The Gary Null Blog

Myths Are Very Hard to Dislodge We can get a good idea of how much fluoride is safe by working with Roholm’s figures. You will remember that after the figures had been corrected, the amount needed to cause crippling fluorosis in a 100- to 229-pound person was reckoned to be 10 to 20 mg per day for 10 to 20 years. Since fluorides accumulate in a linear fashion, the crippling dosage of 10 mg per day for 10 years is the same as 5 mg per day for 20 years, and so on. If we extrapolate this to a normal lifetime with fluoridated water, this is the same as 2.5 to 5 mg per day for 40 to 80 years. But we should note that, for persons with kidney disease, the risk is greater because less fluoride will be eliminated by their malfunctioning kidneys. It is also important to note that these figures are for crippling fluorosis, the last stage. It will take only 4 years at 10 mg/day, or 16 years at 2.5 mg per day, before a 100-pound individual can expect to experience phase 2, musculoskeletal fluorosis, with chronic joint pain and arthritic symptoms – with or without osteoporosis. That is the amount of fluoride found in just 2-1/2 liters of water. And that’s without counting the extra that today is inevitably found in foods, toothpaste, and other sources.