Kerwin and Strontium 90

   Fluoride ingestion or absorbtion/inhalation greatly enhances uptake of radioactive elements, including I131 and Strontium 90.

   In 1958 Barry Commoner and others showed that the teeth of every baby in the US had some level of strontium 90 accumulation as a direct result of fall-out from nuclear testing in the 1940s and 1950s.

   An article published in a 1958 Dental Digest by Dr. James G Kerwin, Director of the Central Division of the Passaic Department of Health in New Jersey, sheds more light on the issue of stronium and fluoride interactions:

   “Because of the affinity of strontium and fluoride to form highly insoluble Sr90F2, the consumption of water that has been artificially fluoridated may increase the danger of Strontium 90 to man and animals."

   "For obvious reasons it is necessary for the body to be able to get rid of any radioactive strontium as quickly as possible. Under nomal circumstances the body does this, but only at a slow rate. If, however, fluoride has been consumed, for example, from artificial fluoridated drinking water, then Strontium-90 and the fluoride may precipitate as the highly insoluble Sr90F2 within the body. This means that the rate at which Strontium-90 is excreted or thrown off will be even slower than ordinarily occurs."

   "Thus, the more Strontium-90 that is consumed the more fluoride the body will tend to accumulate. Conversely, the more fluoride is taken in, the Strontium-90 will be retained within the bones and soft tissues longer than usual, and the body will thus be exposed to that much more internal radiation."

   "It is known that fluorides are powerful inhibitors of enzyme action, and that many types of enzymes are affected, including some that are essential for cellular oxidation...The wide variety of enzymes known to be poisoned by fluoride accounts for the different manifestations of fluorosis; that is, the different symptoms associated with fluoride poisoning."

   "Life processes are so delicately balanced that any change, any departure from the normally established order at the cellular level, is likely to be for the worse. Thus a combination of radioactive strontium and fluoride, forming Sr90F2, could do great harm. If the entire population of the United States received small doses of additional radiation from Strontium-90 which was combined with fluoride in the body, and thus was prevented from being excreted, it is likely that several thousands among the generation of ten million children may be definitely handicapped because of gene mutation due to internal radiation."

   "There is still another aspect to consider; that is, a population that is exposed generation after generation to an increasing amount of Strontium-90 and fluoride may quite likely exhibit a higher death rate coupled with a lower birth rate, both due to harmful radiations and the resulting mutations."

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Kerwin JG - "Possible Biologic Hazards of Strontium 90 and Fluoridation" Dental Digest, February 1958, also in: Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol.11, No.2, (1958)