Indeed, after decades of exposure to advertisements touting the benefits of fluoride as a super cavity fighter, the common perception of fluoride as a benign substance used primarily to reduce tooth decay has become well ingrained in the public persona. For individuals whose only source of information is advertisements, or the advice of well-meaning professionals who are trusted to be fully informed before declaring that fluoridated drinking water presents absolutely no risk, the warnings of adverse health effects are difficult to believe or to put into perspective. The individuals who object to its use are often characterized as kooks and crackpots. But these objections become more reasonable the more one understands the nature of fluoride. Fluoride is the term used to indicate a wide variety of substances containing the element fluorine.
Fluorine is the most negatively charged and most chemically active of all elements on earth.
Contrary to the mythical public image, fluoride substances are prized by commercial, agricultural, pharmaceutical and military interests for their extreme corrosivity, high toxicity, ability to inhibit enzyme activity and ability to disrupt and re-configure molecular bonds. In agriculture, fluoride is the key ingredient in the world's most widely used insecticides and pesticides. Sodium fluoride is a powerful roach killer and rat poison. In medicine, fluoride is used in most general anesthetics and in many psychotropic drugs. In the military, fluoride is used to separate uranium isotopes in the production of nuclear warheads, in rocket fuels and in certain types of nerve gas.