USEPA MINIMIZES 80% DEATH RATE IN EXPERIMENTAL LAB RATS
by George Glasser
"In l999, EPA convened a group of experts to carefully consider the results of the Varner et al. (1998) study," USEPA spokesman, Charles Fox wrote in a September 5, 2000 letter to US Congressman Ken Calvert, Chairman, House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment. Fox continued, "As a result of that conference, EPA has requested that the National Toxicology Program consider the possibility of conducting additional studies of the neurotoxicity of aluminum that include verification of the results observed in the Varner et al. Study."
Fox carefully avoided mentioning the fact that the reviewed study he cited was replicated in two previous studies by Dr. Julie Varner. All three studies found that aluminum-fluoride interactions are associated with brain and kidney damage in laboratory animals. Aside from brain and kidney damage, there was an 80% mortality rate in the animals fed doses of sodium fluoride and aluminum similar to those found in artificially fluoridated drinking water.
Alum (aluminum sulfate) is most frequently used by water companies to improve the appearance of drinking water, to make it clear. For many years, aluminum has been known to be neurotoxic to humans and animals.
The original Varner, et al, study published in Neuroprotective Agents, 1997, was designed to determine whether aluminum and fluoride (aluminum fluoride) in drinking water play a role in age-related neurological damage similar to Alzheimer’s disease. It was the first scientific study to deal with fluoride/aluminum interaction.
The researchers considered that fluoride and aluminum could combine in the stomach and be more readily transported to the brain. The combination, they believed, could enhance neurological damage and cause conditions such as presenile dementia or Alzheimer’s like dementia (ALD). During the first experiment, the researchers had noted and were perplexed by the alarmingly high death rate in the group of animals receiving aluminum and fluoride in their drinking water (80% of the animals in the low-dose group died before completion of the experiment).
They also noted that the amounts of aluminum and fluoride fed to the animals was about the same as the amounts people are exposed to in artificially fluoridated public water supplies. The reasons for the high number of animal deaths is still unexplained as was the fact that the greatest number of mental impairments appeared in the low-dose group of animals.
It was also observed that the animals who drank the aluminum/fluoride-laced water developed sparse hair and abnormal, copper-colored underlying skin which is related to premature aging. Researchers said that most often this condition is the result of several diseases including chronic kidney failure. Further autopsy results showed serious kidney abnormalities in animals that drank water containing both sodium fluoride and aluminum fluoride.
The Varner team said that, "Striking parallels were seen between aluminum-induced alterations" in cerebral blood vessels that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of presenile dementia. They concluded that the alterations of the blood vessels may be a primary event triggering neuro-degenerative diseases.
Astounded, the researchers went on to say: "Not only did the rats in the lowest dose groups die more often during the experiment, they looked poorly well before their deaths. Even the rats in the lowest dose group that managed to survive the 45 weeks looked to be in poor health."
Subsequently, the researchers reported that the results of the "THIRD" animal study confirmed the findings of the previous studies. This red flag alarmed the USEPA panel of experts because the same physical and neurological damage can also be occurring in humans in areas where both aluminum sulfate and fluorides are added to the public drinking water.
Based on the conclusions drawn from the third Varner study, the USEPA experts requested further research be commissioned by the National Toxicology Program. In spite of the disturbing Varner team revelations it will take two to three years for the National Toxicology to review the request.
Almost 60% of the United States is fluoridated, and the odds of an American developing some form of dementia by the age of 65 is estimated at 1 in every 10 people, and at the age of 85, the odds are 3 in every 10 people.
In the United Kingdom, which is 10% fluoridated, 7% of the population over 65 years will develop some form of dementia.
Recent USEPA concerns over arsenic, a Group 1 (a) carcinogen, caused the government-contracted water treatment chemical certification laboratory, National Sanitation Foundation International, to say that there will be "increased product failures" due to high arsenic levels in fluorosilicic acid. USEPA has asked the US Government to dramatically reduce arsenic levels in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. The EPA is keen to change the regulations because arsenic in known to cause a wide range of cancers in humans.
More recently, the primary component of fluorosilicic acid and sodium fluorosilicate - silicon - has also been discovered in the brain plaque of Alzheimer’s and Alzheimer’s-like dementia (ALD) victims. Silica has also been found in the brain tissue of people with primary brain tumors, which is considered a terminal condition. Although aware of these new developments, no responsible government agency including the USEPA will request that any research be done with the actual toxic waste "product" used to fluoridate public drinking water.
Research resources:
1. J A Varner, K F Jensen, W Horvath and R L Isaacson, Binghamton, New York, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, CHRONIC ADMINISTRATION OF ALUMINUM-FLUORIDE OR SODIUM-FLUORIDE TO RATS IN DRINKING WATER: ALTERATIONS IN NEURONAL AND CEREBROVASCULAR INTEGRITY, Abstracted from Brain Research 784 284-298 1998 http://www.fluoride-journal.com/98-31-2/31291-95.htm
2. Links to USEPA responses to Congressional inquiry on drinking water fluoridation http://home.att.net/~gtigerclaw/EPAresponse.html
3. Statistics and information on Alzheimer’s http://www.zarcrom.com/users/alzheimers/odem/d4.html http://www.zarcrom.com/users/alzheimers/odem/d4.html
4. UK statistics: http://www.umds.ac.uk/physiology/daveb/brainday/stats.htm
*Microvascular abnormalities are associated with strokes resulting in forms of memory loss.