Fluoride and genetic damage and cancer "In point of fact, fluoride causes more human cancer death, and causes it faster, than any other chemical." Dr. Dean Burk, Chief Chemist Emeritus, U.S. National Cancer Institute Fluoride and genetic damage When drinking water is artificially fluoridated, it is at the arbitrary concentration of 1 part per million. Dr. W. Klein and colleagues at Austria's Siebersdorf Research Centre found in 1977 that even this small amount of fluoride inhibited DNA repair enzyme activity by 50 percent and caused genetic and chromosome damage(1). This was confirmed in 1982 at the University of Missouri(2). Sperm cells were damaged by fluoride in a test carried out at Holland's Leiden University leading to a "highly significant increase in mutation"(3). Scientists at the West German Central Laboratory for Mutagenicity Testing(4) and at Columbia University(5) came up with similar findings showing that it also caused genetic damage to eggs in both insects and mammals. Fluoride and cancer Substances which cause mutations also tend to cause cancer. Scientists in several countries have demonstrated that this is the case with fluoride. In the USA, a comparison between the ten largest fluoridated cities and the ten largest non-fluoridated cities showed that, while cancer rates had been similar initially, after 20 years the fluoridated cities had 10 percent more cancer deaths than the non-fluoridated ones(6). These figures were checked and confirmed in 1976 by the U S National Cancer Institute. There were attempts by the U S National Cancer Institute to refute this study in 1977 with the claim that during the period of the study there were changes in the age, sex and racial composition of the populations of the cities which had not been taken into account. However, the Institute had made an error in their figures which left out almost 90 percent of the relevant data. At a Congressional Hearing, the data were corrected and agreed, and the National Cancer Institute confirmed the original results. In Poland, scientists at the Pomeranian Medical Academy reported that as little as 0.6 parts per million produced chromosomal damage to human white blood cells(7). The world's leading authority on the biological effects of fluoride, Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, estimates that 30,000 to 50,000 deaths each year in the USA are directly attributable to fluoride(8). Agreeing with Yiamouyiannis, Dr. Dean Burk, the Chief Chemist Emeritus of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, stated: " In point of fact, fluoride causes more human cancer death, and causes it faster, than any other chemical "(8). Osteosarcoma is a rare form of bone cancer but it is the most common form of bone cancer and one of the principal cancers of childhood. In the light of a strong correlation between osteosarcoma and fluoride in a study conducted on rats by the U.S. National Toxicological Program in 1990, and epidemiological evidence of osteosarcoma increase in boys and young men, especially in fluoridated areas, Dr. Perry Cohn of the New Jersey Department of Health surveyed its incidence in seven counties of New Jersey relative to water fluoridation. He found that, as demonstrated in Table I, in the fluoridated areas, the incidence of osteosarcoma in boys under the age of 10 was 4.6 times higher than in the unfluoridated areas, 3.5 times higher in the 10 to 19 age group and over twice as high in the 20 to 49 age group(9). In a similar study of three New Jersey municipalities, the figures for osteosarcoma were over twice as high for the 0-9 age group and nearly 7 times as high for the 10 to 19 age group in the fluoridated areas. Table I: Fluoride and
osteosarcoma in young males
Seven Counties, New Jersey, 1979-1987
Municipalities, NJ, 1979-1987
"fluoride is a carcinogen by any standard we use. I believe EPA should act immediately to protect the public, not just on the cancer data, but on the evidence of bone fractures, arthritis, mutagenicity and other effects." William Marcus, senior science adviser and toxicologist, US Environmental Protection Agency. References: (1) Klein W, et al . DNA repair and environmental substances. Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Bader-und Klimaheilkunde . 1977; 24 (3): 218-223. (2) Mohamed A, Chandler ME. Cytological effects of sodium fluoride on mice. Fluoride . 1982; 15 (3): 110-18 (3) Mukerjee RN, Sobels FH. The effect of sodium fluoride and idoacetamide on mutation induction by X-irradiation in mature spermatozoa of drosophila. Mutation Res . 1968; 6: 217- 25. (4) Vogel E. Strong antimutagenic effects of fluoride on mutation induction by trenimon and 1- phenyl-3,3dimethyltriazine in Drosophila melanogaster. Mutation Res . 1973; 20: 339-52. (5) Jagiello G, Lin J-S. Sodium fluoride as potential mutagen in mammalian eggs. Arch Environ Hlth . 1974; 29: 230-5. (6) Yiamouyiannis JA, Burk D. Fluoridation of public water systems and the cancer death rate in humans. Presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biologists and Chemists and the American Society of Experimental Biologists. June 1976. (7) Jachimczak D, Skotarczak B. The effect of fluorine and lead ions on the chromosomes of human leucocytes in vitro. Genetica Polonica . 1978; 19 (3): 353-7 (8) Yiamouyannis JA. Fluoride: The Aging Factor . Health Action Press, Delaware, Ohio. 1983. (9) Cohn PD. A brief report on the association of drinking water fluoridation and the incidence of osteosarcoma among young males . N J Dept of Hlth, Trenton, New Jersey. Nov 8, 1992. For a more detailed view of how industrial fluorides can cause cancer, see Sowing the Seeds of Cancer And for a more recent study confirming the link between fluoride intake and this dread disease, see More evidence of a link between fluoride intake and cancer For more information on Dental
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