In 1994, the New York Times reported a scientific study that revealed that aluminum and fluoride in water could be responsible for the alarming increase in Alzheimer's Disease and senile dementia.

This confirmed the long-held suspicion of environmental writer George Glasser that fluoride has the ability to react with other toxic minerals in drinking water. Serious drug interactions are common in medicine, and for years Glasser has badgered various US government agencies to investigate this specific interaction between fluoride and other substances.

"Aluminum sulfate (alum) is used to clarify drinking water and I could see the possible relationship with Alzheimer's-like dementia," said Glasser. "In 1999, the US Environmental Protection Agency finally reviewed three studies carried out by scientists at Binghamton University in New York. The scientists reported 80% death rates, kidney damage and brain damage in rats exposed to half of one milligram of aluminum fluoride complexes in a liter of drinking water. This is less than half of the amount of fluoride which is added in fluoridation schemes.

Finally, the National Toxicology Program was asked to commission studies to determine the extent of neurotoxic damage from aluminum in drinking water, particularly stressing the fluoride interaction."

Last October, a Report by the National Institutes of Environmental Heath Sciences(NIEHS) acknowledged that fluoride has been observed to have synergistic effects on the toxicity of aluminum.

"I was particularly pleased when the US Environmental Protection Agency report by Urbansky and Schock on the toxicity of lead and fluoride in drinking water confirmed that fluoride complexes with other substances in the water. They also acknowledged that most drinking water contains a substantial amount of fluoro-aluminium complexes. This should be a warning to dentists who hold with the simplistic notion that fluoride only affects teeth and is perfectly safe in drinking water."

According to the NIEHS Report, most water treatment processes result in increased levels of aluminum in the finished drinking water.

It stated that fluoridation will result in aluminum fluoride complexes which will enhance neurotoxicity, or that fluoride itself will enhance uptake and synergise the toxicity of the aluminum.

Other studies have shown that in the presence of fluoride, aluminum leaches out of cookware. Boiling fluoridated tap water in an aluminum pan leached almost 200 parts per million (ppm) of aluminum into the water in 10 minutes.

Leaching of up to 600 PPM occurred with prolonged boiling. Different releases of aluminum depend upon the composition of the pan and the type of food being cooked. Using non-fluoridated water showed almost no leaching from aluminum pans.

Glasser is frustrated that the Report recommended further studies. "There are more than 40,000 studies on fluoride in the scientific literature. How many more do they need? The recent York review examined less than 300 - and they never bothered to review the Binghamton University studies.

The incidence of Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's-like dementia is hitting people at much younger ages. The average age used to be 65 - now, it affects people in their forties in ever-increasing numbers. With these revelations, health authorities have a moral obligation to employ the precautionary principle and cease the practice of artificial fluoridation forthwith. In the meantime, six million people in England and about 160 million in the United States drink artificially fluoridated water."

US Government References:
ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/htdocs/Chem_Background/ExSumPdf/Aluminum.pdf
fluoride.oralhealth.org/papers/urbansky.pdf
www.oehha.ca.gov/water/phg/pdf/Alumin.pdf
ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/htdocs/Chem_Background/ExSumPdf/Aluminumalt.pdf

For more information, contact:
George Glasser (currently in UK):
email: g_tigerclaw@email.com
website: www.gtigerclaw.bigstep.com

Jane Jones, Campaign Director, National Pure Water Association
email: jane@npwa.freeserve.co.uk
website: www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk