Read some news on the internet...sigh. So here's my activism du jour.
If you like drinking your American fluoridated water, then don't look at this picture.
Fluoride is a by product of smelting aluminium. (among other things) Back in the 50's the U.S. didn't have the technology to remove it from our water system, so they spread the word that "Fluoride is good for you!" Lots of your hard earned tax dollars went toward this propaganda. It is true that fluoride bonds to your teeth (and bones), because that's what fluoride does. It bonds to calcium, aluminium or magnesium, and starts making little square crystals. It took Google 0.12 seconds to find 16,900 pages about fluoride poisoning. Here's how to treat it.
New-agers believe Fluorite (calcium fluoride in crystalline form) helps you astral project by separating your soul from your physical body. Gee... and here I thought Americans were spacey from too much TV.
For information on Fluoride as a mineral, and what it is manufactured into, look on the net or go here.
Just one more note. Fluorite is no longer mined in the U.S. for production purposes, but we use stuff it's made of every day.