Hi All,
'Specially for
those who think good dentition comes with the water........
Bob.
BOYS AT RISK FROM BONE TUMOURS, RESEARCH REVEALS
By Bob Woffinden
The Observer - UK
12 June 2005
Fluoride in tap water can cause bone cancer in boys, a disturbing
new study indicates, although there is no evidence of a link for girls.
New American research suggests that boys exposed to fluoride between
the ages of five and 10 will suffer an increased rate of osteosarcoma - bone
cancer - between the ages of 10 and 19.
In the UK, fluoride is added to tap water on the advice of bodies
such as the British Dental Association. The Department of Health maintains that
it is a cost-effective public health measure that helps prevent tooth decay in
children.
About 10 per cent of the population, six million people, receive
fluoridated water, mainly in the Midlands and north-east, and the government
plans to extend this, with Manchester expected to be next. About 170 million
Americans live in areas with fluoridated water.
The increased cancer risks, identified in a newly available study
conducted at the Harvard School of Dental Health, were found at fluoride
exposure levels common in both the US and Britain. It was the first examination
of the link between exposure to the chemical at the critical period of a child's
development and the age of onset of bone cancer.
Although osteosarcoma is rare, accounting for only about 3 per cent of
childhood cancers, it is especially dangerous. The mortality rate in the
first five years is about 50 per cent, and nearly all survivors have limbs
amputated, usually legs.
The research has been made available by the Environmental Working Group
(EWG), a respected Washington-based research organisation. The group reports
that it has assembled a 'strong body of peer-reviewed evidence' and has asked
that fluoride in tap water be added to the US government's classified list of
substances known or anticipated to cause cancer in humans.
'This is a very specific cancer in a defined population of children,' said
Richard Wiles, the group's co-founder. 'When you focus in and look for the
incidence of tumours, you see the increase.
'We recognise the potential benefits of fluoride to dental health,' added
Wiles, 'but I've spent 20 years in public health, trying to protect kids from
toxic exposure. Even with DDT, you don't have the consistently strong data that
the compound can cause cancer as you now have with fluoride.'
Half of all fluoride ingested is stored in the body, accumulating in
calcifying tissue such as teeth and bones and in the pineal gland in the brain,
although more than 90 per cent is taken into the bones.
MPs who have recently voted against fluoridation proposals in
Parliament include Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Michael Howard, the
Conservative leader.
Anti-fluoride campaigners argue that the whole issue has become highly
politically sensitive. If health scares about fluoride were to be recognised in
the courts, the litigation, especially in the US, could be expected to run for
decades. Consequently, scientists have been inhibited from publicising any
adverse findings.
The new evidence only emerged by a circuitous process. It was contained in
a Harvard dissertation by Dr Elise Bassin at the Harvard School of Dental
Medicine. The dissertation, completed in April 2001, obviously had merit because
Bassin was awarded her doctorate.
However it has not been published. Environmental organisations were
repeatedly denied access to it, and even bodies such as the US National Academy
of Sciences could not get hold of a copy. Eventually two researchers from the
Fluoride Action Network were allowed to read it in the rare books and special
collections room at Harvard medical library.
Bassin told The Observer her work was still going through the peer-review
process, and she hopes that it will then be published. Dr Vyvyan Howard,
senior lecturer in toxico-pathology at the University of Liverpool, has studied
the new material.
'At these ages the bones of boys are developing rapidly,' he said, 'so if
the bones are being put together abnormally because fluoride is altering the
bone structure, they're more likely to get cancer. It's biologically plausible,
and the epidemiological evidence seems pretty strong - it looks as if there's a
definite effect.'
There is at present no understanding as to why males should be affected
rather than females.
A Department of Health spokesman said that the latest evaluation of
research in the UK had identified no ill effects of fluoride
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