Many children now exceed recommended daily fluoride intake from toothpaste alone

Many children now exceed recommended daily fluoride intake from toothpaste alone.

Dental Products

Dental products are a major source of fluoride exposure, particularly for children. Fluoridated dental products include toothpastes, mouth rinses, fluoride gels, fluoride varnishes, and fluoride supplements.

How Much Fluoride Are in these Products?

Fluoride Toothpastes (1,000 to 1,500 ppm)

• Over 95% of toothpastes now contain fluoride.
• A single strip of toothpaste covering the length of a child’s brush contains between 0.75 to 1.5 mg of fluoride. This exceeds the amount of fluoride in most prescription fluoride supplements (0.25 to 1.0 mg).
• Many young children swallow over 50% of the paste added to their brush, particularly if they use candy-flavored varieties and if they are not supervised during brushing to ensure they spit and fully rinse. Research has shown that some children swallow more fluoride from toothpaste alone than is recommended from all sources combined.
• Although dentists now recommend that children only use “a pea-sized amount” of toothpaste, many children use more than this, particularly when the toothpaste has bubble gum and watermelon flavors.
• Ingesting toothpaste during childhood is a major risk factor for dental fluorosis, and can also cause symptoms of acute fluoride toxicity (e.g., stomach pain, etc).
• The FDA now requires a poison warning on all fluoride toothpastes sold in the U.S.

Fluoride Mouthrinses (230 ppm)

• Some mouth rinses now contain fluoride.
• A single mL of fluoride mouthrinse contains roughly 0.25 mg of fluoride.
• Between 5 to 15 mL are generally used per rinse, which equates to 1.25 to 3.75 mg of fluoride.
• Little data is available to show how much of the rinse is ingested.

Fluoride Gels (Self-Applied) (5,000 ppm)

• Dentists prescribe self-applied gels to those at high-risk of tooth decay.
• Each mL of gel contains 5 mg of fluoride.
• Without taking extraordinary precaution to limit the amount of gel that is applied and reduce the amount of gel that is ingested, self-application can result in dangerously high fluoride exposures.

Fluoride Gels (Professionally Applied) (12,300 ppm)

• A single mL of gel contains 12.3 mg of fluoride.
• Dentists are now recommended to apply no more than 4 mL when treating children (=49 mg of fluoride), and no more than 8 mL when treating adults (=98 mg of fluoride).
• The highly acidic nature of the gel greatly increases saliva flow, which makes it largely impossible to avoid swallowing large amounts of it. While few measures were used in the past to limit the amount of fluoride ingested, dentists are now advised to use suction devices and to encourage the child to fully rinse and spit at the end of the treatment.
• Even when precautionary measures are taken, children swallow an average of 7.7 mg per treatment
• Adults swallow an average of 10.3 mg per treatment.
• Symptoms of acute fluoride toxicity (e.g., nausea and vomiting) are common in children receiving fluoride gels.

Puerto Rico. Templeton next?

Puerto Rico Blackout Enters Second Day - Entire Island Of 3.5 Million People Without Power

by Tyler Durden

Sep 22, 2016 10:29 AM

 

The 3.5 million people of Puerto Rico are entering their second day with no power after a substation fire knocked out service to the entire island.   The power outage has left schools scrambling to cancel classes and public hospitals forced to cancel surgeries.

Perhaps even worse, the outage caused numerous fires across the island as a result of malfunctioning generators, including at the upscale Vanderbilt hotel in the popular tourist area of Condado and at the mayor’s office in the northern coastal town of Catano.

While Puerto Rico's Governor Padilla and the utility's CEO, Javier Quintana, have said they expect service to be restored by this morning, many Puerto Ricans are dubious saying that the economic slump has affected the government's ability to maintain basic infrastructure.  According to the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of people took to social media to criticize the Electric Power Authority, noting they already pay bills on average twice that of the U.S. mainland.

The fire apparently started at this sub-station in Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames but the damage has still not been repaired leaving millions without power. 

BNO News Verified account ‏@BNONews

UPDATE: Fire at substation that caused total blackout in Puerto Rico is extinguished, but power outage continues http://bit.ly/2d51ybO 

Per the WSJ, it's unclear how much damage the fire caused or where the power company would obtain the money to repair and/or replace the damaged equipment. In addition to Puerto Rico's efforts to restructure $70BN of public debt, the utility is also struggling with $9 billion of its own debt that it too hopes to restructure amid corruption allegations.

Library Fraud Cases...Saugus and Ashburnham

Fraud case is latest twist in library revival story

Saugus facility overcame lost accreditation, closing, money woes - then the plot thickened

Bethany Templeton Klem leads preschoolers in the Move and Groove program at the Saugus Public Library on Feb. 10. (WINSLOW TOWNSON FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

By Kathy McCabe Globe Staff / February 23, 2012

S AUGUS - After years of struggle, the Saugus Public Library finally appeared to be turning the page on a chaotic chapter in the long history of a town treasure.

The state Board of Library Commissioners restored the library’s full accreditation last year, having stripped it away in 2007 after a town financial crisis forced the library to close temporarily. Steady increases in town funding allowed the library to open for 59 hours per week, exceeding the state minimum standard.

A permanent library director was hired in June, four years after the library’s longtime executive director resigned, and an interim appointed. Trustees prepared to write a long-range plan to keep the momentum going.

Move and Groove, a music movement program for preschoolers, added a new vibe to a growing library population.

But there would be no happy ending. Instead, it would turn into a crime story.

In December, federal prosecutors charged Linda E. Duffy, 65, a former library worker, with stealing more than $800,000 in library funds over a seven-year period, from 2004 to 2011. At the time, the library was so broke it relied on fudge sales to buy new books, and on volunteers to clean bathrooms.

Prosecutors allege that Duffy withdrew charitable donations, along with fees from overdue books and videos, from a library account at Eastern Bank, deposited the funds into her personal account at the bank, and then used the money to pay the mortgage on her Saugus home, dental bills, hotel stays, and other personal expenses.

She pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of money laundering, mail fraud, and identity theft at her Dec. 20 arraignment in US District Court in Boston. She is free on a $100,000 unsecured bond. A trial date has not yet been set, according to the US attorney’s office in Boston.

Frederick R. Riley, a Saugus lawyer representing Duffy, declined a request to interview his client.

But a new audit completed in December for the town provides insight into how the theft of $800,000 went undetected by library and town officials, and exposes flaws in the financial management of the library.

The alleged theft also raised questions about the town’s policy of conducting background checks on employees.

In 1993, six years before she was hired at the library, Duffy pleaded guilty to check fraud charges, totaling $120,000, and served 21 months in federal prison, according to the US attorney’s office.

Trustees and library directors who managed the library from 2004 to 2011 did not file annual financial reports with the town, as required by state law and the policies of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, which governs the state’s public libraries, according to the audit’s findings.

“The trustees did not fulfill their responsibilities,’’ said John Sullivan, a vice president of Melanson Heath & Co., the Andover accounting firm hired by the town to conduct the audit. “That would also apply to the former directors. Accurate records were not kept, nor was there any evidence that reports were filed.’’

Trustees also did not report the existence of the library acount to the town treasurer, as required by state law, according to a summary of the audit findings made public in December. Duffy also was allowed to maintain records for the account, according to the auditor.

State law requires library trustees to file annual reports listing “receipts and expenditures . . . with a statement of unexpended balance of money and of any gifts or bequests which it holds in behalf of the town.’’ The handbook for the state Board of Library Commissioners states that library directors must “maintain complete and accurate records of finances.’’ Together, trustees and the director must submit an “annual report of income, activities, and expenditures to the appropriate agency,’’ such as a municipality.

But auditors found that no reports were filed from 2004 to 2011, the period during which federal prosecutors allege Duffy embezzled charitable donations, gifts, and fines for overdue books and videos from the trustees The full audit has not been publicly released, at the request of the FBI and US attorney’s office, Sullivan said.