by Barry Forbes, The Tribune, Mesa, AZ
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Reproduced With Permission
"Why'd you do it, Doc? Why'd you toss the fluoride folks overboard?"
I had just tracked down Dr. Hardy Limeback, B.Sc., Ph.D in
Biochemistry, D.D.S., head of the Department of Preventive
Dentistry for the University of Toronto, and president of the
Canadian Association for Dental Research. (Whew.)
Dr. Limeback is Canada's leading fluoride authority and, until
recently, the country's primary promoter of the controversial
additive. In a surprising newsmaker interview this past April, Dr.
Limeback announced a dramatic change of heart. "Children under
three should never use fluoridated toothpaste," he counseled. "Or
drink fluoridated water. And baby formula must never be made up
using Toronto tap water. Never."
Why, I wondered? What could have caused such a powerful paradigm
shift?
"It's been building up for a couple of years," Limeback told me
during a recent telephone interview. "But certainly the crowning
blow was the realization that we have been dumping contaminated
fluoride into water reservoirs for half a century. The vast
majority of all fluoride additives come from Tampa Bay, Florida
smokestack scrubbers. The additives are a toxic byproduct of the
super-phosphate fertilizer industry."
"Tragically," he continued, "that means we're not just dumping
toxic fluoride into our drinking water. We're also exposing
innocent, unsuspecting people to deadly elements of lead, arsenic
and radium, all of them carcinogenic. Because of the cumulative
properties of toxins, the detrimental effects on human health are
catastrophic." A recent study at the University of Toronto
confirmed Dr. Limeback's worst fears. "Residents of cities that
fluoridate have double the fluoride In their hip bones vis-a-vis
the balance of the population. Worse, we discovered that fluoride
is actually altering the basic architecture of human bones."
Skeletal fluorosis is a debilitating condition that occurs when
fluoride accumulates in bones, making them extremely weak and
brittle. The earliest symptoms?
"Mottled and brittle teeth," Dr. Limeback told me. "In Canada we
are now spending more money treating dental fluorosis than we do
treating cavities. That includes my own practice."
One of the most obvious living experiments today, Dr. Limeback
believes, is a proof-positive comparison between any two Canadian
cities. "Here in Toronto we've been fluoridating for 36 years. Yet
Vancouver – which has never fluoridated – has a cavity rate lower
than Toronto's."
And, he pointed out, cavity rates are low all across the
industrialized world including Europe, which is 98% fluoride free.
Low because of improved standards of living, less refined sugar,
regular dental checkups, flossing and frequent brushing. Now less
than 2 cavities per child Canada-wide, he said.
"I don't get it, Doc. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) ran a puff piece all across America saying the stuff was
better than sliced bread. What's the story?"
"Unfortunately," he replied, "the CDC is basing its position on
data that is 50 years old, and questionable at best. Absolutely no
one has done research on fluorosilicates, which is the junk
they're dumping into the drinking water."
"On the other hand," he added, "the evidence against systemic
fluoride in-take continues to pour in."
"But Doc, the dentists."
"I have absolutely no training in toxicity," he stated firmly. "Your
well-intentioned dentist is simply following 50 years of
misinformation from public health and the dental association. Me,
too. Unfortunately, we were wrong."
Last week, Dr. Hardy Limeback addressed his faculty and students
at the University of Toronto, Department of Dentistry. In a
poignant, memorable meeting, he apologized to those gathered
before him.
"Speaking as the head of preventive dentistry, I told them that I
had unintentionally mislead my colleagues and my students. For the
past 15 years, I had refused to study the toxicology information
that is readily available to anyone. Poisoning our children was
the furthest thing from my mind."
"The truth," he confessed to me, "was a bitter pill to swallow.
But swallow it I did."
South of the border, the paradigm shift has yet to dawn. After
half a century of delusion, the CDC, American Dental Association
and Public Health stubbornly and skillfully continue to manipulate
public opinion in favor of fluoridation.
Meantime, study after study is delivering the death knell of the
deadly toxin. Sure, fluoridation will be around for a long time
yet, but ultimately its supporters need to ready the life rafts.
The poisonous waters of doubt and confusion are bound to get
choppier.
"Are lawsuits inevitable?" I asked the good doctor. "Remember
tobacco," was his short, succinct reply.
Welcome, Dr. Hardy Limeback, to the far side of the fluoride
equation.
It's lonely over here, but in our society loneliness and truth
frequently travel hand in hand.
Thank you for the undeniable courage of your convictions.
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