The much-delayed US National Toxicology Program report triggers US legal ruling that current levels pose an ‘unreasonable risk’ of reduced IQ in children
In a long-awaited, landmark decision, Judge Edward Chen, of the US District Court of the Northern District of California, has ruled that the US Environmental Protection Agency can no longer ignore the risk from water fluoridation and must take regulatory action.
The historic lawsuit, which has dragged on for seven years, was brought against the EPA by environmental and consumer groups like the Fluoride Action Network, Moms Against Fluoridation, Food & Water Watch and parents. The result was strongly swayed by a new National Toxicology Program report on fluoride’s health hazards.
Former NTP director, Linda Birnbaum, PhD, initiated a program before she retired to conduct a review of fluoride’s neurotoxicity, after the NTP published a systematic review in 2016 of the evidence from experimental animal studies on fluoride’s effects on learning and memory. It faced many hurdles due to the political nature of water fluoridation. ‘There is a very, very strong dental lobby that believes fluoridation is protective against tooth decay,’ she said. ‘I will say, there is no benefit of ingesting fluoride.’1
After what she describes as a ‘long arduous process’, NTP released its systematic review in August, detailing the evidence linking fluoride exposure to neurodevelopmental and cognitive effects in humans.
NTP report reveals consistent evidence of lower IQ in children with higher fluoride exposure
The NTP’s comprehensive review examined human and animal studies, as well as mechanistic data, to assess the potential health hazards of fluoride exposure. The review process involved extensive literature searches, yielding 25,450 unique references.
After thorough screening, 547 studies were considered relevant for analysis, including 167 human studies, 339 non-
human, mammal studies and 60 in vitro/mechanistic studies. The NTP’s evaluation focused primarily on high-quality, low risk-of-bias studies in children, as these provided the most reliable evidence to assess the relationship between fluoride exposure and cognitive effects.
The review found 19 low risk-of-bias studies conducted across 15 study populations in five countries, evaluating more than 7,000 children. This robust body of evidence formed the basis for the NTP’s conclusions regarding fluoride’s impact on children’s cognitive development.
The NTP review found, with moderate confidence, that higher fluoride exposures are consistently associated with lower IQ in children. Of the 19 high-quality studies, 18 reported an inverse association between estimated fluoride exposure and IQ scores. These studies included both prospective cohort and cross-sectional designs, providing consistent evidence across different study populations, locations and exposure assessment measures.
The review noted that the quality of exposure assessment has improved over the years, with more recent studies using individual measures of urinary fluoride to estimate total fluoride exposure. This strengthens confidence in earlier studies that reported IQ deficits with high, group-level fluoride exposure.replica mens rolex watchesindia replica watches canreplica watch repair boston
US water fluoridation likely lowering children’s IQ
The consistency of findings across various study designs and exposure measures adds weight to the conclusion that higher fluoride exposure is associated with lower IQ in children.
‘Although the NTP’s systematic review was not intended to define a safe, lower dose, the information it compiled provides strong evidence that water fluoridation as done in the US by adding fluoride to a concentration of 0.7 milligrams per litre (mg/L) is very likely to be lowering the IQ of at least some children,’ Chris Neurath, science director at Fluoride Action Network (FAN), said.
Further, according to the NTP report, ‘This review finds, with moderate confidence, that higher estimated fluoride exposures (eg. as in approximations of exposure, such as drinking water fluoride concentrations that exceed the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride) are consistently associated with lower IQ in children.’
Additionally, the review found some evidence suggesting that fluoride exposure may be associated with other neurodevelopmental effects in children, such as ADHD and attention-related disorders. Despite these risks, water fluoridation remains widespread.
Fluoride is ubiquitous in your environment, coming from various sources including drinking water, foods, beverages, industrial emissions, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. About 67% of the US population receives fluoridated water.
The US Public Health Service has recommended adding fluoride to drinking water since 1962, with the current recommendation being 0.7 mg/L. But the NTP report says, ‘For many years, most fluoridated community water systems used fluoride concentrations ranging from 0.8 to 1.2 milligrams/litre (mg/L).’
Since people receive fluoride from multiple sources, not just drinking water, your total fluoride exposure could be even higher than expected, even if you live in an area with fluoridated water. When gauging your own health risks, it is important to consider your total fluoride exposure from all sources, especially if you have young children or are pregnant, given the risks to neurodevelopment.
Read the complete article in issue 112.