DAILY TRIFECTA: Let's Brush-Up On Fluoride
There's something in the water
TITLE: Explained: what is fluoride, is it safe, and why does RFK Jr want Trump to remove it from drinking water?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/04/fluoride-explainer-what-is-us-election-donald-trump-robert-f-kennedy-jr
EXCERPTS: Fluoride is a mineral found widely in nature, released from rocks into soils and water. Certain plants – including plants consumed by humans, such as tea – absorb and concentrate fluoride.
“It’s not an industrial waste product. It’s a natural substance,” said Prof Oliver Jones, a professor of chemistry at RMIT University.
Fluoride has been added to drinking water and toothpaste for decades because it strengthens teeth and prevents cavities.
When fluoride is incorporated into tooth enamel, it forms a mineral known as fluorapatite, which is better able to withstand acids, said Prof Loc Do, a professor of dental public health at the University of Queensland. “It makes the enamel more resistant to bacteria that are causing decay,” he said.
The World Health Organization’s safe limit for fluoride in drinking water is 1.5mg of fluoride per litre of water – or 1.5 parts per million. The typical concentration of fluoride in regular toothpaste is between 1,000 and 1,500 parts per million.
In the early 1900s, dentists noticed that rates of tooth decay were lower in areas where people had splotchy staining on their teeth – a condition caused by excess fluoride and now known as dental fluorosis. They realised that areas with naturally higher fluoride levels in water had lower rates of dental decay.
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first place in the world to add fluoride to its drinking water. Fluoridation in the US is not mandatory and occurs on a voluntary basis, but by 2012, more than 67% of the overall US population had access to fluoridated tap water.
As of 2012, about 435 million people globally have access to water with fluoride at recommended levels.
The US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Brazil are among the countries that add fluoride to water in at least some regions.
Do said adding fluoride to water was a good method to reduce socioeconomic inequality in dental health. “It’s a passive way to reduce dental caries.”
Authorities in several jurisdictions have removed fluoride from drinking water by public mandate, such as in Calgary, Canada in 2011, or by ministerial decree, such as in Israel in 2014.
Research shows that dental cavities in children increased in Calgary after the end of fluoridation, while the rates of dental treatment significantly increased in Israel. Calgary is set to re-introduce fluoridation in 2025.
TITLE: Is fluoride in drinking water safe? What to know after RFK Jr.'s claims
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/03/fluoride-water-safety-rfk-jr/76030054007/
EXCERPTS: Kennedy claims − without proof − that fluoride in U.S. water systems has been linked to a host of medical conditions.
"On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water," Kennedy said in a Saturday post to X. "Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease."
The Centers for Disease Control calls the practice of adding fluoride to tap water systems one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the last century. Major medical groups, such as the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have also endorsed water fluoridation at recommended levels as a way to boost oral health.
The naturally occurring chemical has long represented a boogeyman for conspiracy theorists – since before Sterling Hayden's famous rant against "communists" adding fluoride to the water in his role as a crazed general in Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire "Dr. Strangelove."
But what does the science really show about adding fluoride to tap water?
The American Dental Association says adding fluoride to water streams is a "safe, beneficial, and cost-effective" public health measure, citing studies that it cuts cavities in children and adults by 25%.
"Decades of research and practical experience indicate that fluoride is safe and beneficial to oral health," Linda Edgar, president of the American Dental Association, said in a statement released in August.
The American Association of Pediatrics also maintains that fluoride in drinking water and toothpaste is a safe means of boosting children's oral health.
Charlotte W. Lewis, a member of the AAP's oral health section, said in a statement in September that she is confident in the "safety of optimally fluoridated water in the U.S."
"Water fluoridation is a public health policy based on a solid foundation of evidence," she said.
Several studies published over the last year have raised concerns about the effects of fluoride in large quantities and given ammunition to groups who are pushing to ban public water fluoridation in some communities.
A report released in August by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams per liter was "consistently associated with lower IQ in children."
But the report, which evaluated studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico, noted that the fluoride levels found to cause such risks were more than twice as high as the amount U.S. officials recommend be added to public water systems. Fluoride levels that high are mostly found in other countries and a tiny minority of U.S. communities.
The report also did not specify how much IQ levels dipped or whether adults could also be affected.
A study released in May also found that children in the womb in "optimally fluoridated" areas in the U.S. could increase the risk of neurobehavioral issues after birth.
The Department of Health and Human Services said the data was "insufficient" to determine whether the current recommended level of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water also had an effect on IQ, and that "more research is needed" to understand whether lower levels also have health effects.
TITLE: Claims suggesting NIH declared that fluoride in water 'reduces the IQ of children' are misleading
https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/health-verify/claims-suggesting-nih-declared-that-fluoride-in-water-reduces-the-iq-of-children-are-misleading/536-e47b65e6-595f-489d-a3e0-bac1d06eec70
EXCERPTS: A recent report from the National Toxicology Program, a part of the National Institutes of Health, determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids.
But the report does not say that the current recommended level of fluoride in drinking water in the United States, which is 0.7 milligrams per liter of water, “reduces the IQ of children,” like viral social media posts suggest.
The 324-page report, which was published in August, found that drinking water containing more than twice the recommended amount of fluoride in the U.S. is consistently associated with lower IQs in children in 10 countries, including Mexico and Canada. But the National Toxicology Program notes that none of the studies evaluating IQ in its report were conducted in the U.S.
In 2016, the National Toxicology Program started a systematic review of previously published research evaluating the extent and quality of the evidence linking fluoride exposure to neurodevelopmental and cognitive effects in humans. The report was designed to evaluate total fluoride exposure from all sources, but the agency says it was not conducted to evaluate the health effects of fluoridated drinking water alone.
The report evaluated 72 studies on the association between fluoride exposure and IQ in children. The determination about lower IQs in children was based primarily on studies conducted in 10 non-U.S. countries, such as Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico, where some pregnant women, infants and children received total fluoride exposure amounts higher than 1.5 mg/L of drinking water. These fluoride exposures came from many sources, including drinking water, prepared beverages, foods and dental products.
The National Toxicology Program notes in its report that no studies evaluating IQ were conducted in the U.S. However, the report did find that about 0.6% of the U.S. population, or about 1.9 million people, are on water systems with naturally occurring fluoride levels of 1.5 mg/L or higher, according to the CDC.
The CDC says it does not have a comprehensive list of the natural or adjusted fluoridation levels of every state’s water systems because states voluntarily provide this information at varying frequencies. The agency recommends contacting your local utility provider to find out the exact fluoridated water level in your community.
The report did not try to quantify exactly how many IQ points might be lost at different levels of fluoride exposure. However, some of the studies that were reviewed suggested IQ was 2 to 5 points lower in children who had higher fluoride exposures. The report also did not reach a conclusion about the risks of lower levels of fluoride, saying more research is needed to determine this, nor did it answer what high levels of fluoride might do to adults.
“I think this (report) is crucial in our understanding” of this risk, Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the effect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women on their children, told the Associated Press in August. She called it the most rigorously conducted report of its kind.
A few days after the report was published, the American Dental Association (ADA), which had previously been critical of earlier versions of the report, said that it “continues to endorse community water fluoridation as safe and beneficial to oral health.”
“The bottom line is that the National Toxicology Program report and other recent systematic reviews indicate that the level of fluoride used in community water fluoridation is effective for preventing tooth decay and is not associated with any change in people’s IQ or neurological development,” said Scott Tomar, D.M.D., a member of the National Fluoridation Advisory Committee, the ADA’s standing panel of experts that provide ongoing advice about the safety and effectiveness of fluoride.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) also “affirms that consuming fluoridated drinking water is both safe and effective in preventing and controlling dental caries [cavities],” according to Chelsea Fosse, D.M.D., director of the AAPD’s Research and Policy Center.
“More than 65 years of research makes water fluoridation one of the most widely studied public health measures in history. Sound scientific evidence proves fluoridation at the recommended levels to be safe and effective for reducing tooth decay in both children and adults, without any evidence of negatively impacting IQ levels,” Fosse said.
However, some critics of community water fluoridation, like the Fluoride Action Network, praised the report’s findings.
“This is a historic day for those who have warned about fluoridation’s obvious risks for more than 75 years,” Stuart Cooper, the director of the Fluoride Action Network, which works to end water fluoridation, said in a press release issued after the report came out.
“This report, along with the large body of published science, makes it abundantly clear that the question isn’t whether fluoridation is safe, but instead how many children have been needlessly harmed,” Cooper added.
When asked if parents should be worried about the report’s findings, Donald L. Chi, DDS, Ph.D., a pediatric dentist, researcher and professor at the University of Washington said, “No, I don’t think parents should be concerned.”
“As parents, our role is to be concerned on behalf of our kids. That being said, I think a lot of those concerns can be directed toward other things out there, and not fluoride,” Chi told VERIFY. “Fluoride is heavily regulated in the U.S. At point seven parts per million, which is the current recommendation, water fluoridation is safe for kids.”
In late September, a federal judge cited the report’s findings in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoride in drinking water.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that while it’s uncertain whether the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, he determined that mounting research suggests an unreasonable risk. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk but didn’t specify how the agency should go about doing so.
It’s the first time a federal judge has made a determination about the neurodevelopmental risks to children of the recommended U.S. water fluoride level, according to Malin, who called it “the most historic ruling in the U.S. fluoridation debate that we’ve ever seen.”