" nyscof's response is a little off the topic - isn't it? I certainly hope that Deruyter has suspended this school nurse or, if she is a substitute nurse, removes her name from their list. The parents of these children - I hope - are taking proper steps with the NYS Professional Licensing office. "

" Besides being ill-conceived that schools administer non-required drugs such as fluoride, the evidence shows fluoride supplements deliver risks with little, if any, benefits. Fluoride supplements put children six and under at significant risk of permanently discolored teeth, according to a review of studies recently posted on the American Dental Association’s (ADA) web site in their new section, “evidence-based dentistry,” for dentists and their patients. (1) Fluoride supplements, in graduating amounts up to 1 mg daily, are often prescribed to children who don’t drink fluoridated water, ostensibly to reduce tooth decay. “This review confirmed that in non-fluoridated communities the use of fluoride supplements during the first 6 years of life is associated with a significant increase in the risk of developing dental fluorosis, write researchers Ismail & Bandekar and first published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, February 1999, (2) but posted to the ADA’s website July 2007. Fluoride ingestion, once thought to reduce cavities, can lead to dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted tooth enamel. Modern science indicates fluoride absorbs into tooth enamel topically, primarily.(3) Studies link dental fluorosis to children’s kidney damage (4) and bone fractures (5). The ADA and Centers for Disease Control recently advised that fluoridated water should not be mixed into concentrated infant formula, in order to decrease dental fluorosis risk – now a growing U.S. problem. (6) Never safety-tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) (7), fluoride supplements do more harm than good.(8) "One of the most surprising and controversial findings of the National Preventive Dentistry Demonstration Program concerned the lack of effectiveness of fluoride mouth rinsing and fluoride tablets in preventing tooth decay in children," according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (8a) Fluoride varnish is now being applied to infant's teeth. It contains a hugely toxic 22,600 ppm fluoride (8b). The varnish is ingested and absorbed into the bloodstream. Fluoride blood levels are comparable with amounts found after brushing with fluoridated toothpaste or after ingesting a 1-mg fluoride tablet (both not recommended for babies) Warnings on the back of fluoridated toothpaste tubes, which contain 1,000 ppm fluoride, advise calling poison control when more than used for brushing is swallowed. “While fluoride is proclaimed a significant cavity reducer, there is little, if any, science to support that," says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. A National Institutes of Health 2001 news release supports Beeber's assertion: "... the (NIH) panel was disappointed in the overall quality of the clinical data that it reviewed. According to the panel, far too many studies were small, poorly described, or otherwise methodologically flawed." (9) Over 560 studies evaluated fluoride among those reviewed by the NIH Consensus Development Program panel for the Diagnosis and Management of Dental Caries. References: 1) http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/ebd/reviews/fluoride_supplements.asp 2) "Fluoride supplements and fluorosis: a meta-analysis," Community Dentistry & Oral Epidemiology, 1999 Feb;27(1):48-56, by Ismail & Bandekar . http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=10086926 3) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5014a1.htm 4) "Dose-effect relationship between drinking water fluoride levels and damage to liver and kidney functions in children," Environmental Research,2007 Jan;103(1):112-6. Epub 2006 Jul 10, by Xiong, et. al http://tinyurl.com/34lj92 5) "Dental and Early-State Skeletal Fluorosis in Children Induced by Fluoride in Brick-Tea," Fluoride 2005;38(1):44–47 Cao, et. al http://www.fluorideresearch.org/381/files/38144-47.pdf 6) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s403a1t23.gif 7) http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/12/fluoride-never-fda-approved-for.html 8) "The case for eliminating the use of dietary fluoride supplements for young children," Journal of Public Health Dentistry, Fall 1999, by Burt http://tinyurl.com/2bnoff 8a) http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/books/2001/chapter_09.html 8b) http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/131/5/589 9) http://consensus.nih.gov/2001/2001DentalCaries115html.htm 10) "Community Water Fluoridation and Caries Prevention: A CriticalReview," Clinical Oral Investigations, by Pizzo et.al, 2007 Feb 27; http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/Pizzo-2007. "