Don't Swallow Your Toothpaste - Health Alert

An eye opening documentary originally broadcast on Channel 4 in Great Britain on June 19th, 1997 covering health concerns about fluoride and water fluoridation. (Only 10% of Britain's population is fluoridated).

The program is hosted by Shahnaz Pakraven, former presenter for Channel 4 and the Health Alert series, and anchor and reporter for Tomorrow's World. Pakraven has also hosted for Arab World Direct and the Daily Breakfast programs. Before becoming a television presenter, Ms. Pakraven had spent over a decade as a motion picture actress.

Dr. Paul Connett, who at the time taught environmental chemistry at St. Lawrence University, gives information concerning fluoride's health hazards and the controversy surrounding its use in water fluoridation. Connett is now the Executive Director of the Fluoride Action Network.

Dr. Andrew Thomas, a consultant Surgeon describes medical problems that are observed in the British health system among older patients that may originate from excessive fluoride exposure.

Dr. Michael Lennon is a Professor of Preventive Dentistry at the University of Liverpool and Chairman of the British Fluoridation Society. Dr. Lennon continues to lobby for increasing fluoridation all across the nation of Great Britain. He describes the reasons he and the BFS continue to strongly promote fluoridation.

Dr. Phillis Mullenix describes her research at the Forsyth Dental Institute at Harvard University. Mullenix was dismissed from her position after discovering and publishing the fact that fluoride causes clearly observable neurological damage in rats. Her research suggested there may be alarming levels of adverse health effects caused by fluoride exposure in human beings.

We also meet the developer of fluoride (MFP) in toothpaste, Dr. John Hein, and learn some interesting history about how energetic advertising helped to popularize its widespread use by the public. Dr. Hein, is now the retired Dental Director of Colgate Corporation, which continues to manufacture and sell fluoride toothpaste worldwide.

Dr. Peter Mansfield of the National Pure Water Association weighs in on the topic of fluoride exposure.

And, we witness the Quail family's encounter with their daughter's case of dental fluorosis and its irreversible consequences.

This program is presented as an open broadcast under fair use as an example of the controversy over fluoride that continues to this day in Great Britain.