Newburgh 1954

RE: FLUORIDE AND CARDIAC/MUSCLE ADVERSE EFFECTS

In 1945 the first trial of water fluoridation was begun in Newburgh, New York State.

FROM:

The Newburgh Times, Newburgh, New York, January 27, 1954

LOCAL HEART DEATHS TOP U.S. AVERAGE

New York - According to statistics now being released by the Government, heart disease, our nation's leading health menace, is responsible for a larger proportion of the deaths in Newburgh than in most other sections of the United States.

The data, contained in the first nation-wide report on vital statistics since 1949, was gathered during the last census and is being published in three volumes by the U.S. Public Health Service.

It shows, for Newburgh, a heart disease toll for the year of 283, equivalent to 58.3 per cent of all local deaths. This was a larger proportion than was found generally in the nation, where heart ailments accounted for 52.8 per cent of all deaths. It was greater also than heart mortality in the Middle Atlantic States, 56.3 per cent.

Included in the figures are the top 20 different forms of heart disease which, together, strike down about 775,000 men, women, and children annually. This is more than the combined toll of cancer plus all other diseases and all accidents.

In addition, points out the American Heart Association, there are some 10,000,000 of our people who are partially or wholly disabled because of heart ailments. They represent an annual loss of 176 million work days and a resultant loss of productivity estimated at $2.1 billion.

The 283 heart deaths in Newburgh in the year were equal to a rate of 882 deaths per 100,000 population. This was more than the rate for the nation as a whole, 507 per 100,000. It was also higher than the Middle Atlantic States, 590 heart deaths per 100,000.

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Ebert JD - "The First Heartbeats"  Scientific American 56:4-7 (1959)

"The heart of the chick embryo begins to beat on the second day of development. New chemical techniques now make it possible to investigate the formation of the heart at an ever earlier stage.

...At low concentrations it [fluoride] primarily affects the heart, but at high concentrations it causes the embryo to disintegrate according to a clear-cut pattern starting in the heart forming regions. At any given stage of development, from the appearance of primitive streak through the establishment of the heart, the locations of the cells destroyed by fluoride coincide with the sites that have the greatest capacity to form heart muscle, and with the areas that have the greatest capacity for the synthesis of actin and myosin."