Im concerned about fluoride in my water system. At home I already filter my tap water with a water filtration system that also filters out fluoride (it cost me extra). The water now tastes great. Before I could not only taste the many chemicals added to my water, I could also smell it!

Anyways, Im curious if the Dervaes family and all us gardeners out there somehow filter out the tap water used for gardening? If there are chemicals in our water system, I would think its going to be in the veggies we grow also.

What does everyone do about this?

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For those of you not aware of the dangers of fluoride...

Fluoride is a harmful chemical (a waste from pesticides) found in toothpastes and also found in drinking water. One tube of fluoride toothpaste has enough fluoride to kill a 40 lb child. I am 35 years old (jeez) and I have never used fluoride toothpastes. Guess what. I have never had a cavity either.

14 Nobel Prize winners oppose water fluoridation on scientific grounds, including Arvid Carlsson who led the successful campaign against fluoridation in Sweden, and who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2000.

Some problems fluoride is associated with...

• Hip fractures – fluoride can make bones more brittle and cause joint stiffness and pain.

• Lowered IQ in children, even at low dose.

• Decreased thyroid function.

• Bone cancer – positive in animal studies and later to be seen positive in young boys by a 2006 study.

• Dental fluorosis – staining and pitting of tooth enamel.

• Only nine countries in the world have fluoridation of more than 50 per cent of their public water supplies (USA being one of them).

• Less than 2 per cent of Continental Europe's drinking water is fluoridated. Europe has abandoned the discredited practice over the past 30 years and with no loss to dental health.

• Japan, China, Scotland and Northern Ireland have rejected fluoridation. Israel has ceased expansion due to recent research exposing negative health effects.

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After the rain, plants are always so much greener. I figured it was the difference between chlorinated water and "natural" water (I know there are more/less pollutants depending on area), but maybe floride has something to do with it, too.

I am so glad we are on a deep well of our own. 600ft deep and the water is so clean and pure. And cold!

I'll take all the fluoride I can get, thanks. Genetically speaking, I lost when it comes to tooth strength. I leave my tap water unfiltered though my sink has a filter for those as want it (though I don't believe it removes fluoride).

Everything can be toxic when misadministered, even water. Saying things like "One tube of fluoride toothpaste has enough fluoride to kill a 40 lb child." is a fear mongering tactic - flouride toothpaste is never intended to be ingested, and certainly not a whole tube all at once (BTW, how big a tube - travel size or bulk super saver version?). Even if you use it properly and happen to ingest some (it's fairly inevitable) does it bioaccumulate so you have the equivalent of a whole tube's worth in your system after the tube is done? (Typically, Fl only accumulates in bone tissue, not soft tissues, so is kept in relative balance through routine kidney function unless heavily overdosed or if the kidneys have issues according to the U of West Florida, who also found no reliable links to cancer.) Also, comparing it to your dental history is strictly anecdotal - I know folk who don't even brush their teeth who never get cavities, and others who brush religiously and never get cavities, and even others who brush religiously with toothpaste of any variety and have mouths full of fillings. Genetics and oral acidity levels play an incredibly relevant part in the entire picture, so the correlation does not imply causation in either direction when it comes to fluoride toothpaste. If you're lucky enough to not need it in your dental regime, congrats, but let's try to keep the science ... scientific and remember that every human is different in how their system responds to micronutrients. If people are ODing because they're getting it in water, and toothpaste, and mouthwash, and fluoridated food products... yeah, easily problematic. Again, we come back to "be aware of what you put in the system".

Most of what you can smell in LA's municipal water is chlorine used to kill potentially harmful microbes in the water (being trained in civil engineering, including water treatment, I'll take the Cl over the parasites, thanks). Since many contaminants can be found en route to your home, they over-chlorinate at the distribution facilities to make sure there's enough Cl to kill any bugs found en route. Summer months when open-air reservoirs are more prone to algal blooms often result in higher Cl levels, to the point where showering can be... an odorous experience. Most chlorine in municipal will off-gas if you fill a container with water and let it sit for 12-24 hours. This is one of the reasons that Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening recommends filling a bucket the night before and using it the next day to water. Not only is the water a "comfortable" temp for the plants by the time they get it, most of the volatile chemicals will have evaporated by the time you use the water. Frankly, I'm too lazy (and without adequate buckets) to bother resting my water overnight first. I just water directly from my hose.

Of course, considering the number of compounds water encounters between clouds and hose end in a typical municipal distribution system, rainwater is always the best option.

All the stuff in the water gives me the heebie-jeebies. Not just fluoride but drugs and pharmaceuticals that are in our drinking water.

We have a water filter on the inside drinking faucet that takes out all that stuff.

We also have filters on our hoses outside. I don't remember exactly what they removed but I know for certain the filters removed chlorine. I did a search on Peddler's Wagon for them since I know we have a large box of them on wholesale but it looks like they haven't been added to the online catalog yet. I'll ask Anais about them.

Fluoridation of water is a valid concern, as is all the other drugs entering our tap water.

 "Fluoride toothpaste was never intended to be ingested." Correct - toothpaste wasnt meant to be eaten, but the cumulative ingestion of fluoride in tap water, soft drinks, processed foods, even breathing the mist of your shower over years and years can not have a healthy effect on the human body. Smoking a cigarette every day for a month wont kill you, but the scientific data now shows that cumulative inhalation of the many carcinogens like nicotine are just not good for you. Wouldn't it be plausible that years of fluoride ingestion may not be good for you either? Why take the chance?

Fluorides toxic effects include cancer, liver and kidney damage, bleeding in the stomach, and can even effect the central nervous system which might include vision problems, tremors, convulsions and even depression. Funny that fluoride can *cause* depression, becuase many anti-depressants like prozac use fluoride as the main ingredient (or one of them). History also shows us that Hitlers camps and the Russian gulags both used fluoride in the water to dumb down the prisoners to keep them from revolting.

Prozac Found in Drinking Water...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3545684.stm

Top Drugs Found in Drinking Water...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16397-top-11-compounds-in-us-drinking-water.html

I'm not a fan of the government and having some elite group of people control me. Id rather be free to make my decisions as I see fit, such as choosing alternative cancer therapies. As far as I'm concerned, with all the info out there of the harmful effects of fluoride, fluoridating the water is just another clandestine form of eugenics.

For reals... why would you ingest ANYTHING marked toxic?

Our town dropped water floridation as a cost-saving measure, so I don't have to worry about that. I do filter our drinking water, but the vast majority of the water I use for the yard comes from the rain, either directly or via the rain barrels, so I don't worry about treated water having a serious impact on my plants.