This just in.  A minor side effect, of course, but certainly indicative of the global impact of the ever increasing human carbon footprint.  We note also that Galactose also has shown a small correlation to ovarian cancer.

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Global Warming Causing Increased Tooth Decay in Children

Scientists at the Food Science Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, have found a link between global warming and tooth decay in children.

Dr. William F. Green, Senior Project Chemist and a member of the Australian Academy of Sciences, revealed the results of an 8-year study on dental health associated with high natural fruit consumption in children at the annual meeting of the Australian Dental Association in Sydney on March 13, 2008.  The problem, says Green, is that the increasing world temperatures have significantly changed the ratio between two types of sugar associated with common fruits:  Fructose and Galactose.  Galactose, which usually combines with Glucose to form Lactose, is normally associated with dairy products and typically not found in large amounts in common fruits, which characteristically are Fructose-dominant in sugar content.  But increasing temperatures in the fruit bearing regions of Australia have apparently caused a significant shift in the ratios, with Galactose levels rising in both fruits and grains, whose predominate sugar is Maltose.

The problem lies with the decay-producing bacteria known as Streptococcus mutans, which uses sugar to produce acid leading to calcium deterioration, or tooth decay.  The acid produced by Streptococcus mutans when metabolizing Galactose has a 16% lower ph ( is more acidic ) than that produced by the same bacterium metabolizing the more common Fructose.  This in turn has led to an 8% rise in tooth decay among the 1800 children involved in the study, which was co-sponsored by the Australian Dental Association.  “Increasing Galactose levels are increasing oral acid levels to the point where our common ph-balancing dentifrices cannot keep up,” says Dr. Green.  “New formulations are going to be required to counter this problem, which has a clear link to ever-increasing mean growing temperatures in our fruit-producing orchard regions.”

>From the Sydney Science Journal, reported by G.F. Wilson and P.D. Swanson.