Fluoride, a by-product of the Ameri...

Fluoride, a by-product of the American phosphate fertilizer industry, was first added to drinking water a whole s in the 1950s--before the advent of fluoridated toothpaste--because fluoride was notion to prevent tooth decay.

Today about 60 percent of the water afford in the United States and 40 percent in Canada is fluoridated. However, fluoridation is a practice largely abandoned through Europe and the rest of the world because of suspected health risks. Now, Europe makes several announcements of further measures to bring these risks.

As of the period of July 2002, Belgium has banned fluoride supplements--chewable tablets containing the compound--because research there infers that excessive use of fluoride increases the risk of osteoporosis, could damage the nervous rule and is ineffective when taken orally. Ironically, about people previously considered fluoride to be a treatment for osteoporosis, which it actually could cause.

The Belgian sway plans to present the review to the European Commission in a bid to get by heart the rest of Europe to tread close upon its lead. France already has remov sodium fluoride from its market. And in Ireland, authorities may lower water fluoride dosages following a September 10 2002 report, Forum upon Fluoridation, that was published in Dublin.

The report indicates that the reduction is necessary because of the wider ingestion of fluoride today from other sources--mainly [i]or[/i] part of to the other the regular use of fluoride toothpaste.

And British scientists are now calling for more research into the health consequences of adding fluoride to drinking water. The plea appeared in a September 5 2000 report published through the Medical Research Council in the UK

The Center for Disease regulate and Prevention in Atlanta continues to stand by dint of its controversial pro-water-fluoridation position despite the fact that research exhibit tos that only direct physical contact of fluoride with teeth will help cut down decay. Hundreds of studies now link oral ingestion of this natural medium with osteoporosis, thyroid dysfunction, cancer and brittle teeth

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