Why does my toothpaste carry a poison warning?
Updated: Jul 1, 2023
All rights reserved © 2012, 2019 Louis Antonio Abate, D.C.
Last week as I was going about my evening ablution, I glanced down at the tube of toothpaste and lazily began reading it.
Imagine my surprise to see a poison warning label on it. For those who don’t know your toothpaste carries the following warning: “WARNING: Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed get medical help immediately or contact a Poison Control Center right away.” You are also advised: “Do Not Swallow, Supervise children as necessary until capable of using without supervision.”
I thought the warning came about a few years ago when the FDA issued warnings about counterfeit Colgate-Palmolive toothpastes being illegally imported from China and infiltrating discount stores in the US.
However, I discovered that since the middle of 1997 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has mandated all toothpastes containing fluoride carry this warning. This means the FDA now considers fluoride toothpaste as a potentially toxic drug.
Armed with this fact I went digging to see why fluoride containing products must contain a warning label, and what I found was jaw-dropping and mind-numbing.
What is Fluoride?
First of all, there is no such substance as ‘fluoride’ listed in the periodic chart of the elements, the CRC handbook, nor in the Merck Index. Instead, there’s a gas called Fluorine. It is from the use of this gas in various industries, such as aluminum manufacturing and in the nuclear industry, that certain toxic by-products are created which have 'captured' fluorine molecules in them. One such toxic, poisonous 'by-product' is called sodium fluoride, which according to the Merck Index is primarily used as rat and cockroach poison. This also happens to be the active ingredient in most toothpastes, is an additive to drinking water, and is also one of the basic ingredients in Prozac and Sarin nerve gas.
A Lesson Omitted from the History Books
This story began in 1924, when I.G. Farben, a German chemical manufacturing company, began receiving loans from American bankers. In 1939, prior to the outbreak of WW II, under the Alted agreement, the American Aluminum Company (ALCOA), then the world’s largest producer of sodium fluoride, (as a toxic waste by-product of aluminum production) and the Dow Chemical company gave technology to Germany. Using this technology, I.G. Farben developed the nerve agent Zyklon-B that was used as extermination gas against the Jews and other concentration camp victims; they were also the first to develop and process heroin and cocaine, and developed the deadly nerve gases Sarin and Soman. Farben had also developed plans during the war to fluoridate the occupied countries because it was found that fluoridation caused slight damage to part of the brain making it more difficult for the person affected to defend his freedom and causing the individual to become more “stupid and docile” towards authority. In fact, a memo written to the German High Command stated "Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, and will thus make him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him.“
At the end of World War II, the US government sent Charles Eliot Perkins, a research worker in chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology, to take charge of the Farben chemical plants. While there the German chemists told Perkins of their attempt to control the population in any given area through the mass medication of drinking water with sodium fluoride.
Today, fluoride remains one of the strongest anti-psychotic substances known, and is contained in twenty-five percent of the major tranquilizers. It may not seem surprising that Hitler’s regime practiced the concept of mind control through chemical means, but the American military continued Nazi research, exploring techniques to incapacitate an enemy or medicate an entire nation. As stated in the Rockerfeller Report, a Presidential briefing on CIA activities, “the drug program was part of a much larger CIA program to study possible means of controlling human behavior”
Conspiracy Theories?
In a letter, published by the Committee for Mental Health and Public Security, Charles Perkins wrote “We are told by the fanatical ideologists who are advocating the fluoridation of the water supplies in this country that their purpose is to reduce the incidence of tooth decay in children, and it is the plausibility of this excuse, plus the gullibility of the public and the cupidity of public officials that is responsible for the present spread of artificial water fluoridation in this country. However - and I want to make this very definite and positive - the real reason behind water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason, there are many ways in which it could be done which are much easier, cheaper and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination, control and loss of liberty... I say this in all earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spent nearly 20 years research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorides. Any person who drinks artificially fluoridated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person, mentally or physically."
Does Fluoride Do Any Good?
Many communities have fluoridated their drinking water for many years now, supposedly to fight tooth decay. But, John R. Lee, M.D. a fluoride toxicity researcher since 1972, calls that a myth. He further states the myth has been perpetuated via "clever propaganda." He states adding fluoride to water supplies was a contrivance to dispose of waste byproducts from the fertilizer and aluminum industries. Jonathon Wright, M.D., medical researcher of the Tahoma Clinic in Kent, Washington says that, "When folks are fully informed (about fluoride), they usually turn it down."
“In point of fact, fluoride causes more human cancer death, and causes it faster than any other chemical.” -Dr. Dean Burk, Congressional Record 21 July 1976
In the British Medical Journal, researcher Cheng states “Although the prevalence of caries varies between countries, levels everywhere have fallen greatly in the past three decades, and national rates of caries are now universally low. This trend has occurred regardless of the concentration of fluoride in water or the use of fluoridated salt, and it probably reflects other factors, including perhaps aspects of nutrition.[...]the usefulness of fluoride has been doubted worldwide for a long time already. Over the years at least 12 Nobel Prize winners in Medicine and Chemistry have warned of the associated health risks. To make children take fluoride is not only useless against caries, it is plainly dangerous. Tooth and bone decalcification as a result of fluoride even has a name – fluorosis. Fluoride is very reactive and it goes deep into the bones and cells where it is accumulated. Yes, the tooth surface becomes much harder, but the tooth itself becomes more brittle. From a lot of research it seems that fluoride causes joint problems, skeletal deformations, osteoporosis, and that it can even cause bone cancer. Also the brain cannot escape from it. Fluoride has a negative influence on the nervous system and the immune system, and in children it can lead to (chronic) fatigue, a lower IQ, learning disabilities, lethargy and depression.”
What can I do?
One of the easiest things to do is to change your toothpaste. Finding alternatives to fluoride-ridden toothpaste is as simple as going to the store. Read the label on your toothpaste. Choose those products that are ‘fluoride-free.’ Companies I love that make natural, fluoride-free toothpaste include Jason, Peelu, and Trader Joe’s. Make sure your mouthwash is all-natural and fluoride-free. A simple mouthwash is 1/2 cup filtered or distilled water, 3 drops food-grade (35%) hydrogen peroxide (not the stuff you buy at the drug store which is 3% and loaded with contaminants) and 3-5 dropsTea Tree Oil, or Oil of Peppermint or Spearmint. You can also begin filtering your tap water with filters that will remove fluoride. Brita and Pur water filters will not remove fluoride. Check with filter manufacturers to see which ones filter out fluoride. If you purchase bottled water, make sure it is from a fresh water spring/or artesian well and that it is not fluoridated. Many popular brands of filtered waters (like Dasani) are just filtered municipal tap water.
Resources:
“Fluoride, Teeth and the Atomic Bomb” http://www.trufax.org/catalog/fluoro.htmlWeber State Annual Laboratory Research Report 1996-97Fluoridation: A Cash Crop for Industrial Pollution Weber State University abstractNewsweek, November 2, 1998 Health+Fitness Winter Edition, p 18Leading Edge International Research Group
The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson
Fluoride: Drinking Ourselves to Death by Barry Grove
www. Mercola.com
“Adding Fluoride to Water Supplies”.
Cheng, KK et al, British Medical Journal 2007; 335:699-702