By James Donahue

 I was a child when fluoride, a by-produce from the manufacture of the atomic bomb, was first introduced to the American people.

 Nobody told us where fluoride came from. All we knew is that it was a wonderful new product that would make our teeth extra hard and prevent cavities. When a free fluoride clinic was set up one summer in our school, all the kids in town were lined up to have this bitter tasting stuff rubbed all over our teeth.

 We were pretty gullible in those days. The war years and the period immediately following the war was a time of great scientific advancement, when people were lulled into the belief that science was going to solve all of the problems of the world. The belief was so strong that we believed whatever a scientist told us. Nobody dreamed that we might be victims of a fraud.

 My father was part of the magic. He worked as a chemical engineer for a local plant that manufactured a variety of products from wheat and corn starch (including the brain-killing excitotoxin monosodium glutamate). Consequently, he provided well enough during the war years that I made regular visits to a dentist every summer. I knew well the agony of the dentist drill, which was nothing like the advanced water-cooled high speed equipment used by modern dentists. Repairing a cavity doomed us to what seemed like hours of white-knuckle torture under the glaring lights of the dental chair, while a man with plastic rimmed glasses and bad breath bored his way through our teeth. Once the drilling was done, the dentist filled the hole he made with a hot metallic material that burned when it went in, and left a bad taste in your mouth.

 We had a mom-and-pop grocery store in our neighborhood where kids could buy penny candy and a package of gum for a nickel. I made a lot of visits to that candy store.

 Even though my mother made sure that I brushed my teeth daily, I don't remember linking the candy I was eating to all of the cavities. Once fluoride was introduced, it seemed like a child's dream come true.

 I was disappointed, of course. I discovered that I had just as many cavities in my teeth the following year.

 When they started dumping fluoride in the local water supply, and adding it to the ingredients in our toothpaste, I thought that would solve my problem. It seemed reasonable to think that I didn't get a heavy enough dose of fluoride when I attended the free clinic. After all, if a little bit of fluoride was good for your teeth, think what a lot of exposure could do.

  But alas, after years of drinking, scrubbing and consuming fluoride laced products, we are discovering that we've been scammed. This chemical is found to be totally ineffective in preventing tooth decay. Not only that, it seems to be directly linked to a variety of medical problems ranging from discolored teeth to bone disease and cancer.

 In short, fluoride is a poison.

 This is not news to the medical world. The Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine have both reported greater incidence of hip fractures in fluoridated areas. The National Institute of Environmental and Health Services has directly linked fluoridation with cancer.

 A book by Dr. John Yiamouyiannis titled "Fluoride, The Aging Factor," claims that the drug also causes a premature aging process. The author notes that in areas where fluoride is consumed in the drinking water, there are higher rates of bone disorders (skeletal fluorosis, osteoporosis and arthritic pain) and people suffer from brown decaying teeth.

 "Fluoride IS a poison!" Yiamouyiannis warns." The 1984 issue of Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products lists fluoride as more poisonous than lead and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. It has been used as a pesticide for mice, rats and other small pests. A 10-pound infant could be killed by 1/100 of an ounce and a 100-pound adult could be killed by 1/10 of an ounce of fluoride. The Akron Regional Poison Center indicates that a 7-ounce tube of toothpaste contains 199 mg. of fluoride, more than enough to kill a 25-pound child."

 Yiamouyiannis writes that the acceleration of the aging process by fluoride occurs at the bio-chemical level by causing enzyme inhibition, collagen breakdown, genetic damage and disruption of the immune system.

 "Fluoride interacts with the bonds which maintain the normal shape of proteins," he continues. "With distorted protein, the immune system attacks its own protein, the body's own tissue." The visual and physical effects from prolonged exposure to fluoride include nausea, bloody vomit, faintness, stomach cramps, tremors, constipation, aching bones, stiffness, skin rash, weight loss and brown or black discoloration of the teeth.

 The horror in this story is that fluoride was known as a deadly poison from the start. But if this is true, why would we expose a nation, and now people all over the world, to it? Would you believe the answer to that question is money?

 There is compelling evidence that the program of water fluoridation began as a massive effort to cover up one of the most toxic materials to emerge from the government's secret nuclear weapons program. The idea was that if fluoride could be presented to the country as beneficial, then no one could sue the government for being harmed by it.

 An article by Dr. Jackie Alan Giuliano in "Healing Our World" noted that reporters Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson discovered the truth about fluoride while researching hundreds of declassified documents about the Manhattan Project, America's secret atomic bomb development program.

 They found that fluoride as a key chemical in atomic bomb production. Millions of tons were used during the Cold War period to manufacture high-grade uranium and plutonium.

 "Fluoride was the top chemical hazard of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, not only for workers, but for those living in nearby communities as well," Giuliano wrote.

 "The documents show that the first U.S. lawsuits levied against the atomic weapons program were over fluoride poisoning, not radiation damage. The documents reveal that the U.S. government secretly ordered atomic bomb scientists to create "evidence useful in litigation" against defense contractors who were being accused of injuring citizens with fluoride."

 This secret work to head-off government lawsuits lead to a multi-billion dollar industry that has been poisoning our water supplies, our toothpaste, and our bodies ever since. Believe this or not, fluoride tablets are even available for children.

 To escape the harmful effects of fluoride, Yiamouyiannis suggests that you seek non-fluoride toothpaste (but you may have to go to health stores to find it), and drink bottled water. Even using tap water to cook may expose you to fluoride.

 Now that the truth about fluoride is out, why haven't towns and toothpaste companies stopped dumping this terrible poison in our water and toothpaste supplies? Don't expect that to happen. Remember, I said this is a multi-billion dollar industry. Nobody shuts down a money machine like that without a fight.