I have found out from information posted on various internet sites that while Switzerland doesn't fuoridate water, it fluoridates salt, including rock and sea salt. I see no mention of fluoride on salt packs in Migros, I guess that means it is fluoridated. Is there a brand of salt (preferrably sea salt) available that is known to not be fluoridated? Or would Austrian salt be a better option? I know they also fluoridate salt in Germany, but appartently to a lesser extent. The whole issue is confusing because of lack of labeling information on this issue. All advice appreciated!

At least in pure salt, it's always declared: "mit Fluor".

Jura Sel indeed contains iodine and fluorine.

http://www.leshop.ch/leshop/Main.do/...15/-10110/9650

Kochsalz, Fluorid 0,025%, Iodid 0,002%, Antiklumpmittel (E 536).


Both ingredients are listed on the box we have here at home as well. Therefore I think the labeling issue you are mentioning is a non-issue.





Look for salt that does not mention fluorine on the label and you should be safe. No?

My pack of Jura Sel only lists Iodine, no fluor.

Do you mind telling us why you dont like fluoride in your salt, which toothpaste do you use?

You can get non-fluoridated toothpastes.

I understand that there are people who have a problem with fluor. The concern is legitimate.

I vaguely recall you can buy two types of Jurasel at Migros or Coop, and they have a different colour, the packages I mean. Perhaps one is blue and the other blue with green...Anyway, find the Jurasel one without, it does exist .

Jura Sel with the blue stripe that has "Speisesalz" is the one that only has salt and an anticlumping agent. No iodine or fluoride.

This is the type of salt that I use for nasal irrigation. Iodine and fluoride do not help with nasal irrigation.

I'm sitting here with 2 boxes of Jura Sel (Tafelsalz mit Jod and Speisesalz) and neither mentions "florid" on the label (in any language).

Unfortunately I am too lazy to take and post a picture of the Jura Sel box in my kitchen



I will therefore defer to the Migros link I posted earlier. There may be more than one variety ... YMMV.

Great to know that Switzerland doesn't use fluoride in the water. I've been wondering about that because I couldn't find any info about it. They also don't use a lot of chlorine (thank God!) as I'd be able to really smell it and taste it if they did. But in salt! I've never heard of it being added to salt. Thanks for the warning. I will keep an eye out for this.

I have always used fluoride free toothpaste and have never let our dentist give any fluoride to our son. Fluoride is a carcinogen toxin that accumulates in the body and can cause a wide range of health conditions, including cancer.

The worst part is that it actually doesn't prevent tooth decay, as studies have shown that there was no difference in dental cavities in places where the water contained fluoride compared to where it didn't.

Here's a website that will give you a brief summary about the dangers of fluoride: http://www.all-natural.com/fleffect.html

Dr. Mercola also has some interesting links: http://www.mercola.com/article/links/fluoride_links.htm

In case you're wondering why they would add fluoride to our drinking water and toothpaste if it's so dangerous. The answer might surprise you:

"Historically, this substance was quite expensive for the worlds' premier chemical companies to dispose of - but in the 50's and 60's - Alcoa and the entire aluminum industry - with a vast overabundance of the toxic waste - SOMEHOW sold the FDA and our government on the insane (but highly profitable) idea of buying this poison at a 20,000% markup and then injecting it into our water supply as well as into the nation's toothpastes and dental rinse. Yes that's right folks, a 20,000% markup. Consider also that when sodium Fluoride is injected into our drinking water, its level is approximately 1 part-per-million (ppm), but since we only drink ½ of one percent of the total water supply, the hazardous chemical literally 'goes down the drain' and voila - the chemical industry has not only a free hazardous waste disposal system - but we have also PAID them handsomely in the process!!"

More shocking info:

"Did you know that sodium Fluoride is also one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin Nerve Gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUORIDE) - (Yes, folks the same Sarin Nerve Gas that terrorists released on a crowded Japanese subway train!). Let me repeat: the truth the American public needs to understand is the fact that Sodium Fluoride is nothing more (or less) than a hazardous waste by-product of the nuclear and aluminum industries. In addition to being the primary ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, it is also a main ingredient in anesthetic, hypnotic, and psychiatric drugs as well as military NERVE GAS!"

Source and additional information: http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.htm

Or for a more reasonable approach you could take a look at http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPr.../fluoride.html. Particularly the bit on "How poisonmongers work".

The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Let's all drink distilled water from now on.

I don't consider Quackwatch a reasonable source. That drug company backed website has done more damage to the natural health industry than anything else. The guy who runs the website keeps losing lawsuit after lawsuit yet he still has money to keep fighting. It's amazing! Here's just one example: http://educate-yourself.org/cn/steve...t20oct05.shtml

By the way, the state licensed college that I am the founder of is also listed on his website under Questionable Organizations. As are numerous other well respected organizations and medical experts who dare to promote natural therapies vs. drugs and medical treatments.

Phosphoric acid is used in fizzy drinks

Isopropyl alcohol is used in CD and spectacle cleaners

This is the real danger: dihydrogen oxide (Thanks to Chemgoddess)

I agree that you can have too much flouride if you have water and toothpaste and have tablets.
But that applies to pretty much everything. Drink enough purified distilled water and it will kill you..

Hi Lynn,

Just a small note here. You can't generally categorize elements as 100% good or 100% bad for your health: chemical structure plays a big role, and just because some compounds containing fluoride are dangerous doesn't mean fluorine is always bad for you. Just about any element can be helpful or harmful to your health: hydrochloric acid is pretty bad for you, but chloride ions (the exact same ones that are present in liquid hydrochloric acid) are absolutely essential for life as we know it. This is why table salt (=sodium chloride) is actually an important part of our diet (although these days people seem to be getting a bit too much of it).

Likewise, many natural substances that are essential for life have a similar elemental composition to things that are highly toxic: glucose and phenol are both composed of just carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but they have different chemical stuctures and very different impacts on living organisms. Some of the most important components of our DNA (purines and pyrimidines) are actually derivatives of benzene, but obviously eating DNA (which we do every time we eat any non-processed food) is harmless, but even trace quantities of benzene are highly dangerous.

I understand that you are concerned about your health, but try and remember that if you're discussing the relative merits of fluoride ions in water, it's not really relevant to cite psychotic drugs and nerve gas. The biological activities of both of these drugs aren't directly related to the fact that they contain fluorine, but because of where and how the entire drug molecule acts in the body. In fact, some highly potent nerve gases contain chlorine and not fluorine, but one wouldn't use this as a basis for excluding chlorine from your diet in all forms. (Although chlorinated water is the pits, and I'm glad I don't have to life with that here!)

Regarding fluoridation of water, I agree that mass fluoridation is probably a bad idea: it's too hard to control dose, and there are definite negative effects associated with ingesting too much fluorine (most notably, mottled teeth). However, this doesn't mean we should stop ingesting fluoride full stop. There is a difference between being cautious and being paranoid. Trace amounts of fluorine may or may not be good for your teeth, but they certainly aren't harmful to your overall health.

Heather

Hells teeth...pardon the pun

I struggle to see how the regulators would allow it's wide spread use if it was so bad for you. Surely the quanitities allowable in products is limited to prevent any ill effects, otherwise half the western world would be cancer ridden by now?

The real truth is that there are no reputable studies proving a harmful effect. Equally there are no reputable studies proving a benefit to teeth. Proving and reputable being possibly the key words here.

If you are worried about fluoride you should immediately stop drinking tea and beer as both are apparently rather rich in the stuff.

Being a Naturopathic Doctor, I've spent over 15 years of my life doing research on such things as fluoride and other substances that can be detrimental to our health. I find the evidence against fluoride very convincing and the sources credible. I do not take any chances with my health.

Additionally, being a mother makes me even more careful about what my son (and family) ingests and is exposed to, especially living in today's chemical world. Some might find this extreme but he is now 11 years old and has never taken any medication, not even antibiotics. (How many parents can say this about their children?) He's as healthy as they come, so I must be doing something right. The same goes for my husband and myself.

For Papa Goose regarding his comment: "I struggle to see how the regulators would allow it's wide spread use if it was so bad for you. Surely the quanitities allowable in products is limited to prevent any ill effects, otherwise half the western world would be cancer ridden by now?"

If you think the regulators have our best interest at heart, you are sadly mistaken. It's all about money and profits and not what is best for you. Also, we are not very far from half the Western world being cancer ridden. Just look at the statistics and how cancer rates have risen over the years. Do you think that's a conincidence?

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../2003/pr27/en/ WHO cancer stats.

Thank you all for your valuable answers, though I did rather naively hope to avoid the whole pro/against debate.

I'm looking for non-fluoridated salt because I understand from literature the local goverment sent me that the fluoride content in our water here in St Gallen is about 0.9 part per mil, close to what is considered the 'optimum' of 1 ppm. Considering that a lot of processed foods will contain higher percentages of fluorine, I suppose I already get more than enough, no need to add more of the stuff by using fluoridated salt. One should also bear in mind that the 'optimum' of 1ppm is what has been promoted by fluoride proponents, so it's arguably not exactly an objective figure. All in all, with this information at hand, I wish to exercise my consumer choice and opt for pure sea salt.

Some of you have talked about labelling. What give you the confidence that if fluride isn't mentioned on the packet, the salt has not been so treated? I'm not so trusting, mindful of what I have read on the net, so I'm really looking for salt that specifically says "not fluoridated", a bit like toothpastes of this kind you can buy. If you want more info on the issue, search Google for "fluoride salt Switzerland".

Doesn't look we're any closer to a truly clear answer... And it gets worse, a quick search on Google reveals salt in Austria is also fluoridated... Hmmm... Now I'm off to do another search, see if I can find some pure salt in Mongolia...

EDIT: I posted too soon! I'm now looking at the Migros link provided by tomcat, and they do seem to declare all contents of the salt varieties on offer, more than on actual packaging. For instance, I have a packet of Miomare Meersalz, which only states that it's purified, 99,5% Natriumchlorid - but the web listing also says "nicht jodiert". Thanks to tomcat for the link (I'm new here and can't for the life of me find a link to thank a poster for their post).