Fluoride in drinking water?

 

I think the protesters are missing the big picture.

The City of Clearwater, Florida was debating the issue of putting fluoride in city drinking water. Some say it reduces tooth decay, while others say its poison. Who's right? Both are right and both are wrong. Please let me explain.

There's plenty of studies that support both sides. It appears to reduce tooth decay, so that's good, right? Opponents point out fluoride is highly toxic - that's bad, right? The proponents say, it might be toxic, but not at the levels used for drinking water. Opponents say "any amount is bad".

 

The Real Problem

The EPA says this on their website"

"EPA has set an enforceable drinking water standard for fluoride of 4 mg/L (some people who drink water containing fluoride in excess of this level over many years could get bone disease, including pain and tenderness of the bones). EPA has also set a secondary fluoride standard of 2 mg/L to protect against dental fluorosis. Dental fluorosis, in its moderate or severe forms, may result in a brown staining and/or pitting of the permanent teeth. This problem occurs only in developing teeth, before they erupt from the gums. Children under nine should not drink water that has more than 2 mg/L of fluoride."

Sounds bad, right? The folks at the water plant are already putting poison in the water - chlorine, among other things. Otherwise, everyone would get sick from what's in the water. So, since they already put one form of poison in the water, what's wrong with putting a tiny bit more in? You don't see people dropping dead from drinking tap water, do you?

Here's what the EPA says about your Drinking Water.

"Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants."

Here's the EPA page about Drinking Water Contaminants. Keep in mind that the EPA accepts the idea the your water is contaminated, but says its OK if it's not too contaminated.

Here's what Dr. Michael Colgan of The Colgan Institute says in his excellent book "Optimum Sports Nutrition: Your Competitive Edge"

On page 21 - "Water authorities do what they can, but it is far too expensive to make our tap water healthy enough to drink."

"In response to a critical article by the Colgan Institute that got wide publicity, our local authority sent us a thick wad of computer readouts showing negligible levels of 35 different chemicals that they tested for. I hated to remind them that there are more than 60,000 chemical contaminants of water. Any municipal water supply is likely to harbor at least a thousand. The Office of Technology Assessment reports a test of the water supplies of 954 cities, showing that almost 30% of them are "seriously contaminated".

The toxic metals, pesticides, industrial chemicals, they are all still in there when it comes out of your tap. So are the 50 or so chemicals used in the water treatment. So are the dead bacteria killed by the chlorine. So are the carcinogenic trihalomethanes from the chlorine itself, that are known to cause liver and colorectal cancers. Oh, tap water will not kill you, or even make you obviously sick, but there is no way your body can function properly on poisons.

How is water cleaned?

I'm no expert and this is explanation is greatly simplified: In one city, the process is to pump river water (yes, downstream of other city's sewers) into a holding pond. The heavy stuff sinks to the bottom. The water is pumped through a bed of sand, which acts like a filter. Chemical are added to kill the bacteria, and it's pumped to your home. Not every city does it this way, but no city has truly clean water.

So, your tap water has a lot of nasty stuff in it, but most of it is dead. Not all, but most.

I don't want any fluoride in my water, but I don't want chloride (or the other stuff) either. But if the water plant doesn't put chlorine in the water (or use some other way to kill germs) you will have everyone getting sick. It's the lesser of two evils. So you can understand why the folks at the water plant wonder what all the fuss is about. If you'll drink clarified sewer water, why are you so upset about fluoride? Don't blame the guys at the city - as Dr. Colgan says "it is far too expensive to make our tap water healthy enough to drink."

 

The answer?

Distill your own water. I do. You can get a small distiller for $80-$120 and you will get the 99.9% pure water, with no fluoride, no chlorine, no dirt, no bacteria or any of the other things in tap water.

If you are protesting fluoride, you are likely missing the big picture. Tap water slowly poisons you, and no filter gets all the contamination out. Either distill your own water or keep drinking the equivalent of "purified sewer water". Now that I have become used to the taste of distilled water, I can't stand the taste of bottled water - it's nasty.

 

Can I just buy bottled distilled water?

Sure, but it's not nearly as good as making it yourself. This is what EcoPure says on their website.

"..it has been scientifically determined that some residual chemicals in the manufacturing of plastic bottles will leach into the water they contain."

So the distilled water you buy is contaminated by the time you get it from the plastic container. You can pay about $1 per gallon or distill your own water for about $0.05 per gallon. Since I drink a gallon per day or more, the yearly cost for bottled water is $365 vs. $18.25. My $100 distiller saved me $246 the first year.

 

Links:

Build your own Solar Water Distiller - Pretty cool idea. Might have to build one.

A low cost ($99) distiller is sold here.

I use a $100 model from EcoWater System. But their site doesn't show it. I saw the exact same distiller at Sears on sale for about $70, but didn't find it on their site.

I searched the Sears site and found a Kenmore Distiller - Sears item #04234480000. It makes 3 gallons and sells for $129.99. That might be my pick if I was buying today.

---

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on water, nutrition or medical issues. I am an athlete who has done a lot of testing on my own body to win championships. I am just reporting what I've read and tried on my own. I don't sell any of this stuff, and I don't get any money or even Christmas cards from anyone mentioned here. Do your own research - I might be wrong, but I don't think so.