History of fluoridation

Fifty years after water fluoridation began in the guise of a public health measure, journalists Christopher Bryson and Joel Griffiths have uncovered the surprising backdrop to this practice, and the questionable motives of its most prominent promoters.

Declassified documents obtained by Bryson and Griffiths show that much of the science used to prove the safety of low dose fluoride was generated by Manhattan Project scientists, tasked with providing data to protect the US military in fluoride injury lawsuits. Fluoride emissions during atomic bomb development were sickening civilians and crippling livestock, and portended legal action and a public relations disaster that could have ground the bomb programme to a halt. Anxious to know precisely what fluoride does to the body, military scientists set about studying the effects of chronic fluoride exposure on humans, by designing and implementing one of the first water fluoridation experiments in Newburgh, NY.

Much of the scientists' findings remain classified; select data were manipulated to show that low level fluoride was safe, and published in scientific journals. Their doctored publications are relied upon as evidence of the safety and effectiveness of water fluoridation today. 

Bryson & Griffiths:
Part I: Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb
Part II: Fluoride and National Security
Part III: Fluoride and the Cold War
Part IV: The A-Bomb Programme and Water Fluoridation

See interview with Christopher Bryson, detailing key figures and institutions involved.

Born of Industry
Fluoride was once the most troublesome of waste pollutants for the aluminium, fertiliser and brick industries, with emissions causing devastating environmental damage.

"Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to
domestic animals than any other air pollutant."
- US Department of Agriculture, 1970

“Certainly there has been more litigation on alleged damage to
agriculture by fluoride than all other pollutants combined.”
-Dr. L. Weinstein, Cornell University, 1983 

Dr. Gerald J. Cox, a Mellon Institute researcher working for both the aluminium and sugar industries, was the first to propose adding fluoride to public water supplies as a tooth-strengthening nutrient. As this would enable fluoride-emitting industries to sell their waste for profit, and propagate the notion that dental decay can be avoided without restricting sugar consumption, his idea was embraced by his corporate sponsors.

Picked up and promoted by Manhattan Project toxicologist Harold C. Hodge, and supported by research funded by major fluoride-emitters like Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America), Cox's idea led to the endorsement of water fluoridation by the Public Health Service in 1950. The man who gave the official endorsement was Oscar R. Ewing, a Truman administrator who was also a top Wall Street lawyer for Alcoa.

 

The Mellon Institute - "Science for Hire"
Founded by Andrew and Richard Mellon, financiers of the aluminium giant Alcoa, the Mellon Institute specialised in conducting research for industry. For generations, it was a leading defender of the asbestos industry, producing research to show that mesothelioma was not caused by asbestos. Andrew Mellon was at the head of the Public Health Service when it dispatched dentist H. T. Dean ("the father of fluoridation") to study fluoride's dental effects.

Dr. Gerald J. Cox
Researcher at the Mellon Institute who had worked on a fellowship from Alcoa, and who, in 1939, made the first suggestion that fluoride be added to public water supplies.

The University of Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital, where plutonium was injected into patients in military experiments that were partly orchestrated by Dr. Harold C. Hodge. 

This hospital was also the base for the Manhattan Project's classified fluoride studies, codenamed Project F. Blood and placenta samples were delivered from Newburgh NY, the experimentally fluoridated city, for analysis by Hodge and his colleagues. Hodge went on national television to announce that 1 ppm fluoride was safe for human consumption. His conclusion was accepted and repeated by the Public Health Service. Meanwhile, his and the University of Rochester's Manhattan Project affiliations were kept secret.



 

Key figures in the promotion of water fluoridation:

Dr. Harold C. Hodge Senior toxicologist for the Manhattan Project, and America's trusted scientific promoter of water fluoridation during the Cold War. Hodge also coordinated the notorious human radiation experiments where hospital patients were injected with plutonium.

Dr. Robert A. Kehoe Director of the Kettering Laboratory, defender of industry in fluoride pollution lawsuits, and proponent of water fluoridation. Kehoe also spent much of his career defending leaded petrol, on behalf of the Ethyl Corporation. 

Edward L. Bernays
Propaganda specialist, considered "the father of public relations". His clients included the US military and Alcoa. On behalf of tobacco companies, he persuaded American women to smoke cigarettes as a feminist gesture. When approached by the National Institute of Dental Research for a strategy to promote water fluoridation, Bernays proposed getting dentists and doctors to publicly endorse the practice, taking advantage of people's trust in these professionals.