The Most Revolutionary Act

As Christopher Bryson outlines in his 2004 book Fluoride Deception, the decision to deliberately dose US municipal water supplies with a potent industrial toxin was basically a corporate scam dreamed up by Alcoa, GM and Dupont in the thirties and forties – to stem a tide of lawsuits related to death and injuries from toxic fluoride pollution (by convincing the public that fluoride is good for you). Alcoa was involved because fluoride is an extremely toxic pollutant produced by aluminum smelting. GM and Dupont were involved because GM held the patent on fluoride-based Freon (Dupont manufactured it), a common refrigerant which has since been banned. Unsurprisingly the same corporate researchers who “proved” that fluoride was safe also tried to convince the American public that lead, asbestos, smoking and plutonium were safe.

According to Bryson, the FDA first raised the alarm about fluoride toxicity in the early thirties, resulting in scores of lawsuits for aluminum workers crippled and killed from fluoride poisoning and farmers near aluminum plants, whose livestock were killed due to fluoride poisoning.

Public Relations: Cheaper than Pollution Controls

Rather than encouraging Alcoa to institute pollution controls, an Alcoa researcher named Francis Frary decided a better solution was to alter public perception of fluoride – by convincing Americans it improved dental health. He approached Mellon Institute researcher Gerald Cox, who performed a single study in rats (who don’t suffer much tooth decay to begin with) in 1937 and “proved” fluoride strengthened teeth. Even though this was the same Gerald Cox who “proved” that mesothelioma (a rare lung cancer that killed Steve McQueen) wasn’t caused by asbestos.

Back then the concept of peer reviewed research was unknown, and the American Medical Association declared that the “case for fluoride” was proved. It’s clear that corporate largesse (from GM) was instrumental in getting the American Dental Association on board with water fluoridation. Whether the AMA also benefited from corporate generosity remains unclear.

Kettering Bribes the American Dental Association

Frary and Cox were soon joined in their little scam by Charles Kettering’s GM’s research director and Freon magnate, who approached the American Dental Association, began funding many of their activities, and got appointed to their three member Advisory Committee on Research in Dental Caries. Meanwhile GM and Dupont hired scientist Robert Kehoe to perform safety studies on both fluoride and tetra ethyl lead, a gasoline additive co-manufactured by the two companies. And for obvious reasons, Kehoe declared them both lead and fluoride safe at “low levels.”

Enter the Atomic Energy Commission and the Father of Public Relations

In the 1940s these corporate researchers were joined in their scheme to promote water fluoridation by Dr Harold Hodge the chief toxicologist of the Manhattan Project (the secret US project to build and atomic bomb). Hodge became involved in “Project F” because large amounts of fluoride are used in the construction of the atomic bomb, and the Atomic Energy Commission was concerned about heading off a flood of lawsuits from Manhattan Project scientists exposed to toxic levels of fluoride. This was the same Harold Hodge who, in his role as chief Manhattan Project toxicologist, experimented on unsuspecting patients at Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital, by injecting them with plutonium.

The most prominent villain in this sordid history of lies and secrecy was the infamous father of the public relations industry (i.e. the sophisticated use of propaganda to sway public opinion) Edward Bernays. There was massive public opposition to water fluoridation from the very beginning – led mainly by doctors who were well aware of fluoride’s toxicity. Bernays’ answer was to enlist even more prominent doctors to declare it safe, starting with famous baby doctor Benjamin Spock.

Edward Bernays

Bernays’ 1928 Book

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To be continued, with a discussion of how current fluoride research is suppressed and why 98% of European communities have banned it.