Reviews: What they say about how it started

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The National Institute of Dental (and Craniofacial) Research:

"It started as an observation, that soon took the shape of an idea. It ended, five decades later, as a scientific revolution that shot dentistry into the forefront of preventive medicine. This is the story of how dental science discovered -and ultimately proved to the world- that fluoride, a mineral found in rocks and soil, prevents tooth decay. Although dental caries remains a public health worry, it is no longer the unbridled problem it once was, thanks to fluoride."

http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/news/fluoride.asp

Colorado Springs Dental Society:

"Dr. Frederick S. McKay was born in 1874 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was a 1900 graduate of the Dental School University of Pennsylvania and came to Colorado Springs in 1901. Partially because he had the inquisitiveness of a recent graduate and partially because he was not a native of Colorado Springs, Dr. McKay was intrigued by the number of patients whose teeth were stained with white or brown spots; and in severe cases, the enamel was pitted. Dr. McKay was distressed by the apathy of the rest of the profession to do something positive about correcting this cosmetic problem. ..."

http://www.cs-ds.org/dental_health_cs_History_Dentistry.htm

The American Dental Association:

"Following years of observation and study, McKay determined that it was high levels of naturally occurring fluoride in the drinking water that was causing the mottled enamel. McKay's deductions were researched by Dr. H. Trendley Dean, a dental officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. Dean designed the first fluoride studies in the United States. These early studies were aimed at evaluating how high the fluoride levels in water could be before visible, severe dental fluorosis occurred. By 1936, Dean and his staff had made the critical discovery that fluoride levels of up to 1.0 part per million (ppm) in the drinking water did not cause mottling, or severe dental fluorosis. Dean additionally noted a correlation between fluoride levels in the water and reduced incidence of dental decay ... "

http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fluoride/facts-intro.html

The Center for Disease Control (CDC):

"Dr. F. L. Robertson, a dentist in Bauxite, Arkansas, noted the presence of mottled enamel among children after a deep well was dug in 1909 to provide a local water supply. A hypothesis that something in the water was responsible for mottled enamel led local officials to abandon the well in 1927. In 1930, H. V. Churchill, a chemist with Aluminum Company of America, an aluminum manufacturing company that had bauxite mines in the town, used a newly available method of spectrographic analysis that identified high concentrations of fluoride (13.7 parts per million [ppm]) in the water of the abandoned well (8). Fluoride, the ion of the element fluorine, almost universally is found in soil and water but generally in very low concentrations (less than 1.0 ppm). On hearing of the new analytic method, McKay sent water samples to Churchill from areas where mottled enamel was endemic; these samples contained high levels of fluoride (2.0-12.0 ppm). The identification of a possible etiologic agent for mottled enamel led to the establishment in 1931 of the Dental Hygiene Unit at the National Institute of Health headed by Dr. H. Trendley Dean. Dean's primary responsibility was to investigate the association between fluoride and mottled enamel ..."

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4841a1.htm

Who is Dr. H. Trendley Dean?

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4841bx.htm

Sheila L.M. Gibson:

"It was a biochemist named Gerald Cox, sponsored by the American aluminium giant ALCOA (Aluminum Company of America) who first suggested that if naturally fluoridated water prevented tooth decay, then it was only logical to add fluoride to all drinking water to achieve the same benefits for all people. From being a troublesome industrial pollutant, fluoride suddenly became a desirable medication, and the fluoride-producing industries had a market for their toxic wastes."

http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Dentistry/gibsn24.htm

see also: http://www.fluoride-history.de/cox.htm

Gary Null:

"Now Dean remembered McKay and Black's claims that fluorosis victims mottled, discolored teeth were especially resistant to decay. He came up with the notion that fluoride added to the water supply at the magic threshold dosage of 1 ppm would prevent tooth decay, while avoiding damage to bones and teeth.(9) He recommended further studies to determine whether his hypothesis was true.

Griffiths continues: ´Back at the Mellon Institute, ALCOA's Pittsburgh industrial research lab, this news was galvanic. There, biochemist Gerald J. Cox immediately fluoridated some lab rats in a study and concluded that fluoride reduced cavities and that: "The case should be regarded as proved." In a historic moment in 1939, the first public proposal that the U.S. should fluoridate its water supplies was made not by a doctor, or dentist, but by Cox, an industry scientist working for a company threatened by fluoride damage claims and burdened by the odious expense of disposing of tons of toxic industrial waste. Cox began touring the country, stumping for fluoridation.(10) Dean would go on to carve out a nice career for himself as the "father" of public water fluoridation. He became the first dental scientist at the National Institute of Health, advancing to director of the dental research section in 1945. After World War II, he directed epidemiological studies for the Army in Germany. When Congress established the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) in 1948, Dean was appointed its director, a position he held until retiring in 1953.(11) In his post at the NIDR, he was to oversee the first clinical trial of fluoridation in an American city, Grand Rapids Michigan.(12).´"

http://www.garynull.com/Documents/Dental/Fluoride/fluoride2.htm

see also: http://www.fluoride-history.de/cox.htm

Papercamp:

"In 1931 at the University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station M. C. Smith, E. M. Lantz, and H. V. Smith discovered that when given drinking water supplied with fluorine, rats would develop tooth defects. Further testing by H. T. Dean and E. Elove of the United States Public Health Service confirmed this report, and stated that what is known as mottled tooth. Mottled tooth is a condition in which white spots develop on the back teeth. Gradually the white spots get darker and darker until the tooth is eroded completely. This was believed to be caused by fluorine in drinking water (Behrman pg. 181). A strong uproar was heard when this was released and people wanted all fluorine out of their water. But later tests concluded that communities with high levels of fluorine in their drinking water suffered less dental cavities. Further testing concluded that at least 1.0 parts per million of fluorine could help to prevent cavities, but more than 1.5 PPM would cause mottled tooth, so basically a little fluorine would be okay but a lot of fluorine would be bad (Behrman 182). In 1938, with this information, Dr. Gerald Cox of the Mellon Institute began to promote the addition of fluoride to public water systems, claiming that it would reduce tooth decay, however there were two major obstacles in his path, The American Medical Association, and The American Dental Association."

http://www.papercamp.com/sci26.htm

relative to Cox see also: http://www.fluoride-history.de/cox.htm

Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson

"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."

http://www.fluoridealert.org/wastenot414.htm

Joel Griffiths:

"During the industrial explosion of the 1920s, the US Public Health Service (PHS) was under the jurisdiction of Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, a founder and major stockholder of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). In 1931, a PHS dentist named H. Trendley Dean was dispatched to remote towns in the West where drinking-water wells contained high concentrations of natural fluoride. His mission: to determine how much fluoride people could tolerate without sustaining obvious damage to their teeth. Dean found that teeth in these high-fluoride towns were often discolored and eroded, but he also reported that they appeared to have fewer cavities than average. The University of Cincinnati's Kettering Laboratory, funded largely by top fluoride-emitters such as Alcoa, quickly dominated fluoride safety research. A book by Kettering scientist (and Reynolds Metals consultant) E. J. Largent, was admittedly written in part to "aid industry in lawsuits arising from fluoride damage." Nonetheless, the book became a basic international reference work."

http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/spring98/sp98b_fe.htm

F.B. Exner:

"Around 1900, the very existence of the smelter industry, both in Germany and Great Britain, was threatened by successful suits for fluorine damage and by burdensome laws and regulations. (3) Today that same threat hangs over the bulk of American big-industry; and fluoridation offers both camouflage and scapegoat. Hence the relentless and uncompromising drive for universal fluoridation."

http://www.fluoridation.com/exner.htm

Val Valerian´s Chronology:

"Fluoridation is not a Communist Plot; it is an attempt by industry to camouflage their deadliest pollutant, with government officials and Madison Avenue advertisers beating the drums. The fluoridation empire is like a castle built on quicksand." Gladys Caldwell, author, "Fluoridation and Truth Decay", 1974.

1855 Smelters in Freiburg, Germany first paid damages to neighbors injured by fluoride emissions. (See 1893)

1893 ...

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dcandmkw/fluoride/vchron1.htm

Amarillo Globe News on the "Town without a toothache":

"Dr. George W. Heard was responsible for Hereford's national fame as "the town without a toothache." He shared findings that food had much to do with maintaining good teeth and was the only Hereford dentist involved in the discovery of fluoride in water."

http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/051900/his_heard.html

What Dr. Heard has to say:

http://www.sonic.net/kryptox/dentistr/toothache.htm

Could somebody tell it worse than in the following story? :

Franz J. Maier, Sanitary Engineer, U. S. Public Health Service

"Over thirty years ago, at several widely scattered places in the world, it was noticed that relatively small groups of people had a significantly lower susceptibility to a particular disease. Such a phenomenon was very unusual, and many investigators tried to discover the cause. The reason for this was later found to be that the water consumed at these places contained a peculiar ingredient. The effectiveness of the ingredient depended on its concentration; too much produced an undesirable result, too little was ineffective. Immediately many people wondered whether adding the ingredient in the right amounts to their drinking water would result in a similar reduction in this illness. This was tried in several places, and it was in fact found to work just as well as if the ingredient had been there naturally. As a result, many places started adding this material to their water supplies. This, in brief, is the history of fluoridation as it relates to the control of dental decay." 

F. J. Maier: "Manual of Water Fluoridation Practice", McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, Toronto, London, 1963, p. 1

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