"Fluoride is the ionic form of fluorine, a halogen and the most electronegative of the elements of the periodic table. It is ubiquitous in nature."

"80 percent or more is typically absorbed. ... The elimination of absorbed fluoride occurs almost exclusively via the kidneys. ... For healthy, young, or middle-aged adults, approximately 50 percent of absorbed fluoride is retained by uptake in calcified tissues, and 50 percent is excreted in the urine. For young children, as much as 80 percent can be retained owing to increased uptake by the developing skeleton and teeth. Such data are not available for persons in the later years of life. ... Under most dietary conditions, fluoride balance is positive. Whether it is positive or negative appears to be due to the blood-bone fluoride steady state. When chronic intake is insufficient to maintain or gradually increase plasma concentrations, fluoride excretion by infants and adults can exceed the amounts ingested due to mobilization from calcified tissues."

"The cariostatic action of fluoride on erupted teeth of children and adults is due to its effects on the metabolism of bacteria in dental plaque and on the dynamics of enamel de- and remineralization during an acidogenic challenge. Plaque fluoride concentrations are directly related to the fluoride concentrations in and frequencies of exposure to water, beverages, foods, and dental products. Fluoride can be deposited in plaque by direct uptake from these sources as well as from the saliva and gingival crevicular fluid after ingestion and absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. Its effects on plaque bacteria involve inhibition of several enzymes, which limits the uptake of glucose and thus reduces the amount of acid produced and secreted into the extracellular plaque fluid. These effects attenuate the pH drop in plaque fluid that would otherwise occur and, hence, the severity of the acidic challenge to the enamel."

"In a study of fluoride intake by 225 children aged 2 to 10 years, Pang et al. (1992) reported that total fluid intake ranged from 970 to 1,240 ml/day. Consumption of soft drinks, juices, tea, and other beverages accounted for more than 50 percent of fluid intake and ranged from 585 to 756 mg/day. The fluoride concentrations ranged from nondetectable to 6.7 mg/liter."

• NAS/NRC has commented more than once that during the years prior to 1945, water was virtually the only source of ingested fluoride. The typical U.S. diet provided about one quarter milligram of fluoride daily.
   
• Not long ago a petition appeared in the Federal Register for an increase in the allowances for fluoride in pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables. According to this document, "EPA has estimated previously that levels of fluoride in/on food from the agricultural use of cryolite plus fluoride levels in U.S. drinking water supplies results in a daily dietary intake of fluoride of approximately 0.095 mg/kg/day." Federal Register: August 7, 1997
   
• According to McClure, the only reference cited in Dietary Reference Intakes, adults ingested 0.02 mg/kg/day in an "optimally fluoridated area" during the 1940s. For a 70 kilogram man (154 pounds) that's 1.4 mg/day. Now, it appears to be 6.65 mg/day ... far more than the original "optimum" daily intake for maximum benefits and minimum risk.
   
• In 1993 NAS/NRC commented on evidence that excess fluoride may be responsible for increased dental decay in some areas. More recently, the head of preventive dentistry at the University of Toronto, Dr. Hardy Limeback, a former pro-fluoridationist, said that in his practice, and among his colleagues, cosmetic dentistry is taking more time than dental decay ... and more money.
   
• For a discussion of the Surgeon General's role in promoting fluoridation, see The Cover-up at the U.S.E.P.A. in Applying the NAEP Code of Ethics to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Fluoride in Drinking Water Standard, written by EPA scientist witnesses.
   

"Both the inter-community transport of foods and beverages and the use of fluoridated dental products have blurred the historical difference in the prevalence of dental caries between communities with and without water fluoridation. ... The overall difference in caries prevalence between fluoridated and nonfluoridated regions in the United States was 18 percent ..."

According to (Dean 1942) ... "reduction in the number of dental caries per child was nearly maximal in communities having water fluoride concentrations close to 1.0 mg/liter. This is how 1.0 mg/liter became the 'optimal' concentration."

"Although the total amount of fluoride ingested daily by older children and adults is greater than by infants or young children, it is generally lower when expressed in terms of body weight. As noted earlier, average dietary fluoride intakes by adults living in fluoridated communities have ranged from 1.4 to 3.4 mg/day, or from 0.02 to 0.05 mg/kg/day for a 70 kg person."

"The primary adverse effects associated with chronic, excess fluoride intake are enamel and skeletal fluorosis."

"Stage 1 skeletal fluorosis is characterized by occasional stiffness or pain in joints and some osteosclerosis of the pelvis and vertebra."

"Crippling skeletal fluorosis continues to be extremely rare in the United States (only 5 cases have been confirmed during the last 35 years), even though for many generations there have been communities with drinking water fluoride concentrations in excess of those that have resulted in the condition in other countries. This puzzling geographic distribution has usually been attributed to unidentified metabolic or dietary factors that rendered the skeleton more or less susceptible."

"Studies are needed to define the effects of metabolic and environmental variables on the absorption, excretion, retention, and biological effects of fluoride."