Don’t Swallow Your Toothpaste
Originally broadcast on Channel 4 in Great Britain on June 19th, this 1997 video addresses health concerns about fluoride and water fluoridation.
VIDEO: Health Alert: Don’t Swallow Your Tooth Paste (Running time: 23:46)
PARTICIPANTS:
Host: Shahnaz Pakraven, former presenter for Channel 4 and the Health Alert series, and anchor and reporter for Tomorrow’s World.
Dr. Paul Connett, PhD, Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, and co-founder of the Fluoride Action Network, provides information about fluoride’s health hazards and the controversy surrounding its use in water fluoridation. Dr. Connett describes the statement that “there are no health cracks” as arrogant, and defines that arrogance as “ignorance coupled with overconfidence.”
Dr. Andrew Thomas, a consultant Surgeon, describes medical problems that may originate from excessive fluoride exposure, observed in the British health system among older patients .
Dr. Michael Lennon, Professor of Preventive Dentistry at the University of Liverpool and Chairman of the British Fluoridation Society, describes the reasons he and the BFS continue to strongly promote fluoridation.
Dr. Phillis Mullenix describes her research at the Forsyth Dental Institute at Harvard University. Mullenix was dismissed from her position as head of the Dental Institute, after she discovered and published findings that fluoride causes clearly observable neurological damage in rats. Her research suggests the possibility of concerning levels of adverse health effects caused by fluoride exposure in human beings.
Dr. John Hein, the retired Dental Director of Colgate Corporation, is the developer of fluoride (MFP) in toothpaste. Energetic advertising helped popularize the widespread use of fluoridated toothpaste. Colgate continues to manufacture and sell fluoride toothpaste worldwide.
Dr. Peter Mansfield of the National Pure Water Association discusses fluoride exposure.
Jenny and Alan Matthews lived in Bedfordshire (with fluoridated municipal water since the early 1970s), and now live in Suffolk, where water contains high levels of naturally occurring fluoride. They discuss their children’s dental fluorosis. Amanda, Stuart, and James bear that irreversible consequence of ingesting fluoride. Stuart chooses cosmetic veneers, and Amanda discusses veneers for herself.
Denise Quail and her daughter Suzanne discuss Suzanne’s dental fluorosis, and share their family’s efforts to avoid ingesting fluoride. While only 10% of Britain’s population is fluoridated, the Quail family lived in Birmingham UK, where municipal water has been fluoridated since 1954.
This program is presented as an open broadcast under fair use as an example of the controversy over fluoride that continues to this day in Great Britain.
Fluoride Action Network