Kidney Foundation Admits Risk of Fluoride
In Environment on June 5th, 2008 | 1,484 views
Daniel G. Stockin, MPH
Kidney Foundation Admits: Kidney Patients Should be Notified of Potential Risk from Fluorides and Fluoridated Drinking Water
Ellijay, GA: June 3, 2008 – A new position paper from the National Kidney Foundation concludes that individuals with chronic kidney disease should be notified of the potential risk from exposure to fluorides. The document acknowledges gaping holes in research concerning kidney impacts from fluorides, lending new ammunition to the growing numbers of cities, health professionals, water agencies, and citizens who question industry and government assertions that water fluoridation has been proven safe.
The statement formally cancels NKF’s previous position paper on water fluoridation and recommends that kidney patients be notified of the risks via the organization’s web site. Opponents of fluoridation believe the statement is a step in the right direction, but say that the document still does not go far enough and is not reaching the millions of average kidney patients – perhaps due to an apparent conflict of interest the National Kidney Foundation has in receiving grant funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the federal government’s largest promoter of water fluoridation.
NKF has issued no press release about the April 15th statement and has offered no direct link to the new information on its web site except when a search for the term “fluoride” is entered.
Daniel Stockin is a career public health professional now at The Lillie Center, Inc, a Georgia-based public health training firm that is working to end water fluoridation. He observes, “If you read the statement, it appears the Kidney Foundation wants to have its cake and eat it too. NKF apparently recognizes that it stands to be sued by thousands of its own kidney patients and doctors for negligent misrepresentation and failure to warn, but doesn’t have the stomach to oppose the CDC who has been a funder of NKF. So NKF has told some of the story of fluoride’s toxicity, but not all, and quietly put the news on a difficult-to-find web page. Lawyers and fluoride opponents are going to have a field day with the inconsistent statements in the paper.”
Opponents of fluoridation do appreciate that the new paper strikes a blow to organizations such as the American Dental Association that list NKF as supporting, endorsing, or recognizing the public health benefits of fluoridation. In bold-faced type the paper states, “The NKF has no position on the optimal fluoridation of water.” This statement appears to require the American Dental Association to remove the National Kidney Foundation’s name from ADA’s list of organizations recognizing fluoridation’s benefits (click here for list).
Fluoridated water is acknowledged to be potentially harmful to patients on dialysis machines. The position paper lists cases where dialysis patients died or were fluoride-poisoned when filtration systems on the machines allowed fluoride into the bodies of the patients.
Stockin points out, “Fluoride must be removed from water used for dialysis, but people with kidney stones, transplants, or other kidney issues ingest it in drinking water, foods, drugs, and from other sources without anyone knowing their total fluoride dose. Sounds a little like someone’s not telling the whole story of Fluoride-Gate,” he says.
“The kidneys are exposed to significant amounts of toxic fluoride as they try to eliminate it from the body,” he continues. “How many kidney patients could have avoided dialysis – or perhaps sadly even death from chronic kidney disease – if they had been told the whole story about fluoride toxicity?”
The revised fluoride statement from the National Kidney Foundation can be viewed here and the attorney’s letter sent to NKF that initiated NKF’s re-look at fluoridation can be found here.
nyscof
Says:June 6th, 2008 at 3:38 am
It’s time to stop fluoridation. Join the 1,700 professionals and 12,000 individuals petitioning congress to stop fluoridation and hold Congressional hearings about why federal officials continue to promote fluoridation in the face of growing scientific evidence of ineffectiveness and harm.
Jim Schultz
Says:June 7th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Fluoridealert.org really does have some excellent videos on the kidney alert and Congressional investigation testimony by EPA union of risks of fluoridation. Now 11 EPA professional unions want an immediate moratorium and congressional testimony under oath to expose the fraud of fluoridation. A goal of ZERO fluoride just like lead and arsenic is what they ask for. The FDA has yet to review or approve any ingested fluoride product. Toxic waste directly from smokestack pollution scrubbers loaded with over 20 contaminates is added directly to our water. The good part is it keeps cost down but the bad part is they have yet to do a single safety or benefit study on this toxic sludge( this was admitted in 2000 congressional testimony.) Trust less–research more. Jim Schultz
Jim Schultz
Says:June 7th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I just discovered the disinfectant chloramine that is now common is a huge risk to dialysis patients. It destroys red blood cells if the carbon filter gets abit old and rarely is their a alarm to warn other then sick patients. Same for the Fluoride from the Reverse Osmosis systems which can also fail.A plumber in our city even bypassed the filtration by mistake. Oops. Water free of fluoride and chloramine and chlorine and lots of other stuff is critical to not make dialysis patients very ill as they use over 300 liters of water for a treatment. The facilities and staff do not inform of fluoride risk to patients yet. Buyer beware with your life.
The fluoride product and chloramine are the perfect storm to leach lead from pipes, solder,brass to give toxix lead exposure. This happened in Washington DC from 2000 until 2000 as it took 2 years to admit and over a year to get under control. They they claimed lead pipes the only cause. The whole city had the problem but the cover up almost worked except for some honest experts. With dialysis you bury you mistakes. Jim Schultz
lana gold
Says:June 9th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The fluoride story is another case of corporations pawning off not only their toxic waste, but their propaganda, onto a trusting public. They don’t mind if we get sick because of a convenient misplacement of conscience. Plus, my dentist must be an idiot because I showed him a pile of evidence on this and he merely shrugged his shoulders. That’s the last he’ll ever see of me or my seven family members. Hopefully he’ll feel it in the wallet if more people do the same. Remember that at some not too distant time physicians used to recommend cigarettes.
nyscof
Says:June 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
It’s not that simple. The Corporations that are benefiting are Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate and all the other fluoride products manufacturers. They pour money into organized dentistry. Organized dentistry, in turn, gives fluoridated products their seal of approval, increases sales and then uses corporate money to lobby legislators to get laws passed that benefit themselves and not us.
For example, 80% of dentists refuse to treat Medicaid patients and 108 million Americans don’t have dental insurance. As a result, children are dying, people are being admitted into hospitals with dental abscesses and other dental problems.
There is clearly a need for professionals to treat more Americans’ dental health but the American Dental Association and its member organizations almost always lobby against and viable group willing to fill the void they have created. For example Dental Therapists who could drill, fill and pull teeth; hygienists working solo, false teeth makers working directly with the patients, etc.
Fluoridation may have started as a disposal method for fluoride waste but it’s evolved into something corporations use dentists so they aren’t seen directly
Just as physicians are the front line of pharmaceutical companies, the dentists are the unwitting (but so sure of their false information) super fluoride salespeople for the benefit of big corporations