140. Note that Dale and McCauley were both Manhattan Project and, later, Program F personnel; they also authored the secret Manhattan Project paper. 2. Mullenix, Phyllis et al., "Neurotoxicity of Sodium Fluoride in Rats", Neurotoxicology and Teratology, vol. 17, no. 2, 1995, pp. 169-177. 3. Lamont, Lansing, Day of Trinity, Atheneum, New York City, 1965. 4. Chomsky, Noam, The Cold War and the University, New Press, New York City, 1997 (distributed by W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., NYC). 5. Hodge, H. C., "Fluoride metabolism: its significance in water fluoridation", in "Newburgh-Kingston caries-fluorine study: final report", Journal of the American Dental Association, vol. 52, March 1956. 6. Dale and McCauley, ibid. About the Authors: Joel Griffiths is a medical writer based in New York City. He is the author of a book on radiation hazards that included one of the first revelations of human radiation experiments, and has contributed numerous articles to medical journals and popular publications. Chris Bryson, who holds a Master's degree in journalism, is an independent reporter for BBC Radio, ABC-TV and public television in New York City, and writes for a variety of publications. The authors wish to thank Clifford Honicker, Executive Director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project, Knoxville, TN, for his indispensable archival research. Resources: Copies of 155 pages of supporting documents, including all the declassified papers referred to in this article, can be obtained from the following contacts for a small fee to cover copying and postage: Ñ Australia: Australian Fluoridation News, GPO Box 935G, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, phone (03) 9592 5088, fax (03) 9592 4544. Ñ New Zealand: New Zealand Pure Water Association, 278 Dickson Road, Papamoa, Bay of Plenty, phone (07) 542 0499. Ñ UK: National Pure Water Association of the UK, 12 Dennington Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield, WF4 3ET, phone 01924 254433, fax 01924 242380. Ñ USA: Waste Not newsletter, 82 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617, phone (315) 379 9200, fax (315) 379 0448, e-mail wastenot@northnet.org .
FLUORIDE: A PROTECTED POLLUTANT Since 1937, the foreign medical literature has contained hundreds of articles on the wide variety of troubles that can be caused by fluorine. The same is true of the veterinary literature in this country. But none of this appears in our medical literature. The things that fluorine can do to people are seen every day everywhere. The trouble is to know which cases are actually caused by fluorine. http://www.cadvision.com/fluoride/exner.htm Fluoridation: The Overdosing of America - Fact or Fiction? http://www.icnr.com/FluoridePres/Slide1.html THE Water FAQ http://www.siouxlan.com:80/water/faq.html American Dental Association. Fluoridation Facts. Chicago FLUORIDE TOXICITY There are many reported cases of fluorosis, a mottling (dark brown/gray staining and spotting of teeth) and crumbling of teeth due to too much flouride placed in municipal water supplies. A warning to parents of small children: if children eat large globs of toothpaste while brushing their teeth, stop the habit immediately, and place small amounts of toothpaste on a child's toothbrush. Teach the child not to swallow the toothpaste. http://www.its.ilstu.edu/fcs106/fluoride.htm Fluorides and Fluoridation http://www.ada.org/consumer/fluoride/articles/fa-05.html TIME-RELEASED FLUORIDE FOR OSTEOPOROSIS Report #6190 5/3/94 http://www.wdn.com/mirkin/6190.html EPA - HYDROGEN FLUORIDE (AND RELATED COMPOUNDS) (1) 7664-39-3 Chronic (long-term) exposure to fluoride at low levels has a beneficial effect of dental cavity prevention and may also be useful for the treatment of osteoporosis. Exposure to higher levels of fluoride through drinking water may cause dental fluorosis or mottling, while very high exposures through drinking water or air can result in skeletal fluorosis. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/uatw/hlthef/hydrogen.html Fluoride the Aging Factor Price information not available. You can still order this item, and we will request approval of the price via e-mail prior to shipment. Paperback 2nd edition (June 1986) Health Action Pr; ISBN: 0913571008 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0913571008/o/qid=902214011/sr=2-3/002-9761417-6701215 Subject: [MC] About Scientific Information! Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 23:32:07 -0700 From: "Stephen A. Tueting" whimpy.com@worldnet.att.net Unbelievably fabulous expose on the history and technologies involved. The ability to transmit from one brain to another is there. See the medical journal Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1996, Suppl. 45. "Continuous Wave-Form Analysis". It's another piece of deciphering the brains EEG and translating to a different persons EEG and then writing it to that brain. This is a brilliant piece of literature and extremely accurate.
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml AMERICA: OVERDOSED ON FLUORIDE http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Fluoride.htm TOP FLUORIDE EXPERT APOLOGIZES FOR PUSHING POISON http://www.apfn.org/apfn/fluoride_expert.htm Fluoridation / Fluoride Toxic Chemicals In Your Water Fluoride compounds which are put in water (fluoridation), toothpaste and supplement tablets (including some vitamins) were never tested for safety before approval. http://www.holisticmed.com/fluoride/ 50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoridation http://www.fluoridealert.org/50-reasons.htm Don't Swallow Your Toothpaste http://www.fluoridealert.org/DSYT.htm Focus: Fluoride http://www.hearstnp.com/san_antonio/bea/news/stories/san/storypage.cfm?xlc=115955&xla=saen Shocking News About Fluoride http://www.apfn.org/apfn/flouride.htm Fluoride - The Lunatic Drug http://www.apfn.org/apfn/water.htm STOP FLUORIODEATION http://rvi.net/~fluoride/index.htm Fluoridation status of some countries http://www.fluoridation.com/c-country.htm FLUORIDE WEB SITES http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/links.html Fluoride is a corrosive poison http://www.apfn.org/apfn/poison.htm FIGHT FLUORIDE! http://www.fightfluoride.com/main.html Population Control http://www.apfn.org/apfn/population.htm WATER http://www.apfn.org/pdf/water.pdf FLUORIDE REALITY Fluoride ingestion has very little to do with dental health, it does have a lot to do with disposing of industrial waste and making people docile and subservient, it also has a lot to do with MONEY. Clearly, the dental profession would not and HAS not put itself out of business. http://www.webaxs.net/~noel/fluoride.htm Respected Medical Professionals and Scientists are warning that water fluoridation has dangerous long-term consequences to health. http://www.nofluoride.com/ TOXIC SECRETS Fluoride & the A-Bomb Program During the ultra-secret Manhattan Project, a report was commissioned to assess the effect of fluoride on humans. That report was classified "secret" for reasons of "national security". http://www.nexusmagazine.com//fluoridebomb.html Fluoride: An Invisible Killer http://www.just-think-it.com/no-f.htm Fluoride Toxicity http://www.health-science.com/fluoride_toxicity.htm "FLUORIDE DANGERS TO THE THYROID" http://www.thyroid.about.com/health/thyroid/library/weekly/aa020700b.htm How Fluoride Kills Human Cells http://www.mercola.com/2000/sept/24/fluoride_kills_cells.htm Join The Nationwide Call for Congressional Hearings on Fluoridation 2001 http://www.citizens.org/Food_Water_Safety/Fluoridation/fluoride.htm
Fluoride Damages Children's Bones Study NYS Coalition Opposed To Fluoridation 6-7-5
NEW YORK (PRNewswire) -- White-spotted or yellow splotched teeth may reveal more than needed expensive cosmetic dentistry. Children with fluoride-discolored teeth (dental fluorosis) are more likely to have bone damage, according to a study published in the journal "Fluoride." Despite living in a low-water-fluoride district, 132 Tibetan children, aged 8 to 13-years-old, developed dental fluorosis from dietary fluoride sources such as brick tea, a popular Asian drink, fed to children as young as two years old. (1) Wrist x-rays reveal that 96% of those children with dental fluorosis had "developmental skeletal abnormalities" including carpal bone hardening or thickening. "Therefore, dental fluorosis in children should be viewed as more than a matter of cosmetic concern, since it can also be a sign of early-stage skeletal fluorosis that might lead to full-scale debilitating skeletal fluorosis in adulthood," write researchers Cao and colleagues. Skeletal fluorosis with pain, stiffness and/or deforming bone defects, is common in Nalgonda, India (See: http://www.nalgonda.org/flourosis.php ) To avoid skeletal fluorosis in the U.S., the maximum-contaminant-level of fluoride allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency is 4 parts per million (4 milligrams per liter). But, some people exceed 4 milligrams daily from their diet, alone (2). Up to 63% of children living in optimally fluoridated areas (0.7 - 1.2 ppm) have dental fluorosis (3). More studies show a link between dental fluorosis and bone damage. A British Medical Journal study reports that older white women from fluoridated communities have a 32% higher rate of wrist fracture. (4) A Mexican study links dental fluorosis to bone fractures. (5) Polish pediatricians found abnormal bone changes in 11 to 15 year-olds exhibiting dental fluorosis. (5a) A Rheumatology International study links naturally fluoridated water to knee osteoarthritis in amounts many Americans consume daily. (6) Early fluorosis warning signs include joint pain, stomach pain, excessive thirst and urination, muscle weakness, and/or anemia, especially if accompanied by discoloration in the patient's front row of teeth, according to Dr. A.K. Susheela, Director of India's Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation. (7) A U.S. woman's spine pain alleviated when she avoided fluoride.(8) "Americans are unaware that their arthritis or irritable bowel syndrome could be fluoride-related," says attorney Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. Additional bone/fluoride research can be found here: http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/bone/index.html References: (1) http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/%7Espittle/381%2044.pdf (2) http://iadr.confex.com/iadr/2002SanDiego/techprogram/abstract_20316.htm (3) http://www.orgsites.com/ny/newyorkstatecoalitionopposedtofluoridation/_pgg6.php3 (4) http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=27493&rendertype=table&id=T4 5) http://www.fluoride-journal.com/01-34-2/342-139.pdf (5a) Chlebna-Sokól D(1), Czerwinski E(2), "Bone structure assessment on radiographs of distal radial metaphysis in children with dental fluorosis," Fluoride, 1993 26:l, 37-44. http://www.fluoridation.com/isfr.htm (6) http://www.orgsites.com/ny/newyorkstatecoalitionopposedtofluoridation/_pgg7.php3 (7) http://education.vsnl.com/fluorosis/information.html (8) http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/4607.html Contact: Paul S. Beeber, President nyscof@aol.com New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. PO Box 263, Old Bethpage, NY 11804 SOURCE NYS Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation < http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof > http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof < http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof > Fluoridation News Releases < http://tinyurl.com/6kqtu > http://tinyurl.com/6kqtu
What's wrong with fluoridation? ... Follow the Money Excerpts from The Secret War and The Fluoride Conspiracy, by Dr. Geoffrey E. Smith The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has always measured the safety of fluoridation on the basis of one study of crippling skeletal fluorosis, which was first published in 1935. EPA's regulation for the maximum allowable concentration of fluoride in drinking water was established for one purpose - to prevent this disease. However crippling is the end stage of chronic fluoride poisoning. The earlier stages involve gastrointestinal problems, arthritis, and osteoporosis. None of these earlier symptoms are considered in the regulation ... only the end stage. In 1985, when EPA raised the maximum contaminant level to 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, they used dosage figures miscalculated in 1953 by Harold C. Hodge, who was chairman of the NAS committee on toxicology. Hodge's original figures (20-80 mg/day for 10-20 years) were corrected by Hodge in 1979, and by NAS in 1993. The corrected figures, based on Roholm's classic study of workers in the cryolite industry, amount to 0.2 to 0.35 milligrams of fluoride per kilogram of body weight per day, for eleven years. When extrapolated over a lifetime of 55 to 96 years, these crippling dosage figures equal 1 milligram of fluoride daily for each 55 pounds of body weight ... 0.04 mg/kg/day. In the early years of water fluoridation, this dosage was not the norm. At that time, water was virtually the only source of fluoride in the American diet. The total intake for most adults was 0.02 mg/kg/day ... about one to one and a half milligrams of fluoride daily. Today, the figure is 0.095 mg/kg/day... from food and drinking water alone ... more than 6 milligrams daily. This increase in ingested fluoride, largely due to the use of artificial fertilizers containing fluoride, pesticide residues, dental products, and modern food processing, has changed a relatively safe dosage into one capable of causing crippling deformities of the spine and major joints, as well as the muscle pain associated with fibromyalgia. Beer and wine often contain significant quantities of fluoride, as does ordinary tea. Grape juice often contains even larger quantities of fluoride, due to the widespread use of pesticides, which remain on the grape skin. Fluoride in toothpaste can be absorbed through the tissues of the mouth, as well as swallowed accidentally. Many prescription drugs also contain fluoride. None of these items are labeled to indicate the quantity of fluoride added to the daily dietary total. In other words, what began as a reasonable risk has become the proverbial "straw that breaks the camel's back." Why, then, does fluoridation continue to be an accepted public health practice? Why does the U.S. government offer grants to cities willing to add fluoride to their water supply? Why, in light of the facts, would so many people and institutions allow the poisoning of an entire population? In order to understand, we must go back in time, to the origin of water fluoridation, and the financial interests. We must follow the money trail. We must also consider the concept of a control group in establishing cause and effect. Without a control group, the effect of fluoride gases are confused with the effect of fluoridated water or toothpaste. This camouflage has served the interests of powerful corporations since 1945. Fluorine constitutes 0.065 per cent of the elements of the earth's crust and is a significant component of the total biogeochemical cycle in which life has evolved. Mankind has always been exposed to fluoride in the environment; and fluoride has always been a trace constituent of our diet and a component of our body fluids, tissues and skeleton. Indeed, the ubiquitous occurrence of fluoride in nature means that it would be virtually impossible to prepare a diet entirely free of fluoride. But, until the start of the industrial revolution, most of the flouride in the environment was safely 'locked-up' in rocks, coal and clays, and only relatively small amounts were released either as a result of volcanic activity (HF can be detected in volcanic gases), coal burning, or the slow leaching of fluoride into some waters. Today, most of the fluoride that enters the human body is from man-made sources. Over the past 50 years, a variety of industries have released into the atmosphere more than 25,000,000 tons of fluoride gases and particulates. Dentists will argue, correctly, that mankind has always been exposed to fluoride in the environment. We have also been exposed to trace amounts of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and background radiation. The human body can handle certain levels of potentially harmful substances, there's no doubt about that. But, remember, there are 'threshold levels' above which the poison begins to harm the body or the way it functions. Since each one of us is metabolically unique, some people are more sensitive to fluoride than others. Today, a significant proportion of the fluoride that enters the human body is from modern man-made sources, and all the indications are that you and your family are now being over-exposed to what scientists in the Manhattan Project named - the Devil's Element. You will have heard of fluoride. It's the miracle ingredient in your toothpaste, and the chemical they put in public water supplies to prevent cavities in teeth. You may have heard of hydrogen fluoride. It's a common, particularly dangerous but relatively unknown air pollutant produced by the most powerful industries including: steel mills, iron foundries, copper, zinc and aluminum smelters, plastics manufacturers, fertilizer works, agro-chemical factories, petro-chemical refineries, brick works, glass factories, coal-burning power stations, and nuclear processing plants. The use of unleaded gasoline puts more fluoride into the air. If health authorities were to set air pollution standards for hydrogen fluoride which were harmless, then certain key industries in our technologically-oriented society would almost grind to a halt. This dilemma led to the most bizarre conspiracy of modern times in which captains of industry and national security agencies combined to ruthlessly suppress evidence of the dangers of hydrogen fluoride air pollution; and, cynically used a healing profession - dentistry - to promote an apparently beneficial image for fluoride. The result is that we live in an increasingly 'fluoridated' world. The fluoride in water and toothpaste is potentially harmful; the hydrogen fluoride in contaminated air far more so. Each year, tens of thousands of tons of hydrogen fluoride create an environmental hazard more threatening than global warming or depletion of the ozone layer; and hydrogen fluoride, which can be 1,000 times more harmful than sulphur dioxide, is often a key, but rarely mentioned component of 'acid rain'.
Few people living in the developed countries of the world can escape exposure to hydrogen fluoride (HF). Workers in more than 60 occupations are now breathing HF-contaminated air, and anyone living in the vicinity of the fluoride-polluting industries is also at risk. The World Health Organization has estimated that many millions of people live in areas with air pollution problems severe enough to cause tens of thousands of premature deaths each year and leave many more chronically ill and disabled. During this century three major air pollution disasters emphasized the link between contaminated air, disaster and death. These occurred in the Meuse Valley, Belgium, in 1930; Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948, and London in 1952. The worst began in London on Thursday, 4th December, and lasted three days. During this period, 4,000 people in London died from heart and lung disease. Hydrogen fluoride was the chief killer in all three disasters. At incredibly low concentrations HF can induce subtle changes in enzyme activities, nerve action potentials and host defence - the immune system. Hydrogen fluoride at a concentration of just 0.1 parts per billion in air can damage sensitive vegetation; at a concentration of 1 part per billion it can devastate vineyards and orchards. Of all air pollutants which affect farm animals, hydrogen fluoride has caused the most severe and widespread damage. Yet health authorities insist that low-level long-term exposure to HF cannot harm human health! If there is scientifically acceptable evidence to support these claims about the hazards of HF, how on earth have authorities managed to deceive people for so long? Why do we hear so much about sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, and so little about hydrogen fluoride? Because most people have been 'brain-washed' into believing that 'fluoride' is good for them. After all, it's put into water and toothpaste to prevent tooth decay. If you can drink water containing 1 part per million fluoride, and use toothpaste containing 1,000 parts per million fluoride, then how could fluoride in air at a level of parts per billion be harmful? In other words, health authorities pretend that fluoride in the air is the same as fluoride in drinking water and toothpaste. They even present their measurements of hydrogen fluoride in air as - fluoride. When describing water fluoridation, the same tactic is used ... sodium fluoride and fluosilicic acid are described as "natural," avoiding the fact that in areas with "natural" fluoridation, the compounds involved are not these toxic wastes of industry, but a much less toxic compound of fluoride and calcium. In the 1930's scientists in Britain, Europe and the United States knew that low levels of HF were harmful. Furthermore, they had identified a visible symptom of chronic HF poisoning. Children who grew up near industries with fluoride-pollution problems could develop 'mottled' teeth; so too could cattle and sheep in the vicinity. The relationship between HF air pollution and 'mottled' teeth was an obvious threat to the Captains of Industry. They might argue whether it was sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides or hydrogen fluoride that was responsible for damage to crops and livestock, but no other air pollutants caused mottled teeth. In 1930 there were plenty of 'mottled' teeth amongst children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, headquarters of the Aluminum Company of America, Alcoa. The head chemist of Alcoa, H.V. Churchill, was given the job of 'explaining' the 'mottled' teeth in a way that would deflect attention away from Alcoa's fluoride air pollution problems. Tooth decay is caused by bacteria - single-celled organisms, which, like all cells - both enamel and vegetable - are extremely sensitive to fluoride which, above certain concentrations, is a potent poison. The most common bacterium implicated in the cause of caries is Streptococcus mutans. Levels of fluoride above 20 parts per million are lethal to S. mutans; levels as low as 0.19 ppm fluoride can interfere with certain essential metabolic enzymes in the bacterium; and concentrations of fluoride between 4 and 20 ppm can cause S. mutans to - mutate. In other words, fluoride is an anti-microbial agent of great potency. The development of a cavity in a tooth proceeds in the following manner. S. mutans (or other cariogenic bacteria) must first gain attachment to the tooth surface. Once attached, and given a suitable food supply, the bacteria thrive and multiply, producing colonies known as dental plaque. Within the plaque, millions of microbes are consuming carbohydrates and excreting dilute acids as waste products. These acids begin to eat away - demineralize - the surface layers of the tooth enamel. As a result, the enamel is broken down into its component parts, which include, calcium, phosphate, carbonate and trace amounts of fluoride (which was incorporated into the enamel as it developed). Gradually, the fluoride level in the plaque fluid builds up. When it reaches 0.19 ppm the metabolism of the bacteria slows down - less food is consumed and fewer acid wastes produced. As the level rises above 4 ppm fluoride, the 'mutation rate' of the bacteria increases dramatically. Finally, as the fluoride concentrations in the plaque rises to lethal levels, the bacteria die. And, there may even be some re-mineralization of the enamel. Wonderful! A cavity has been prevented! But all this has taken place on the surface of the body, not inside it. Of course fluoride is not the only element that can prevent decay topically. Any potentially toxic element which can become incorporated in tooth enamel, such as the bone-seeking elements - radium, uranium, cadmium, lead and strontium-90, will kill cariogenic bacteria as they are released from enamel as a consequence of the de-mineralizing effect of the microbes' acid wastes. Trace amounts of fluoride are present in bone mineral - which is very similar to the mineral in tooth enamel. However, there is a crucial difference between bone and enamel. Once fully formed, tooth enamel is static - it doesn't undergo metabolic changes. Bone, on the other hand, is constantly being remodelled. This involves 'old' bone being resorbed and 'new' bone laid down. Cells called osteocytes and osteoclasts dissolve the 'old' bone and osteoblasts help form 'new' bone. All bone contains some fluoride, and as old bone is dissolved it is released into the vicinity of the resorbing cells, and evolution has ensured that the bone cells can withstand very low levels of fluoride. But, just as the cariogenic bacteria can be harmed by the excessive levels of fluoride, so too can bone cells and bone marrow cells - which include the progenitors of immune system cells. The events described above explain the symptoms associated with both dental and skeletal fluorosis; unfortunately they also raise the spectre of bone cancer and leukemia. As Dr. Frederick Exner noted: "If American Industry had to stop polluting our air, water, and our countryside with fluoride fumes and fall-out, and to dispose of its fluoride wastes without creating a public hazard, it would cost, not mere millions, but countless billions of dollars. and therein lies the explanation for the utterly relentless drive to fluoridate our water supplies by any means, fair or foul, and many other puzzling aspects of the drive to fluoridate." Because of the dental profession's infatuation with fluoride, tens of millions of people around the world have 'mottled' teeth caused by fluoridated drinking water, fluoridated dental health products, or fluoride air pollution. The evidence is inescapable. Although cosmetic dentistry can cover up the visible damage to teeth, it is costly and highly profitable for dentists. The dental profession's long-time promotion of fluoride has created a need for cosmetic dentistry ... yet for years, dentists argued that by pushing fluoride they would be putting themselves out of business! Well, guess what ... the litigation has now begun. And once a jury accepts that fluoride can harm developing teeth, the next obvious question will be: If fluoride can damage tooth cells, what other cells and tissues in the human body are being harmed? The flood-gates will open. Over the next decade it is conceivable that in North America, Britain and Australia, at least fifteen million people will be seeking damages for 'mottled' teeth - from toothpaste manufacturers, dentists, and local authorities who permitted fluoridation. A lot of money will be involved; even at $10,000 per person, a pretty modest sum these days, we are talking about $150 BILLION. Are you beginning to get the picture? The dental profession, federal and state health authorities, and certain important industries, CANNOT admit, after 50 years, that fluoride has been damaging human health; the consequences are unthinkable. REFERENCES
In t r o d u c t i o n: The following article was commissioned by the Christian Science Monitor in the spring of 1997. Despite much favorable comment from editors, and full documentation, the story remains unpublished by the Monitor. By any yardstick, this report was an award-winning scoop for any national paper. The report offers a glimpse into the history of fluoride, a bio-accumulative toxic that Americans ingest every day. The authors, Griffiths and Bryson, spent more than a year on research. With the belief that the information should be withheld no longer, the authors gave their report to Waste Not, and others, with a short note: "use as you wish." This introduction is taken from Waste Not #414 (September 1997) where the article was first published. The article went on to be nominated as the year's 18th most censored story in the 1998 Project Censored Series.
Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb by Chris Bryson & Joel Griffiths Some fifty years after the United States began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children's teeth, declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still-controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age. Today, two thirds of U.S. public drinking water is fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the government's assurances of safety. Since the days of World War II, when this nation prevailed by building the world's first atomic bomb, U.S. public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for children's teeth. That safety verdict should now be re-examined in the light of hundreds of once-secret WWII documents obtained by Griffiths and Bryson --including declassified papers of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. military group that built the atomic bomb. Fluoride was the key chemical in atomic bomb production, according to the documents. Massive quantities of fluoride-- millions of tons-- were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. One of the most toxic chemicals known, fluoride rapidly emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the U.S atomic bomb program--both for workers and for nearby communities, the documents reveal. Other revelations include: * Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for humans in low doses was generated by A-bomb program scientists, who had been secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against defense contractors for fluoride injury to citizens. The first lawsuits against the U.S. A-bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage, the documents show. * Human studies were required. Bomb program researchers played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water--conducted in Newburgh, New York from 1945 to 1956. Then, in a classified operation code-named "Program F," they secretly gathered and analyzed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizens, with the cooperation of State Health Department personnel. * The original secret version--obtained by these reporters--of a 1948 study published by Program F scientists in the Journal of the American Dental Association shows that evidence of adverse health effects from fluoride was censored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) --considered the most powerful of Cold War agencies-- for reasons of national security. * The bomb program's fluoride safety studies were conducted at the University of Rochester, site of one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. The fluoride studies were conducted with the same ethical mind-set, in which "national security" was paramount. * The U.S. government's conflict of interest--and its motive to prove fluoride "safe" -- has not until now been made clear to the general public in the furious debate over water fluoridation since the 1950's, nor to civilian researchers and health professionals, or journalists. The declassified documents resonate with a growing body of scientific evidence, and a chorus of questions, about the health effects of fluoride in the environment. Human exposure to fluoride has mushroomed since World War II, due not only to fluoridated water and toothpaste, but to environmental pollution by major industries from aluminum to pesticides: fluoride is a critical industrial chemical. The impact can be seen, literally, in the smiles of our children. Large numbers of U.S. young people--up to 80 percent in some cities--now have dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of excessive fluoride exposure, according to the U.S. National Research Council. (The signs are whitish flecks or spots, particularly on the front teeth, or dark spots or stripes in more severe cases.) Less-known to the public is that fluoride also accumulates in bones --"The teeth are windows to what's happening in the bones," explains Paul Connett, Professor of Chemistry at St. Lawrence University (N.Y.). In recent years, pediatric bone specialists have expressed alarm about an increase in stress fractures among U.S. young people. Connett and other scientists are concerned that fluoride --linked to bone damage by studies since the 1930's-- may be a contributing factor. The declassified documents add urgency: much of the original proof that low-dose fluoride is safe for children's bones came from U.S. bomb program scientists, according to this investigation. Now, researchers who have reviewed these declassified documents fear that Cold War national security considerations may have prevented objective scientific evaluation of vital public health questions concerning fluoride. "Information was buried," concludes Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston, and now a critic of fluoridation. Animal studies Mullenix and co-workers conducted at Forsyth in the early 1990's indicated that fluoride was a powerful central nervous system (CNS) toxin, and might adversely affect human brain functioning, even at low doses. (New epidemiological evidence from China adds support, showing a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and diminished I.Q. in children.) Mullenix's results were published in 1995, in a reputable peer-reviewed scientific journal. During her investigation, Mullenix was astonished to discover there had been virtually no previous U.S. studies of fluoride's effects on the human brain. Then, her application for a grant to continue her CNS research was turned down by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where an NIH panel, she says, flatly told her that "fluoride does not have central nervous system effects." Declassified documents of the U.S. atomic-bomb program indicate otherwise. An April 29, 1944 Manhattan Project memo reports: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect.... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor." The memo --stamped "secret"-- is addressed to the head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, Colonel Stafford Warren. Colonel Warren is asked to approve a program of animal research on CNS effects: "Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure...This is important not only to protect a given individual, but also to prevent a confused workman from injuring others by improperly performing his duties." On the same day, Colonel Warren approved the CNS research program. This was in 1944, at the height of the Second World War and the nation's race to build the world's first atomic bomb. For research on fluoride's CNS effects to be approved at such a momentous time, the supporting evidence set forth in the proposal forwarded along with the memo must have been persuasive. The proposal, however, is missing from the files of the U.S. National Archives. "If you find the memos, but the document they refer to is missing, its probably still classified," said Charles Reeves, chief librarian at the Atlanta branch of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, where the memos were found. Similarly, no results of the Manhattan Project's fluoride CNS research could be found in the files. After reviewing the memos, Mullenix declared herself "flabbergasted." She went on, "How could I be told by NIH that fluoride has no central nervous system effects when these documents were sitting there all the time?" She reasons that the Manhattan Project did do fluoride CNS studies --"that kind of warning, that fluoride workers might be a danger to the bomb program by improperly performing their duties--I can't imagine that would be ignored"-- but that the results were buried because they might create a difficult legal and public relations problem for the government. The author of the 1944 CNS research proposal was Dr. Harold C. Hodge, at the time chief of fluoride toxicology studies for the University of Rochester division of the Manhattan Project. Nearly fifty years later at the Forsyth Dental Center in Boston, Dr. Mullenix was introduced to a gently ambling elderly man brought in to serve as a consultant on her CNS research--Harold C. Hodge. By then Hodge had achieved status emeritus as a world authority on fluoride safety. "But even though he was supposed to be helping me," says Mullenix, "he never once mentioned the CNS work he had done for the Manhattan Project." The "black hole" in fluoride CNS research since the days of the Manhattan Project is unacceptable to Mullenix, who refuses to abandon the issue. "There is so much fluoride exposure now, and we simply do not know what it is doing," she says. "You can't just walk away from this." Dr. Antonio Noronha, an NIH scientific review advisor familiar with Dr. Mullenix's grant request, says her proposal was rejected by a scientific peer-review group. He terms her claim of institutional bias against fluoride CNS research "farfetched." He adds, "We strive very hard at NIH to make sure politics does not enter the picture." Fluoride and National Security The documentary trail begins at the height of WW2, in 1944, when a severe pollution incident occurred downwind of the E.I. du Pont du Nemours Company chemical factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. The factory was then producing millions of pounds of fluoride for the Manhattan project, the ultra-secret U.S. military program racing to produce the world's first atomic bomb. The farms downwind in Gloucester and Salem counties were famous for their high-quality produce -- their peaches went directly to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Their tomatoes were bought up by Campbell's Soup. But in the summer of 1943, the farmers began to report that their crops were blighted, and that "something is burning up the peach crops around here." Poultry died after an all-night thunderstorm, they reported. Farm workers who ate the produce they had picked sometimes vomited all night and into the next day. "I remember our horses looked sick and were too stiff to work," these reporters were told by Mildred Giordano, who was a teenager at the time. Some cows were so crippled they could not stand up, and grazed by crawling on their bellies. The account was confirmed in taped interviews, shortly before he died, with Philip Sadtler of Sadtler Laboratories of Philadelphia, one of the nation's oldest chemical consulting firms. Sadtler had personally conducted the initial investigation of the damage. Although the farmers did not know it, the attention of the Manhattan Project and the federal government was riveted on the New Jersey incident, according to once-secret documents obtained by these reporters. After the war's end, in a secret Manhattan Project memo dated March 1, 1946, the Project's chief of fluoride toxicology studies, Harold C. Hodge, worriedly wrote to his boss Colonel Stafford L. Warren, Chief of the Medical Division, about "problems associated with the question of fluoride contamination of the atmosphere in a certain section of New Jersey. There seem to be four distinct (though related) problems," continued Hodge; 1. A question of injury of the peach crop in 1944. 2. A report of extraordinary fluoride content of vegetables grown in this area. 3. A report of abnormally high fluoride content in the blood of human individuals residing in this area. 4. A report raising the question of serious poisoning of horses and cattle in this area. The New Jersey farmers waited until the war was over, then sued du Pont and the Manhattan Project for fluoride damage -- reportedly the first lawsuits against the U.S. A-bomb program. Although seemingly trivial, the lawsuits shook the government, the secret documents reveal. Under the personal direction of Manhattan Project chief Major General Leslie R.Groves, secret meetings were convened in Washington, with compulsory attendance by scores of scientists and officials from the U.S War Department, the Manhattan Project, the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture and Justice Departments, the U.S Army's Chemical Warfare Service and Edgewood Arsenal, the Bureau of Standards, and du Pont lawyers. Declassified memos of the meetings reveal a secret mobilization of the full forces of the government to defeat the New Jersey farmers: These agencies "are making scientific investigations to obtain evidence which may be used to protect the interest of the Government at the trial of the suits brought by owners of peach orchards in ... New Jersey," stated Manhattan Project Lieutenant Colonel Cooper B. Rhodes, in a memo c.c.'d to General Groves. 27 August 1945 Subject: Investigation of Crop Damage at Lower Penns Neck, New Jersey To: The Commanding General, Army Service Forces, Pentagon Building, Washington D.C. "At the request of the Secretary of War the Department of Agriculture has agreed to cooperate in investigating complaints of crop damage attributed... to fumes from a plant operated in connection with the Manhattan Project." Signed, L.R. Groves, Major General U.S. "The Department of Justice is cooperating in the defense of these suits," wrote General Groves in a Feb. 28, 1946 memo to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy. Why the national-security emergency over a few lawsuits by New Jersey farmers? In 1946 the United States had begun full-scale production of atomic bombs. No other nation had yet tested a nuclear weapon, and the A-bomb was seen as crucial for U.S leadership of the postwar world. The New Jersey fluoride lawsuits were a serious roadblock to that strategy. "The specter of endless lawsuits haunted the military," writes Lansing Lamont in his acclaimed book about the first atomic bomb test, "Day of Trinity." In the case of fluoride, "If the farmers won, it would open the door to further suits, which might impede the bomb program's ability to use fluoride," said Jacqueline Kittrell, a Tennessee public interest lawyer specializing in nuclear cases, who examined the declassified fluoride documents. (Kittrell has represented plaintiffs in several human radiation experiment cases.) She added, "The reports of human injury were especially threatening, because of the potential for enormous settlements -- not to mention the PR problem." Indeed, du Pont was particularly concerned about the "possible psychologic reaction" to the New Jersey pollution incident, according to a secret 1946 Manhattan Project memo. Facing a threat from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to embargo the region's produce because of "high fluoride content," du Pont dispatched its lawyers to the FDA offices in Washington, where an agitated meeting ensued. According to a memo sent next day to General Groves, Du Pont's lawyer argued "that in view of the pending suits...any action by the Food and Drug Administration... would have a serious effect on the du Pont Company and would create a bad public relations situation." After the meeting adjourned, Manhattan Project Captain John Davies approached the FDA's Food Division chief and "impressed upon Dr. White the substantial interest which the Government had in claims which might arise as a result of action which might be taken by the Food and Drug Administration." There was no embargo. Instead, new tests for fluoride in the New Jersey area would be conducted -- not by the Department of Agriculture -- but by the U.S. Army's Chemical Warfare Service because "work done by the Chemical Warfare Service would carry the greatest weight as evidence if... lawsuits are started by the complainants." The memo was signed by General Groves. Meanwhile, the public relations problem remained unresolved -- local citizens were in a panic about fluoride. The farmer's spokesman, Willard B. Kille, was personally invited to dine with General Groves --then known as "the man who built the atomic bomb" -- at his office at the War Department on March 26, 1946. Although he had been diagnosed with fluoride poisoning by his doctor, Kille departed the luncheon convinced of the government's good faith. The next day he wrote to the general, wishing the other farmers could have been present, he said, so "they too could come away with the feeling that their interests in this particular matter were being safeguarded by men of the very highest type whose integrity they could not question." In a subsequent secret Manhattan project memo, a broader solution to the public relations problem was suggested by chief fluoride toxicologist Harold C. Hodge. He wrote to the Medical Section chief, Col. Warren: "Would there be any use in making attempts to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents of Salem and Gloucester counties through lectures on F toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of F in tooth health?" Such lectures were indeed given, not only to New Jersey citizens but to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War. The New Jersey farmers' lawsuits were ultimately stymied by the government's refusal to reveal the key piece of information that would have settled the case --how much fluoride du Pont had vented into the atmosphere during the war. "Disclosure... would be injurious to the military security of the United States," wrote Manhattan Project Major C.A Taney, Jr. The farmers were pacified with token financial settlements, according to interviews with descendants still living in the area. "All we knew is that du Pont released some chemical that burned up all the peach trees around here," recalls Angelo Giordano, whose father James was one of the original plaintiffs. "The trees were no good after that, so we had to give up on the peaches." Their horses and cows, too, acted stiff and walked stiff, recalls his sister Mildred. "Could any of that have been the fluoride ?" she asked. (The symptoms she detailed to the authors are cardinal signs of fluoride toxicity, according to veterinary toxicologists.) The Giordano family, too, has been plagued by bone and joint problems, Mildred adds. Recalling the settlement received by the Giordanos, Angelo told these reporters that "my father said he got about $200." The farmers were stonewalled in their search for information, and their complaints have long since been forgotten. But they unknowingly left their imprint on history -- their claims of injury to their health reverberated through the corridors of power in Washington, and triggered intensive secret bomb-program research on the health effects of fluoride. A secret 1945 memo from Manhattan Project Lt. Col. Rhodes to General Groves stated: "Because of complaints that animals and humans have been injured by hydrogen fluoride fumes in [the New Jersey] area, although there are no pending suits involving such claims, the University of Rochester is conducting experiments to determine the toxic effect of fluoride." Much of the proof of fluoride's safety in low doses rests on the postwar work performed by the University of Rochester, in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. Fluoride and the Cold War. Delegating fluoride safety studies to the University of Rochester was not surprising. During WWII the federal government had become involved, for the first time, in large-scale funding of scientific research at government-owned labs and private colleges. Those early spending priorities were shaped by the nation's often-secret military needs. The prestigious upstate New York college, in particular, had housed a key wartime division of the Manhattan Project, studying the health effects of the new "special materials," such as uranium, plutonium, beryllium and fluoride, being used to make the atomic bomb. That work continued after the war, with millions of dollars flowing from the Manhattan Project and its successor organization, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). (Indeed, the bomb left an indelible imprint on all U.S. science in the late 1940's and 50's. Up to 90% of federal funds for university research came from either the Defense Department or the AEC in this period, according to Noam Chomsky's 1996 book "The Cold War and the University.") The University of Rochester medical school became a revolving door for senior bomb program scientists. Postwar faculty included Stafford Warren, the top medical officer of the Manhattan Project, and Harold Hodge, chief of fluoride research for the bomb program. But this marriage of military secrecy and medical science bore deformed offspring. The University of Rochester's classified fluoride studies -- code- named Program F -- were conducted at its Atomic Energy Project (AEP), a top-secret facility funded by the AEC and housed in Strong Memorial Hospital. It was there that one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War took place, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. Revelation of this experiment in a Pulitzer prize-winning account by Eileen Welsome led to a 1995 U.S. Presidential investigation, and a multimillion-dollar cash settlement for victims. Program F was not about children's teeth. It grew directly out of litigation against the bomb program and its main purpose was to furnish scientific ammunition which the government and its nuclear contractors could use to defeat lawsuits for human injury. Program F's director was none other than Harold C. Hodge, who had led the Manhattan Project investigation of alleged human injury in the New Jersey fluoride-pollution incident. Program F's purpose is spelled out in a classified 1948 report. It reads: "To supply evidence useful in the litigation arising from an alleged loss of a fruit crop several years ago, a number of problems have been opened. Since excessive blood fluoride levels were reported in human residents of the same area, our principal effort has been devoted to describing the relationship of blood fluorides to toxic effects." The litigation referred to, of course, and the claims of human injury were against the bomb program and its contractors. Thus, the purpose of Program F was to obtain evidence useful in litigation against the bomb program. The research was being conducted by the defendants. The potential conflict of interest is clear. If lower dose ranges were found hazardous by Program F, it might have opened the bomb program and its contractors to lawsuits for injury to human health, as well as public outcry. Comments lawyer Kittrell: "This and other documents indicate that the University of Rochester's fluoride research grew out of the New Jersey lawsuits and was performed in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. Studies undertaken for litigation purposes by the defendants would not be considered scientifically acceptable today, " adds Kittrell, "because of their inherent bias to prove the chemical safe." Unfortunately, much of the proof of fluoride's safety rests on the work performed by Program F Scientists at the University of Rochester. During the postwar period that university emerged as the leading academic center for establishing the safety of fluoride, as well as its effectiveness in reducing tooth decay, according to Dental School spokesperson William H. Bowen, MD. The key figure in this research, Bowen said, was Harold C. Hodge-- who also became a leading national proponent of fluoridating public drinking water. Program F's interest in water fluoridation was not just 'to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents,' as Hodge had earlier written. The bomb program needed human studies, as they had needed human studies for plutonium, and adding fluoride to public water supplies provided one opportunity. The A-Bomb Program and Water Fluoridation Bomb-program scientists played a prominent -- if unpublicized -- role in the nation's first-planned water fluoridation experiment, in Newburgh, New York. The Newburgh Demonstration Project is considered the most extensive study of the health effects of fluoridation, supplying much of the evidence that low doses are safe for children's bones, and good for their teeth. Planning began in 1943 with the appointment of a special New York State Health Department committee to study the advisability of adding fluoride to Newburgh's drinking water. The chairman of the committee was Dr. Hodge, then chief of fluoride toxicity studies for the Manhattan Project. Subsequent members included Henry L. Barnett, a captain in the Project's Medical section, and John W. Fertig, in 1944 with the office of Scientific Research and Development, the Pentagon group which sired the Manhattan Project. Their military affiliations were kept secret: Hodge was described as a pharmacologist, Barnett as a pediatrician. Placed in charge of the Newburgh project was David B. Ast, chief dental officer of the State Health Department. Ast had participated in a key secret wartime conference on fluoride held by the Manhattan Project, and later worked with Dr. Hodge on the Project's investigation of human injury in the New Jersey incident, according to once-secret memos. The committee recommended that Newburgh be fluoridated. It also selected the types of medical studies to be done, and "provided expert guidance" for the duration of the experiment. The key question to be answered was: "Are there any cumulative effects -- beneficial or otherwise, on tissues and organs other than the teeth -- of long-continued ingestion of such small concentrations...?" According to the declassified documents, this was also key information sought by the bomb program, which would require long-continued exposure of workers and communities to fluoride throughout the Cold War. In May 1945, Newburgh's water was fluoridated, and over the next ten years its residents were studied by the State Health Department. In tandem, Program F conducted its own secret studies, focusing on the amounts of fluoride Newburgh citizens retained in their blood and tissues - key information sought by the bomb program: "Possible toxic effects of fluoride were in the forefront of consideration," the advisory committee stated. Health Department personnel cooperated, shipping blood and placenta samples to the Program F team at the University of Rochester. The samples were collected by Dr. David B. Overton, the Department's chief of pediatric studies at Newburgh. The final report of the Newburgh Demonstration Project, published in 1956 in the Journal of the American Dental Association, concluded that "small concentrations" of fluoride were safe for U.S.citizens. The biological proof -- "based on work performed ... at the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project" -- was delivered by Dr. Hodge. Today, news that scientists from the atomic bomb program secretly shaped and guided the Newburgh fluoridation experiment, and studied the citizen's blood and tissue samples, is greeted with incredulity. "I'm shocked -- beyond words," said present-day Newburgh Mayor Audrey Carey, commenting on these reporters' findings. "It reminds me of the Tuskegee experiment that was done on syphilis patients down in Alabama." As a child in the early 1950's, Mayor Carey was taken to the old firehouse on Broadway in Newburgh, which housed the Public Health Clinic. There, doctors from the Newburgh fluoridation project studied her teeth, and a peculiar fusion of two finger bones on her left hand she had been born with. Today, adds Carey, her granddaughter has white dental-fluorosis marks on her front teeth. Mayor Carey wants answers from the government about the secret history of fluoride, and the Newburgh fluoridation experiment. "I absolutely want to pursue it," she said. "It is appalling to do any kind of experimentation and study without people's knowledge and permission." Contacted by these reporters, the director of the Newburgh experiment, David B. Ast, says he was unaware Manhattan Project scientists were involved. "If I had known, I would have been certainly investigating why, and what the connection was," he said. Did he know that blood and placenta samples from Newburgh were being sent to bomb program researchers at the University of Rochester? "I was not aware of it," Ast replied. Did he recall participating in the Manhattan Project's secret wartime conference on fluoride in January 1944, or going to New Jersey with Dr. Hodge to investigate human injury in the du Pont case--as secret memos state? He told the reporters he had no recollection of these events. A spokesperson for the University of Rochester Medical Center, Bob Loeb, confirmed that blood and tissue samples from Newburgh had been tested by the University's Dr. Hodge. On the ethics of secretly studying U.S citizens to obtain information useful in litigation against the A-bomb program, he said, "that's a question we cannot answer." He referred inquiries to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), successor to the Atomic Energy Commission. A spokesperson for the DOE in Washington, Jayne Brady, confirmed that a review of DOE files indicated that a "significant reason" for fluoride experiments conducted at the University of Rochester after the war was "impending litigation between the du Pont company and residents of New Jersey areas." However, she added, "DOE has found no documents to indicate that fluoride research was done to protect the Manhattan Project or its contractors from lawsuits." On Manhattan Project involvement in Newburgh, the spokesperson stated, "Nothing that we have suggests that the DOE or predecessor agencies -- especially the Manhattan Project -- authorized fluoride experiments to be performed on children in the 1940's." When told that the reporters had several documents that directly tied the Manhattan Project's successor agency at the University of Rochester, the AEP, to the Newburgh experiment, the DOE spokesperson later conceded her study was confined to "the available universe" of documents. Two days later spokesperson Jayne Brady faxed a statement for clarification: "My search only involved the documents that we collected as part of our human radiation experiments project -- fluoride was not part of our research effort. "Most significantly," the statement continued, relevant documents may be in a classified collection at the DOE Oak Ridge National Laboratory known as the Records Holding Task Group. "This collection consists entirely of classified documents removed from other files for the purpose of classified document accountability many years ago," and was "a rich source of documents for the human radiation experiments project," she said. The crucial question arising from this investigation is: Were adverse health findings from Newburgh and other bomb-program fluoride studies suppressed? All AEC-funded studies had to be declassified before publication in civilian medical and dental journals. Where are the original classified versions? The transcript of one of the major secret scientific conferences of WW2--on "fluoride metabolism"--is missing from the files of the U.S. National Archives. Participants in the conference included key figures who promoted the safety of fluoride and water fluoridation to the public after the war - Harold Hodge of the Manhattan Project, David B. Ast of the Newburgh Project, and U.S. Public Health Service dentist H.Trendley Dean, popularly known as the "father of fluoridation." "If it is missing from the files, it is probably still classified," National Archives librarians told these reporters. A 1944 WW2 Manhattan Project classified report on water fluoridation is missing from the files of the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project, the U.S. National Archives, and the Nuclear Repository at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The next four numerically consecutive documents are also missing, while the remainder of the "MP-1500 series" is present. "Either those documents are still classified, or they've been 'disappeared' by the government," says Clifford Honicker, Executive Director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project, in Knoxville, Tennessee, which provided key evidence in the public exposure and prosecution of U.S. human radiation experiments. Seven pages have been cut out of a 1947 Rochester bomb-project notebook entitled "Du Pont litigation." "Most unusual," commented chief medical school archivist Chris Hoolihan. Similarly, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by these authors over a year ago with the DOE for hundreds of classified fluoride reports have failed to dislodge any. "We're behind," explained Amy Rothrock, FOIA officer for the Department of Energy at their Oak Ridge operations. Was information suppressed? These reporters made what appears to be the first discovery of the original classified version of a fluoride safety study by bomb program scientists. A censored version of this study was later published in the August 1948 Journal of the American Dental Association. Comparison of the secret with the published version indicates that the U.S. AEC did censor damaging information on fluoride, to the point of tragicomedy. This was a study of the dental and physical health of workers in a factory producing fluoride for the A-bomb program, conducted by a team of dentists from the Manhattan Project. * The secret version reports that most of the men had no teeth left. The published version reports only that the men had fewer cavities. * The secret version says the men had to wear rubber boots because the fluoride fumes disintegrated the nails in their shoes. The published version does not mention this. * The secret version says the fluoride may have acted similarly on the men's teeth, contributing to their toothlessness. The published version omits this statement. The published version concludes that "the men were unusually healthy, judged from both a medical and dental point of view." Asked for comment on the early links of the Manhattan Project to water fluoridation, Dr Harold Slavkin, Director of the National Institute for Dental Research, the U.S. agency which today funds fluoride research, said, "I wasn't aware of any input from the Atomic Energy Commission." Nevertheless, he insisted, fluoride's efficacy and safety in the prevention of dental cavities over the last fifty years is well-proved. "The motivation of a scientist is often different from the outcome, " he reflected. "I do not hold a prejudice about where the knowledge comes from." After comparing the secret and published versions of the censored study, toxicologist Phyllis Mullenix commented, "This makes me ashamed to be a scientist." Of other Cold War-era fluoride safety studies, she asks, "Were they all done like this?"
About the authors : Joel Griffiths is a medical writer in New York City, author of a book on radiation hazards and numerous articles for medical and popular publications. Joel can be contacted at 212-662-6695. Chris Bryson holds a Masters degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and has worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, The Manchester Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor and Public Television. Chris can be contacted at 212-665-3442. Waste Not # 414 Published 48 times a year. Annual rates: Groups & Non-Profits $50; Individuals $40; Students & Seniors $35; Consultants & For-Profits $125; Canadian $US45; Overseas $65. Editors: Ellen & Paul Connett, 82 Judson Street, Canton NY 13617. Tel: 315-379-9200. Fax: 315-379-0448. Email: wastenot@northnet.org Reproduced gratefully from: Fluoride Action Network
Reproduced gratefully from: Fluoride Action Network
December 2004: The Drugging Of America with Fluoride: American soldiers who entered Germany at the end of World War 2 made the liberating of POW camps a priority. At camp after camp, they found stockpiles of fluoride stored near the water supply. When they asked what the fluoride was used for, they were told that the Germans used the substance as an additive to the prisoners water, to make them docile. This is the first known incidence of intentionally fluoridating drinking water. This practice was soon adapted to American use. By the time General Patton took his Third Army to Berlin, the US Army was adding it to the soldiers water to keep them calm and passive. Patton strenuously objected, and refused to allow fluoridation of his troops. (Patton was later killed when his jeep was struck by an Army truck. This accident injured the General, but it didn't kill him. On the way to the hospital, another Army truck hit him, this time resulting in his death. The mysterious death of America's great General Patton will be the subject of a future story here.) Within a few years, most of the drinking water in the United States had been fluoridated, in the interests of preventing tooth decay. All of our major brands of toothpaste contain fluoride. Most beverages and foods contain sodium fluoride. This is not a naturally-occurring phenomenon - it is intentionally introduced. The most important question becomes "does fluoride do what it claims to do - prevent tooth decay?" The answer is that it does not. Not only is there no proof that fluoride prevents tooth decay, there is powerful evidence to the contrary. The largest study ever taken on the matter was conducted in Tucson, Arizona in 1992. 26,000 elementary school students were involved in the study, which produced empirical evidence that the more fluoride a child consumes, the more cavities will appear! The study was conducted by the University of Arizona under the supervision of world-renowned Professor Emeritus Cornelius Steelink. Of course, most of the countries on Earth rejected fluoridated water years ago. Only the United States and a small handful of countries under our influence continue to add this toxin to their public drinking water supplies. China discontinued the practice after finding that fluoride in the water lowers the ability of children to learn. There is also scientific evidence that osteoporosis, Alzheimers Disease, and other aluminum-related diseases are caused by fluoride - an aluminum by-product. Research chemist Charles Perkins said, "Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination, by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him. The real reason behind water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason there are many ways in which it could be done that are much easier, cheaper, and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination and control and loss of liberty." So, what is fluoride anyway? First of all, it needs to be stated that the 'substance' referred to as 'Fluoride' is a misnomer - there is no such substance listed in the periodic chart of the elements, nor in the prestigious CRC handbook, nor in the sacred 'bible' of the pharmaceutical industry - the illustrious 'Merck Index'. Instead, we find a GAS called Fluorine - and from the use of this gas in various industries such as aluminum manufacturing and the nuclear industry certain toxic byproducts are created which have 'captured' fluorine molecules. One such toxic, poisonous 'byproduct' is called sodium fluoride - which according to the Merck Index is primarily used as rat and cockroach poison and is also the active ingredient in most toothpastes and as an additive to drinking water. The proof that it is a toxic poison can be found by reading the warning label on any tube of toothpaste. Sodium Fluoride is also one of the basic ingredients in both Prozac and Sarin Nerve Gas, as well as a host of anti-depressant drugs and commercial insecticides. Sodium Fluoride is a hazardous waste by-product of the nuclear and aluminum industries. In addition to being the primary ingredient in rat and cockroach poison, it is also a main ingredient in anesthetic, hypnotic, and psychiatric drugs as well as military nerve gas! Historically, this substance was quite expensive for chemical companies to dispose of, but in the 50's and 60's Alcoa and the entire aluminum industry - with a vast overabundance of the toxic waste - sold the FDA and our government on the insane but highly profitable idea of buying this poison at a 20,000% markup and then injecting it into our water supply as well as into the nation's toothpaste. When sodium fluoride is injected into our drinking water, its level is approximately 1 part-per-million (ppm), but since we only drink ½ of one percent of the total water supply, the hazardous chemical literally goes down the drain. The chemical industry has not only a free hazardous waste disposal system - but we have also paid them millions of dollars in the process. Independent scientific evidence over the past 50 plus years has shown that sodium fluoride shortens our life span, promotes various cancers and mental disturbances, and most importantly, makes humans stupid, docile, and subservient, all in one neat little package. Honest scientists who have attempted to blow the whistle on fluoride have consistently been professionally black-listed, and their valid points never have received the ink they deserve. In 1952 a slick PR campaign rammed the concept of 'fluoridation' through our Public Health departments and various dental organizations. This slick campaign was more akin to a highly emotional "beer salesman convention" instead of the objective, scientifically researched program that it should have been. It has continued in the same vein right up to the present day - and now sodium fluoride use has now become 'usual and customary'. To illustrate the emotional vs. the scientific nature of this issue, just look at the response given by people (perhaps yourself included?) when the subject of fluoridation comes up. You need to ask yourself, "Is this particular response based on emotions born of tradition, or is it truly unbiased and based instead on thoroughly researched objectivity?" There is a tremendous amount of emotion attached to the topic of fluoride usage - but I can't find even one objective, double blind study that even remotely links fluoride to healthy teeth at any age. Instead, I hear "9 out of 10 dentists recommend 'fluoride' toothpaste". Truly independent scientists who've spent a large portion of their lives studying this subject have been hit with a surprising amount of unfair character assassination from strong vested-interest groups who profit from the public's ignorance and illnesses. Reproduced gratefully from: http://gatorpress.com/badsam/page2.html
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