June 28, 2004

Health dangers of fluoride to be conference topic
Mohawks joined by health activists

By Itai M. Maytal
Times Staff Writer

CORNWALL ISLAND - F. Henry Lickers remembers the once-thriving cattle herds in Mohawk country and how fluoride fumes from nearby metal factories weakened their bones, decayed their teeth and wiped them out.

Almost 30 years have passed since the toxic gas began pumping out of aluminum smelters in Massena. And while Reynolds Metals Co., now Alcoa Inc., offered the Mohwaks a settlement for their losses, the problems have persisted.

"The cattle are still dying and the Mohawk environment is still being impacted," said Mr. Lickers, director of the Department of Environment for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

That's why the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, which represents the Mohawks and four other Iroquoid tribes, is cosponsoring a July conference at St. Lawrence University, Canton, and the Akwesasne Reservation on the dangers of fluoride.

The Mohawks are working with the Fluoride Action Network, Canton, to bring in scientists, journalists and environmental policymakers who can educate people on why fluoride may be as bad for them as it is for cattle.

A Citizens' Conference on Fluoride will be held July 30 to Aug. 2 and will begin at St. Lawrence University.

On the first day, presenters will discuss the harmful effects of fluoride on the brain. Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency, and from laboratories in Massachusetts and Kansas, will lecture on the impact of fluoride on rat and human brains. There will also be a presentation on IQ studies conducted in China on people exposed to fluoride.

The conference will proceed the next day on how fluoride affects bone structure. Presenters will highlight studies from India, China and Africa that show fluoride can induce bone and joint disease with symptoms similar to those of arthritis.

On the final day of the conference, attendants will travel 40 mils north of Canton to the Mohawk Nation Longhouse at Akwesasne, on Cornwall Island, Ontario. They will learn about the Mohawk experience with fluoride pollution from Mr. Lickers, and listen to members of the community recount their experiences.

Mohawks who lived in the area when the cattle herds began to die will speak about what led to the case brought against Reynolds and Alcoa by the tribe for $50 million. The Mohawks eventually settled the case in 1980 against the aluminum producers for $464,000 after agreeing not to sue the companies for 10 years for damage to cattle and vegetation.

Paul H. Connett, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network and a professor of chemistry at St. Lawrence University, decided to work with the Mohawks on this conference because their personal experience with fluoride adds a human dimension to his organization's crusade.

Launched in May 2000, the Fluoride Action Network set itself a goal to end fluoridation of public water supplies worldwide. The group, made up of scientists from the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia, believes the way to do this is through education.

"Everybody has been brain-washed with the warm and fuzzy image of fluoride by toothpaste manufacturers," said Mr. Connett, who has avoided using fluoridated toothpaste and any tap water for the past eight years. "These companies have spent billions of dollars killing the debate on the utility of fluoride, and presenting their critics as unscientific nut cases. The purpose of this conference with the Mohawks is to counteract this propaganda."

Dear All,

Some of you might remember hearing about the fluoride poisoning of the Akwesasne Mohawks which had occurred from emissions by aluminum companies as a result of a hydro-electric project. Joel Griffiths wrote a very good article in 1992. Prof. Lennart Krook from the Cornell University did some highly excellent work in the late 1970s on the fluorosis in cattle on Cornwall Island, the Canadian side affected.

Apparently, in January 2001 there was a report released documenting the health of the Akwesasne Mohawks. Here is the abstract. As predictable, there is an increase in hypothyroidism, asthma, etc.

WS

Negoita S, Swamp L, Kelley B, Carpenter DO - "Chronic diseases surveillance of St. Regis Mohawk Health Service patients" J Public Health Manag Pract 7(1):84-91 (2001) School of Public Health, University at Albany in Rensselaer, New York, USA.

"A study of the distribution of some chronic diseases among the Akwesasne Mohawks was performed using computerized medical records of the St. Regis Mohawk Health Services Clinic. Prevalence proportions, annual incidence rates, and five-year incidence rates were computed for the period January 1, 1992 to January 1, 1997 for asthma, diabetes mellitus type II, hypothyroidism, and osteoarthritis. Hypothyroidism and diabetes showed higher age-specific prevalence than in the general U.S. population. Osteoarthritis was extremely frequent among people 60 years of age and older, and it may also be elevated in prevalence in relation to the U.S. general population. The incidence and prevalence trends of diabetes type II and osteoarthritis were stationary, but those for asthma and hypothyroidism showed increases over the study period. Morbidity from asthma and acquired hypothyroidism should be monitored in the future and investigated through analytic epidemiologic methods for a possible association with lifestyle and environmental factors. "

For Further Reading on the Akwesasne Mohawks, see: "Fluoride: Commie Plot or Capitalist Ploy" by Joel Griffiths http://www.primitivism.com/fluoride.htm

" A study by Cornell University indicated that smokestack effluvia from a Reynolds Metals factory also was destroying once-profitable cattle and dairy farms in Cornwall on the Ontario side of Akwesasne. The study linked fluorides to the demise of cattle as early as 1978. Many of the cattle, as well as fish, suffered from fluoride poisoning that weakened their bones and decayed their teeth. Ernest Benedict's Herefords died while giving birth, while Noah Point's cattle lost their teeth and Mohawk fishermen landed perch and bass with deformed spines and large ulcers on their skins. The fluoride was a by-product of a large aluminum smelter in Massena, New York, that routinely fills the air with yellowish gray fumes smelling of acid and metal ... the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne filed a $150 million lawsuit against another company, Alcoa, but settled for $650,000. The council spent so much on lawyers' fees that it nearly went bankrupt. Although Reynolds Metals, owner of the aluminum smelter, cut its fluoride emissions from 300 pounds an hour in 1959 to 75 pounds per hour in 1980, the few cattle still feeding in the areas continued to die of fluoride poisoning. The pollution of Akwesasne is accentuated by the fact that most of the plants emitting toxins are located west of there, upstream and often upwind." http://www.tuscaroras.com/graydeer/pages/Toxicturtle1.htm

Krook L, Maylin GA - "Industrial fluoride pollution. Chronic fluoride poisoning in Cornwall Island cattle" Cornell Vet 69 Suppl 8:suppl 1-70 (1979) Pub Med

An aluminum plant on the south bank of the St. Lawrence river, southwest of Cornwall Island, Ontario, Canada, has emitted 0.816 metric tons of fluoride daily since 1973; considerably higher amounts were emitted from 1959 to 1973. The plant has been designated as the "major source of fluoride emissions impacting on Cornwall Island." Chronic fluoride poisoning in Cornwall island cattle was manifested clinically by stunted growth and dental fluorosis to a degree of severe interference with drinking and mastication. Cows died at or were slaughtered after the third pregnancy. The deterioration of cows did not allow further pregnancies. Fluoride concentrations in ash of biopsied coccygeal vertebrae increased significantly with age and were dependent on distance from and direction to the aluminum plant. Fluoride in bone ash of a 7-month old-fetus exceeded 500 ppm; fluoride thus was passed transplacentally. Analyses of fluoride in ash of bones obtained at necropsy of cattle from 4 months of age to 4 to 5 years of age showed increased amounts with age. Cancellous bone retained far higher amounts than cortical bone, a reflection of the normally higher metabolic rate of cancellous bone. Concentrations exceeding 10,000 ppm fluoride were recorded in cancellous bone of a 4-to 5-year-old cow. The target cells for fluoride in chronic fluorosis were shown to be the ameloblasts, the dental pulp cells and the odontoblasts and, in bone, primarily the resorbing osteocytes and also the osteoblasts. Atrophy and necrosis of the ameloblasts were responsible for enamel defects. The existing enamel showed brown discoloration from fluoride deposits. The pulp cells underwent fibrous and osseous metaplasia and necrosis of the ectopic bone occurred. The odontoblasts were atrophic and the dentin showed brown discoloration. The resorbing osteocytes were inactive and osteosclerosis resulted. This was especially pronounced in areas of normally great apposition, i.e. in the metaphyses. The epiphyseal plate became squeezed between petrotic bone and growth was stunted. Resorption of alveolar bone surrounding the deciduous teeth was severely retarded or arrested. A delay in eruption of permanent teeth occurred; it was up to 3.5 years in incisor teeth. Interference with the resorbing osteocytes in fluorotic bone was also demonstrated by loss of collagen birefringency in such bone. Failure of bone resorption also caused retention of trabecular bone in the cortices; this was observed even in a 4-to-5-year-old cow. In areas where modeling into osteonic bone had begun, fluoride deposits were extremely heavy but this bone showed numerous soft osteons in microradiographs. The toxic effect of fluoride on osteocytes also resulted in the death of the cells. Such osteonecrosis occurred mainly in gnathic bone. There was atrophy of the osteoblasts. Osteopenia thus resulted from osteonecrosis and osteoporosis. Subperiosteal exostoses were not observed in long bones. The degree of fluorosis in Cornwall Island cattle was severe...