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At first it seems like a possible health crisis:
everyone exposed to carbon monoxide, fluoride
and other chemicals that are proven extremely
toxic to humans But it so happens that those two
chemicals, of the hundreds that affect us in unexpected
ways as consequences of corporate abuse and corrupt
government, affect the mind and behavior.
Carbon monoxide
(CO) exposure, endured by more than half the U.S.
population, is due largely to automobile use.
CO impairs mental performance and causes depression
and irritability. Road rage is only one logical
consequence. People impaired by frequent CO exposure
can continue to drive, work, procreate —
and above all, consume. But they are hardly in
a condition to start creatively improving their
lives and opposing injustice. Prozac (which contains
fluoride) and more television are instead the
normal course. Meanwhile, one of the original
causes of the overall malaise, CO, is unquestioned
and considered only dangerous in massive, lethal
quantities.
As this report
will also suggest, low-level, chronic carbon monoxide
poisoning has placed an unknown, but substantial
portion of the population in prison, and an almost
equally high number of children have been given
drugs to modify behavior for "disorders."
Additionally, we maintain that many other disease-inducing
pollutants that do not affect the brain directly
per se serve to add to the public's passivity,
apathy, and malaise.
In addition
to epidemics of cancer and heart disease, the
U.S. population suffers from other ills serving
to limit creative, spontaneous brain use: Being
poor and hungry and/or homeless can numb the mind,
which sounds like a good policy for the exploitative
rich. The balance sought is to not let the working
classes do too well or too poorly.
Fluoride's
dark history
Fluoride
was used by the Nazis in concentration camps to
keep the inmates passive. The poison serves to
decrease resistance to authority. Alcoa Aluminum,
which produced fluoride as a manufacturing byproduct,
combined forces with I. G. Farben, the Nazi-era
conglomerate, which utilized fluoride in creative,
profitable ways, including deadly nerve gas. After
the war, with decades of effective propaganda
from Alcoa, most U.S. municipalities came to fluoridate
their water.
The key justification
was and is that fluoride is good for teeth and
is harmless, although the dental benefit is consistently
unsubstantiated when tested. But a toddler can
die from eating too much toothpaste with fluoride,
and the effect of fluoride on teeth is to harden
them to the point of making them brittle. The
bone cancer rate is six times higher among young
males in fluoridated communities.
Apart from
the ongoing benefit to the aluminum industry and
other industries which do not have to dispose
of toxic fluoride waste — instead, putting
it into the water — the control of the populace
via fluoride may be a consideration for ongoing
overexposure. After all, there is a lot riding
on the public's acceptance of everything from
corrupt politics and elections, destruction of
nature for profit, and commercial domination of
daily living.
It is not
only fluoridated water systems giving people fluoride;
the pollutant is emitted into the air and water
from factories and mines, and ends up in food,
drinks and toothpaste. Babies that get fluoridated
water added to their food or formula get several
times the safe level of exposure. Levels of exposure
and accumulation in older children and adults
are on average several times what is safe, according
to many studies (see references). Yet, despite
fluoride's demonstrable dangers, industry influence
has won so far. Has the population succumbed to
dumbness via chemicals, or is it pervasive propaganda?
The answer is both.
Not surprisingly,
today's research dominated by corporate interests
and an academia propping up the status quo does
not over-investigate sources of pollution and
health damage from industry. It is too much to
expect corporate-supported experts to pursue the
issue of how our brains are affected, and what
this means for our lives as controlled citizens
herded by institutions, laws, and the domesticated,
paved landscape.
This report
deals with only two pollutants which are produced
willfully and in great quantities without the
informed consent of those affected. How efficient:
control one society with two chemicals. No doubt
other chemicals are involved. To also take into
account the plethora of approved, but untested
chemicals provided by Dupont, oil companies and
others, and estimate the impact on our health
and behavior, is extremely hard to do. The "precautionary
principle" has been thrown out the window,
as demonstrated by the U.S. Congress's Delaney
Clause (barring carcinogenic substances) being
tossed by the Clinton/Gore Environmental Protection
Agency.
Improving
on nature is a common explanation of the excesses
of corporations, industries and government policies.
But to enforce the so-called improvement on nature
there has to be a passive public. Combining fluoride
with carbon monoxide and other chemicals (that
synergize with unpredictable results) with the
massive propagandizing assaulting the public through
media and public "education," it is
easy keep the public out of the decision process.
The answer to this state of affairs lies is local
action and taking local, responsible control.
Washington would eventually follow if it wants
to.
The public
health crisis is not an honest mistake by hard-working
people trying to do good jobs, when decade after
decade the public trust is betrayed by corrupt
politicians and officials. Nor is this a matter
of electing the right president: Aside from the
consideration of anyone being elected having to
be approved by the powers that be whose interests
will be protected, the greater issue is our consuming
habits as practiced by the most materialistic,
wasteful culture ever seen. When massive chemical
production and energy use are tantamount to progress
(even though this is unsustainable and harmful
to life on our delicate planet) we are faced with
nothing less than a breakdown of civilization.
The crisis has implications for social relations
at all levels, including how much a brain-pollutant
is allowed on the market.
Instead of
raising hell and taking a stand, the embattled
consumer wishes most often for a little more relief
and distraction. When disaster strikes, it may
be seen as unreal as a television show, even as
the body gives out and the spirit goes out with
barely a whimper. The American victim sees relatives
and friends struggling and succumbing to the rising
epidemic of cancer, but the daily routine goes
on without question: make more money, pay off
the rising debts, and don't take any action on
global warming or the war on Iraq.
We are suggesting
there are explanations for inaction beyond what
is commonly suggested. With more complete understanding,
some individualized health purification, and old-fashioned
indignation, solutions are more easily forthcoming
— if people work together.
Fluoride's
challenge
Very little
information is available on the mind-effects of
fluoride exposure. As government and industry
have suppressed the truth on the health effects,
one can assume that suppression of mental and
behavioral effects would be even more assured.
This report recounts the physical effects of fluoridation
and how they have been hushed up. Yet, few people
are prepared to question the propaganda they grew
up on. Even in what has been called the most progressive,
"green" town in the U.S. — our
town of Arcata — fluoride and its relative
chlorine are added to the water supply without
question. Activists have plenty to occupy themselves
already. Many are content to filter their water,
but it is widely stated that filtration does not
take out fluoride.
Fluoride's
effect on the brain as a neurotoxin is less understood
than the effects on the body, yet the known facts
are being suppressed. Evidence shows that fluoride
slightly damages the brain’s hippocampus,
the area needed for memory and learning new behavior.
People are still able to function normally, as
the parts undamaged regulate repetitive learned
behavior, with frequent memory repetitions, but
little new information being processed. This makes
people more susceptible to propaganda, by repeating
images in the mind.
Because much
is known about excess fluoridation and its tragic
effects on teeth, bones and more, we can link
the physical ailments and chronic debilitation
of excessive fluoridation to our mental and behavioral
states. By extension, any mass illness, such as
AIDS, serves to keep the population under control.
When people are ill and have low energy, they
are more likely to sit at home and watch TV than
go out into the community and make changes. It's
hard enough getting up each day to go be a wage
slave. It takes time and energy to work with one's
neighbors and influence the political process.
Protecting one's selfish interests with large
amounts of cash —- the mother's milk of politics
— can more easily be done even if such players
are subject to toxic substances.
(This report
focuses further on fluoride before we return to
carbon monoxide.)
Fluoride
maximization: a health crisis
We summarize
below two exposés on fluoride. These stories
had been suppressed by corporate news media, but
found a home in 1998 at the Earth Island Journal
(EIJ) whence the following comes. We are grateful
for permission to quote liberally. We also include
references/links at the end for more information.
The articles do not infer mental or behavioral
effects from excess fluoridation, but the authors
would probably agree that the diseases brought
upon millions of citizens would limit active dissent,
especially when people don't know they are being
poisoned slowly and they have trust in their government.
"Harold
C. Hodge, Ph.D., the former chair of the National
Academy of Sciences' National Research Council's
Committee on Toxicology was the Atomic Energy
Commission scientist who became a key figure in
a secret plan to promote fluoride as a dental
preservative in an attempt to derail lawsuits
by US citizens exposed to the release of fluoride
into the environment at the AEC's WWII uranium
production plants [See "Fluoride, Teeth and
the A-Bomb," Winter 97-98 EIJ].
"In
1953, Hodge prepared a chart on fluoride effects
for NAS/NRC and offered this reassuring information
in congressional testimony in 1954, as Congress
considered a bill to outlaw water fluoridation."
It turns
out that Hodge's work was flawed regarding safe
levels of exposure because he forgot a pounds/kilograms
conversion. But government standards did not get
corrected for forty years. On top of this incompetence
or fraud, fluoridation levels have never been
set to take into account other additional sources
of exposure from industrial pollution and consumer
products, according to the EIJ reports.
"Studies
published in peer-reviewed scientific journals
worldwide describe increasing numbers of children
whose teeth require complex dental treatment because
of excess fluoride, and adults with headaches,
back pain, gastrointestinal problems, arthritis
symptoms, and hyperparathyroidism, all attributed
to fluorosis. These documents also report that
with increased fluoride dosage, cavities also
tend to increase.
"Once
confined almost exclusively to drinking water,
fluorides now reach us from a variety of sources
including dental products, drugs, and virtually
every food and beverage item. In the light of
these studies, why is it that the EPA's maximum
contaminant level for fluoride in drinking water
fails to take into account the additional fluoride
ingested from foods, dental products or beverages?
"When
drinking water containing about one ppm of fluoride
is the only source of ingested fluoride, 10 to
15 percent of the exposed children will show a
faint change in the appearance of their teeth
called dental fluorosis. With 2 or 3 ppm, nearly
all children will be affected by this first (and
only visible) sign of fluoride poisoning.
"'Whereas
dental fluorosis is easily recognized,' the WHO
reported in 1970, "the skeletal involvement
is not clinically obvious until the advanced stage
of crippling fluorosis ... [Early cases may be
misdiagnosed as rheumatoid- or osteo-arthritis.
"Arthritis
caused by fluoride exposure has been a threat
to human health since the earliest times. Now,
after 50 years of ever-increasing exposure, the
world may be on the verge of a new health scourge
-- crippling skeletal fluorosis.
"Today,
millions of people show signs of dental disease
and skeletal fluorosis. These afflictions are
not caused solely by fluoridated water, but from
the total daily fluoride intake of processed food
using fluoridated water, the use of fluoride-based
pesticides, fluoride dental products, and the
result of increased industrial release of fluoride
into the environment over the past 50 years
"During
the last 20 years, a great deal of critical information
has emerged about the health risks of fluoride,
including links to tooth mottling, osteoporosis,
arthritis, lower back pain, heartburn, stomach
cramps and diarrhea. The problem is that these
studies lie buried beneath executive summaries
and official interpretations." Such as: "The
bone cancer rate is six times higher among young
males in fluoridated communities.
"If
this general increase in fluoride dose were proved
harmful to humans, the impact on industry would
be major. The nation's air is contaminated by
fluoride emissions from the production of iron,
steel, aluminum, copper, lead and zinc; phosphates
(essential for the manufacture of all agricultural
fertilizers); plastics; gasoline; brick, cement,
glass, ceramics, and the multitudinous other products
made from clay; coal-burning electrical power
plants; and uranium processing.
"As
for water, the leading industrial fluoride polluters
are the producers and processors of glass, pesticides
and fertilizers, steel and aluminum, chemicals
and metals - copper and brass, titanium, superalloys,
and refractory metals for military use.
'The level
of fluoride the government allows the public is
based on scientifically fraudulent information
and altered reports,' charges Robert Carton, an
EPA environmental scientist. 'People can be harmed
simply by drinking water,' Carton warns.
"Does
fluoridation reduce cavities in children? Over
the years, many health professionals - especially
abroad - have decided the beneficial effects of
fluoride are mostly hokum; but open debate has
been stifled if not strangled.
"In
1939, ALCOA-funded scientist Gerald J. Cox was
one of the first to note that 'The present trend
toward complete removal of fluoride from water
and food may need some reversal.' Cox also proposed
that this 'apparently worthless by-product' might
reduce cavities in children. Cox fluoridated lab
rats, concluded that fluoride reduced cavities
and declared flatly 'The case should be regarded
as proved.'
"In
1939, the first public proposal that the US 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."
Fluoride's
downsides by Moth
Fluoride
compounds added to drinking water have generated
much controversy due to industry manipulation.
Science is often influenced by the financial support
of industry, and dissenting opinions are often
treated harshly in the mainstream scientific community.
Dr. Phyllis Mullinex presented her report to the
National Institute of Dental Research about the
negative effects of fluoride and was later fired.
She discovered that exposure to fluoride caused
hypoactivity, or lethargy in prenatal rats. Exposing
adult rats caused hyperactivity, and also showed
effects of fluoride accumulation in the brain.
Subjecting animals to toxins for research is unethical
since animals are not able to give consent. Animals
may also be effected differently than humans.
However, she was not fired for ethics and animal
research; she was fired because she continued
to talk about her findings of fluoride on rats.
Some basic
information on fluoride is needed to help people
begin educating themselves on fluoride's effects.
The term “fluoride” is often used to
describe several compounds that contain the element
“Fluorine”, or “F” on the
periodic table. Fluorine is grouped with bromine
and chlorine as a halogen. Halogen gasses are
electronegative elements, with fluorine exhibiting
the strongest electronegativity of the three.
Elemental
fluorine gas is never found in nature in pure
form, it is mined and extracted from minerals
like cryolite (Na2AlF6), fluorspar (CaF2) and
converted to fluoride compounds like hydrofluosilicic
acid (from phosphate fertilizer production) or
sodium fluoride (from aluminum production). Uranium
and phosphate mining also result in fluoride waste
products, the radioactive uranium is found in
the same mineral as fluorine and phosphate. The
decay products of uranium are found in the fluoride
waste product from the phosphate fertilizer stack
scrubbers and then added to drinking water. Though
the radioactive decay products may be small amounts,
the ingestion of even a small radioactive fragment
causes genetic mutations.
The behavior
of the fluoride ion in the body is different for
the type of tissue it affects. The most common
effect known is the effect on the enamel of the
teeth, where the fluorine separates and bonds
with the calcium containing hydroxyapatite (enamel)
and replaces the hydroxyl (OH) group. Since fluorine
is a strong electronegative element, it creates
a stronger bond. The tooth is harder and also
more brittle after the more flexible hydroxl is
replaced.
Carbon monoxide
exposure: nothing to sneeze at - Introduction
to section
One of the
main ingredients of exhaust is carbon monoxide.
In large amounts it can cause death. In outdoor
exposure, it causes headaches, itching eyes, dizziness,
drowsiness, impairs hand-eye coordination, slows
reflexes and can cause fetal damage. Carbon monoxide
also interferes with the blood’s ability
to absorb oxygen, thus affecting perception and
thinking.
About 65
percent of the world’s carbon monoxide is
caused by motor vehicles. In urban areas, 80 percent
of it comes from cars. In the U.S. 67 million
tons of carbon monoxide are emitted into the atmosphere
each year.
Low-level
carbon monoxide poisoning from fossil fuel combustion
- by Moth
Emission of carbon monoxide (CO) is a byproduct
of fossil fuel combustion. This varies according
to the make/model of a vehicle: For example, SUVs
emit nearly twice the amount of CO than do smaller
cars. This carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless
gas that is often inhaled by people in the vicinity
of vehicles. The approximate amount CO inhaled
and its effect on the body is the subject of this
report by Culture Change:
After CO enters the lungs it is absorbed into
the bloodstream (along with oxygen, O2 gas) through
the capillaries. What normally happens is the
O2 molecule binds chemically with the iron (Fe)
molecule in the hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is found
in red blood cells and its primary function is
to transport oxygen to cells. When the iron delivers
the oxygen to the cells, it picks up the waste
product carbon dioxide (CO2) and returns to the
lung’s capillaries where CO2 is exhaled.
The CO molecule is 200 times more likely to bind
with the iron molecule in hemoglobin than is O2.
When this occurs, the hemoglobin can no longer
deliver O2 to the cells and is considered “carboxylated
hemoglobin.” When cells do not receive the
needed oxygen they die. The effect of cell death
from CO inhalation is called carbon monoxide poisoning.
Severe cases of CO poisoning cause death, yet
milder cases of CO poisoning are less noticeable
but are also detrimental to health.
Low-level CO poisoning symptoms are a result of
less oxygen being transported to the brain. These
symptoms include nausea, dizziness, depression,
irritability, headaches and other common symptoms
often misdiagnosed. People who live and/or work
in the vicinity of heavy vehicle traffic are more
susceptible to low level CO poisoning. Long term
exposure to low level CO poisoning can cause worsening
of symptoms, sometimes leading to violence. The
question is how much CO inhalation can cause the
symptoms mentioned above?
CO inhalation is usually measured in parts per
million (PPM). The amount in CO ppm inhaled that
causes the above symptoms varies with each individual.
On average, a one hour exposure time to CO levels
of 300 ppm can lead to 10 percent carboxylated
hemoglobin in the blood. [Source: CO Headquarters]
This is an estimate for an adult at rest. Any
level above 5 percent carboxylated hemoglobin
is abnormal and unsafe. Obviously a child at play
will be far more sensitive to CO uptake and resulting
increase of carboxylated hemoglobin in the blood.
Since CO inhalation is most common in urban areas
of high vehicle traffic, the equation below applies
to “street canyons” (areas surrounded
by buildings):
Ce = (0.1*K*N*V^-0.75)
/ (U + 0.5)[(x^2 + z^2)^(1/2) + 2]
Ce = concentration
of CO in parts per million
K = constant of 7
N = traffic (vehicles per hour)
V = vehicles avg. velocity (miles per hour)
U = wind speed (meters per second)
W = street width (meters)
x = distance of receptor from traffic lane
z = height of receptor above traffic lane
This equation is used for the “leeward”
side of the street canyon; there is a separate
equation for the windward side of the canyon.
Leeward is in the direction from which the wind
is blowing; windward is the direction or side
from which the wind blows. This is assuming the
wind is blowing at an approximate 90 degree angle
perpendicular to the street canyon. (Eagleman,
pg. 95.) Although there are less CO emissions
from modern vehicles, there are more vehicles
on the road, so CO poisoning in urban areas like
Los Angeles, Mexico City and Houston is still
a great risk. “The total miles driven by
all passenger vehicles in the U.S. increased 2.7
times between 1965 and 1995. The passenger vehicle
is still the largest single source of carbon monoxide
nationwide. The average vehicle's emissions of
hydrocarbons have been reduced by two-thirds,
while the emissions of carbon monoxide have been
reduced by only one-third.” [Auto Emissions
and Carbon Monoxide]
Symptoms of aggressive behavior and depression
in large urban areas are often misdiagnosed as
mental health problems. Many people from urban
areas are being incarcerated for behavior that
is a result of CO poisoning over several years
exposure. Urban children are especially at risk,
as they are more frequently misdiagnosed and labeled
ADD by a mental health system that attempts to
correct this problem by prescribing pharmaceuticals.
A simpler
and healthier solution would be to reduce the
amount of fossil-fuel combusting vehicles by increasing
public transit, making cities more bike/pedestrian
friendly, and using alternative fuels (hydrogen,
biodiesel) instead of petroleum.
[The foregoing section of this report on CO was
by Moth, a research volunteer for Sustainable
Energy Institute/Culture Change]
*****
References
and recommendations:
- “Air Pollution Meteorology” by Joe
R. Eagleman 1991, University of Kansas CO Headquarters;
http://www.coheadquarters.com/ChronicCO/indexchronic2.htm
- Auto Emissions and Carbon Monoxide
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jafield/CO_auto_emissions.html
- Chronology of Nazi and aluminum industry fluoride
development
- Fluoride exposés from Earth Island Journal
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/spring98/sp98b_fe.htm
(originally printed in Covert Action Quarterly
(Fall, 1992), and
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/spring98/sp98c_fe.htm
- Val Valerian:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~dcandmkw/fluoride/vchron2.htm
- Fluoride Action Network:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/mullenix-interview.htm
http://pub8.ezboard.com/fchemtrailshealthmedicalissues.showMessage?topicID=18.topic
- Fluoridation: A 50 year Old Blunder and Cover-up:
http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/PDHA/fluoride/blunder.htm
- http://www.deh.gov.au/atmosphere/airtoxics/sok/profiles/fluoride.html
- Refuting "the dose makes the poison,"
Rachel's Environment & Health News deals with
chemical exposure.
- Rachel's also surveys fluoridation in the U.S.
- "A New Kind Of Poverty" Anna Quindlen,
Newsweek
- "The Reality" by Jill Cloutier, from
Hopedance magazine
- Overpopulation: Resources for Understanding
and Taking Action
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Jan Lundberg's
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non-commercial use of the material is permitted
as long as full attribution is given with a link
to this website, and he is informed of the re-publishing:
info@culturechange.org
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