Sodium fluoride, the active ingredient in most brands of toothpaste, was originally sold as a rat poison. Nearly all fluoridated water supplies in the US are treated with the less expensive compounds of fluosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride. Neither the Environmental Protection Agency not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can provide one safety study proving these products safe for long term, low level consumption. However, children in fluoridated areas have about twice the incidence of dental fluorosis as children in untreated areas. Dental fluorosis is an irreversible condition which mottles teeth and turns them brown, and can cause enamel to form incompletely and break off the tooth.
Dental fluorosis is just the first sign of fluoride poisoning.
When it accumulates in the bones, they become weak and brittle, leading to hip fractures and arthritis-like conditions. Low levels of fluoride in test animals have produced changes in the brain similar to those which take place in Alzheimer's, and have provoked eary onset puberty. The employees' union at the EPA demanded that nonfluoridated water be provided at their headquaters in Washington D.C. after applying the EPA's own risk-analysis method to fluoridation toxicity data. The original safety levels were set at one part per million and officials said that anything over 2 ppm would be dangerous. In 1985 the average level in the water was 2.4 ppm.