Back in June of '97, our 50th issue, I wrote a joint entitled, The War vs. Your Immune System, which exposed 2 of the most deadliest chemi(killz) created by YT, aluminum and fluoride. Not only have these toxinz been responsible for numerous climate alterationz, they can be directly linked to the increase of illnesses of the world population since the 1950s.

Their use has also raised a concerned eyebrow to the critics who deny there was a Global2000 program implemented by the Carter administration of the late '70s. This piece will dwell more on the cover-up of the use of fluoride and the effects it has had after hueman consumption.

FLUORIDE & THE A-BOMB PROGRAM
Today, 2/3rdz of the US. public drinking water is fluoridated. 50 yearz after authorities began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in childrenz teeth, recently discovered declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots, revealing a surprising connection between the use of fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age. Since the dayz of WWII when the US. prevailed by building the worldz first atomic bomb, the nationz public health leaderz have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people and good for childrenz teeth.

That safety verdict should now be reexamined due to hundredz of once secret WWII-era documents recently obtained by 2 reporterz [authors Griffiths and Bryson], including declassified paperz of the Manhattan Project(MP)­the ultra-secret US. military program that produced the atomic bomb.

First off, fluoride was the key chemical in atomic bomb production. Massive quantities ­ millionz of tonz ­ were essential for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weaponz throughout the Cold War. One of the most toxic chemi(killz) known, fluoride emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the US. atomic bomb program, both for workerz and for nearby communities. Other revelations include:

· Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for people in low doses was generated by A-bomb program scientists who had been secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against defense contractorz for fluoride injury to citizenz. The first lawsuits against the American A-bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage.
· Studies on people were required. Bomb program researcherz played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive US. study of the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water, conducted in Newburgh, New York, from '45-'55. Then, in a classified operation codenamed "Program F", they secretly gathered and analyzed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizenz with the cooperation of New York State Health Department personnel.
· The original, secret version of a study published by Program F scientists in the August '48 Journal of the American Dental Association showz that evidence of adverse health effects from fluoride was censored by the
US. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) ­ considered the most powerful of Cold War agencies ­ for reasonz of "national security".
· The bomb programz fluoride safety studies were conducted at the University of Rochester ­ site of one of the most notorious radiation experiments on people of the Cold War, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium. The fluoride studies were conducted having the same mindset, in which "national security" was not only the focus, but deemed paramount.

Hedz exposed to fluoride has mushroomed since WWII, due not only to fluoridated water and toothpaste but to environmental pollution by major industries, from aluminum to pesticides, where fluoride is a critical industrial chemical as well as a waste byproduct.

The impact can be seen literally in the smiles of our children. Large numberz (up to 80 per cent in some cities) of young Americanz now have dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of excessive fluoride exposure according to the US. National Research Council. The signz are whitish flecks or spots, particularly on the front teeth, or dark spots or stripes in more severe cases. Mos def, I'm a victim, 'cause I have those spots, yo!

Less known to the public is that fluoride also accumulates in bones. "The teeth are windows to what's happening in the bones," explained Paul Connett, Professor of Chemistry at St Lawrence University, New York. In recent yearz, pediatric bone specialists have expressed alarm about an increase in stress fractures among young people in the US. Fluoride ­ linked to bone damage in studies since the '30s ­ may be a contributing factor. "Information was buried," concludes Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston, now a critic of fluoridation. Animal studies which Mullenix conducted in the early '90s indicated fluoride was a powerful central nervous system (CNS) toxin and might adversely affect hueman brain functioning even at low doses. (Epidemiological evidence from China adds support, showing a correlation between low-dose fluoride exposure and diminished IQ in children.)

An MP memorandum of April 29, '44 states: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect... It seemz most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor." The memo, from a captain in the medical corps, is stamped SECRET and is addressed to Colonel Stafford Warren, head of the MPs Medical Section. On the same day, Colonel Warren approved the CNS research program. This was in '44, at the height of WWII and the US. nation's race to build the worldz first atomic bomb. Mullenix reasons that the results were buried because of the difficult legal and public relations problems they might create for the government.

THE NEW JERSEY FLUORIDE INCIDENT
The trail begins in '44, when a severe pollution incident occurred at the E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company chemical factory in Deepwater, NJ The factory was then producing millionz of poundz of fluoride for the MP. The farmz in Gloucester and Salem counties were famous for their high-quality produce. Their peaches went directly to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City; their tomatoes were bought up by Campbell's Soup.

But in that summer the farmerz began reporting their crops were bad, something was burning up the peach crops. They said poultry died after an all-night thunderstorm, and farm workerz who ate produce they'd picked would sometimes vomit all night and into the next day. Horses looked sick and were too stiff to work and some cowz were so crippled they could not stand up; they could only graze by crawling on their bellies. Although the farmerz didn't know it, the attention of the MP and the federal government was rivetted on the NJ incident. A memo, dated August 27, '45, from MP chief General Leslie R. Groves (then known as "the man who built the atomic bomb") to the Commanding General of Army Service Forces at the Pentagon, concernz the investigation of crop damage. It states: "...the Department of Agriculture has agreed to cooperate in investigating complaints of crop damage attributed...to fumes from a plant operated in connection with the Manhattan Project."

The NJ farmerz waited until the war was over before suing DuPont and the MP for fluoride damage­the first lawsuits against the US atomic bomb program. Under the personal direction of Gen. Groves, secret meetingz were convened in Washington, with compulsory attendance by scores of scientists and officials from the US War Department, the MP, the FDA, the Agriculture and Justice departments, the US Army's Chemical Warfare Service and Edgewood Arsenal, the Bureau of Standards, as well as lawyers from DuPont. A secret mobilization of the full forces of the government to defeat the New Jersey farmerz. In '46 the US. began fullscale production of atomic bombs. No other nation had yet tested a nuclear weapon, and the A-bomb was seen as crucial for US leadership of the postwar world. The NJ fluoride lawsuits were a serious roadblock to that strategy. "The specter of endless lawsuits haunted the military," wrote Lansing Lamont in Day of Trinity. "If the farmers won, it would open the door to further suits which might impede the bomb programz ability to use fluoride," commented Jacqueline Kittrell, a Tennessee lawyer. "The reports of human injury were especially threatening because of the potential for enormous settlements, not to mention the PR problem," she added.

DuPont was particularly concerned about the "possible psychologic reaction" to the New Jersey pollution incident, according to a secret MP memo of March 1, '46. Facing a threat from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to embargo the regionz produce because of "high fluoride content", DuPont dispatched its lawyers to Washington, DC. According to a memo sent next day to General Groves, DuPont's lawyer argued that "in view of the pending suits...any action by the FDA...would have a serious effect on the DuPont Company and would create a bad public relations situation". General Groves' memo of August 27, '46, new tests for fluoride in the NJ area were to be conducted not by the Department of Agriculture but by the US Army's Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) because "work done by the CWS would carry the greatest weight as evidence if...lawsuits are started by the complainants".

The public relations problem remained unresolved: local citizens were in a panic about fluoride. The farmerz spokesman, Willard B. Kille, was personally invited to dine with General Groves at his office at the War Dept. on March 26, '46. Although diagnosed by his doctor as having fluoride poisoning, Kille departed the luncheon convinced of the government's good faith (He was basically bought off). A broader solution to the public relationz problem was suggested by MP chief fluoride toxicologist Harold C. Hodge in a second secret memo (May 1, '46) to Medical Section chief Colonel Warren: "Would there be any use in making attempts to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents of Salem and Gloucester counties through lectures on F toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of F in tooth health?" Lectures were conducted, not only to NJ citizenz but to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War.

The NJ farmers' lawsuits were ultimately halted by the government's refusal to reveal the key piece of information that would have settled the case: how much fluoride DuPont had vented into the atmosphere during the war. The farmerz were bought off with token financial settlements, according to interviewz with descendants still living in the area. "All we knew is that DuPont released some chemical that burned up all the peach trees around here," recalled Angelo Giordano whose father James was one of the original plaintiffs. "The trees were no good after that, so we had to give up on the peaches." His family had been plagued by bone and joint problemz. And the amount they bought them off with was startling, the settlement received by Giordano's family was about $200". The farmers were stonewalled in their search for information about fluoride's effects on their health, and their complaints have
long since been forgotten.

"PROGRAM F": SECRET FLUORIDE RESEARCH
During WWII the US Federal Government became involved for the first time in large scale funding of scientific research at government-owned labs and private colleges. A secret memo (May 2, '46) to Gen. Groves from MP Lt. Colonel Rhodes states: "Because of complaints that animals and humans have been injured by hydrogen fluoride fumes in [the NJ] area, although there are no pending suits involving such claims, the University of Rochester is conducting experiments to determine the toxic effect of fluoride." Much of the proof of fluoride's alleged safety in low doses rests on the postwar work done at the Univ. of Rochester in anticipation of lawsuits against the bomb program for human injury. But this marriage of military secrecy and medical science bore deformed offspring. There they conducted at its Atomic Energy Project (AEP), a top secret facility at Strong Memorial Hospital. One of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War took place, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium.

Program F was not about children's teeth. It grew directly out of litigation against the bomb program, and its main purpose was to furnish scientific ammunition which the government and its nuclear contractors could use to defeat lawsuits for human injury. The director was none other than Dr Harold C. Hodge, who led the MP investigation of alleged human injury in the New Jersey fluoride pollution incident. Unfortunately, much of the proof of fluoride's safety rests on the work performed by Program F scientists at the Univ. of Rochester. During the postwar period, that university emerged as the leading academic center for establishing the safety of fluoride as well as its effectiveness in reducing tooth decay. The key figure in this research was Dr Harold C. Hodge who also became a leading national spokesman of fluoridating public drinking water.

THE A-BOMB AND WATER FLUORIDATION
Program F's interest in water fluoridation was not just "to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents", as Hodge had earlier written to Colonel Warren. The bomb program required human studies of fluoride's effects, just as it needed human studies of plutoniumz effects. Adding fluoride to public water supplies provided one opportunity. Planning began in '43 with the appointment of a special NY State Health Dept. (NYSHD) committee. The chairman of the committee was, again, Dr. Hodge. Memberz of the committee included Henry L. Barnett, a captain in the Project's Medical Section, and John W. Fertig, in '44 with the Office of Scientific Research and Development, the secret Pentagon group which overlooked the MP. David B. Ast, chief dental officer of the NYSHD. Ast had participated in a key secret wartime conference on fluoride, held by the MP in January '44, and later worked with Hodge on the Project's investigation of human injury in the NJ incident. The committee recommended that Newburgh be fluoridated. "Are there any cumulative effects, beneficial or otherwise, on tissues and organs other than the teeth, of continued ingestion of such small concentrations?" This was also key info sought by the bomb program. In fact, the program would require continued exposure of workerz and communities to fluoride throughout the Cold War.

In May '45, Newburgh's water was fluoridated, and over the next 10 yearz its residents were studied by the NYSHD. "It reminds me of the Tuskegee experiment that was done on syphilis patients down in Alabama," said present-day Newburgh Mayor Audrey Carey. When contacted by reporterz, the now 95year-old Ast said he was unaware that MP scientists were involved. Did he know that blood and placenta samples from Newburgh were being sent to bomb program researcherz at Rochester? "I was not aware of it," he replied. Did he recall participating in the MP's secret wartime conference on fluoride in January '44, or going to NJ with Hodge to investigate human injury in the DuPont case? He replied he had no recollection of any such events.

SUPPRESSION OF ADVERSE HEALTH FINDINGZ
So, has information been suppressed? A censored version of this study was later published in the August '48 Journal of the American Dental Association. Comparison of the secret version with the published version indicates that the US did censor damaging information on fluoride. The transcript of one of the major secret scientific conferences of WWII on "fluoride metabolism" is missing from the files of the US National Archives and is probably still classified.

The secret version reports that most of the men had no teeth left. The published version reports only that the men had fewer cavities. The secret version sayz the men had to wear rubber boots because the fluoride fumes disintegrated the nails in their shoes. The published version does not mention this. The secret version sayz the fluoride may have acted similarly on the menz teeth, contributing to their toothlessness. The published version omits this statement and concludes that "the men were unusually healthy, judged from both a medical and dental point of view".

Asked for comment on the early links of the MP to water fluoridation, Dr. Harold Slavkin, Director of the National Institute for Dental Research, the US agency which today fundz fluoride research, said: "I wasn't aware of any input from the Atomic Energy Commission." Nevertheless, he insisted that fluoride's efficacy and safety in the prevention of dental cavities over the last 50 yearz is well proved. So you see, even today, you won't get any of them to confess, but if you ask if THEY use fluoride, the answer is most notably an overwhelming NO! LIK SHOT!!