Toothpaste Dangers
By: Hope Pope
I heard about the dangers of fluoride recently and something prompted me to look at the back of my 5 year olds toothpaste.
The innocent cute looking "crayola" toothpaste had this warning on the back of it...
"Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age. Do not swallow. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control immediately."
All of a sudden, that innocent looking toothpaste started looking real bad to me. Tell me what kid you know that doesn't accidentally swallow a little bit of toothpaste when they brush their teeth. I even do every now and then.
But that warning is on all non-natural "fluoride toothpastes"! Go ahead, go take a look at your toothpaste. You will find the same thing.
Now tell me that is not a scary thing.
The ADA claims that the warnings are there to prevent "mild fluorosis"... which are little white spots on the teeth from too much fluoride.
However, if that is all they were concerned about, why would they tell you to contact a "poison control center" if you swallowed "more than used for brushing"?
So I did some research and here is what I found...
The dose of fluoride in a tube of toothpaste is more than double the dose (60 mg) that could kill the average-weighing 2 year old child. It is also greater than the dose capable of killing all average weighing children under the age of 9.
Now that's scary stuff.