|
Prominent Researcher Apologizes for Pushing Fluoride
by Barry Forbes
"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.
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.
Barry Forbes
The Tribune, Mesa, AZ
Reproduced With Permission
|
