“‘This’ in tap water lowers children’s IQ?”…Why the fluoride debate in the U.S.?

NBC News reported that the controversy over tap water fluoridation was reignited when a paper was recently published in the journal JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Pediatrics, showing that children exposed to more fluoride have lower IQs.

A team of researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Studies, part of the National Institutes of Health, reviewed 74 studies. These studies, conducted outside the United States, analyzed fluoride concentrations in water and urine. Fluoride concentrations in other countries, such as China, are much higher than in the United States.

“For each small increase in fluoride in children’s urine, their IQ decreased by 1.63,” said lead author Dr. Kayla Taylor. “The more fluoride a child is exposed to, the lower their IQ is likely to be.”

Fluoride has been added to tap water in the United States for decades. No American study has concluded that children’s IQ has decreased since fluoride was introduced.

There is a growing backlash against the addition of fluoride in American communities. The Florida Surgeon General has called for an end to fluoride.

Dentists worry that the findings could harm public health. “Caries rates increased dramatically in areas where fluoride was removed,” said Dr. Erica Caffrey, chair of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s clinical committee.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Dental Association support water fluoridation.

“There is no clear case of fluoride-induced intelligence decline, and it is not consistent with the fluoride levels we use to fluoridate tap water,” said ADA spokesman Dr. Scott Tomar. He cited an Australian study published last December as an example. The study concluded that there was no link between fluoride exposure in childhood and adverse cognitive development.

University of Queensland researchers recruited children starting in 2012 and tracked their cognitive development as they became teenagers, and found that children who drank fluoridated water had slightly higher IQs. Queensland’s fluoridation levels are consistent with US recommendations.

Some experts say any link to fluoride’s toxicity should be studied. “There is an urgent need for an independent scientific panel to review the evidence,” said Dr. Bruce Lanpier, a professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

The US Public Health Service recommends that the fluoride concentration in drinking water be 0.7 mg/L. There isn’t enough data to determine what effect that level has on the IQ of American children, said lead author Taylor of the NIH.

A federal judge in California ruled last September that the Environmental Protection Agency must strengthen its water fluoridation regulations, even though it cannot definitively conclude that fluoridated water poses a risk to public health.

The fight over fluoride is expected to intensify during President-elect Donald Trump’s term. That’s because Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, once said, “Fluoride is an industrial waste linked to arthritis, fractures, bone cancer, IQ decline and other problems.” .

In Korea, starting with Jinhae City in 1981, tap water fluoridation projects were implemented in 16 regions until 2014. Afterwards, it gradually decreased to 13 regions in 2015, 12 regions in 2016, and 10 regions in 2017. As of 2018, no local governments are carrying out water fluoridation projects. Local residents’ concerns about the side effects of consuming large amounts of fluoride, such as dental fluorosis (a condition in which the tooth enamel layer peels off or becomes discolored) and brain nerve toxicity, were the main causes.

Public health centers are promoting the effectiveness of fluoride in preventing tooth decay to elementary schools and residents. Dental experts apply 0.2% fluoride to the teeth, or distribute 0.05% fluoride solution through the fluoride solution brushing project to teach people to brush their teeth every day.