A major US government study on fluoride damage to the brain should have ended fluoridation in New Zealand.
To
summarize the key finding: Children born to mothers drinking the
standard levels of fluoride used in NZ would have on average a 5 POINT
LOWER IQ than children not exposed to fluoride poisoning.
The
study published by the US Government’s Environmental Health
Perspectives found that children born to mothers exposed to fluoride
while pregnant, had significantly lower IQ scores. This is particularly
relevant to New Zealand where most of the population is currently
subjected to fluoridation.
It
measured fluoride in urine and found the average level of fluoride in
urine was 0.9mg/L (mg/L = parts per million). To relate this to water
fluoride concentration, a separate study found that pregnant women in an
area with 0.4 to 0.8 ppm water fluoride only had slightly lower urine
fluoride than the average participants in this study. The NZ Ministry of
Health recommends fluoride chemicals be added to the water at 0.85ppm.
Pregnant
women in New Zealand in fluoridated areas likely have similar levels of
urine fluoride as those in the American study. Urine fluoride reflects
total fluoride intake from all sources, not just fluoridated water. The
paper also reports that in the USA, which is 70% fluoridated, urine
fluoride ranges from about 0.5 to 1.5 mg/L.
The
child of a mother who was drinking water with 0.85ppm fluoride would be
predicted to have 5 lower IQ points than if the mother had drunk water
with close to zero fluoride in it. This obviously has huge consequences
for New Zealand children.
The
Ministry of Health recommended 1ppm until the 1990s when it reduced to a
range from 0.7ppm to 1ppm, with a target of 0.85ppm. The US Human and
Health Services have directed a maximum of 0.7ppm for fluoridation.
This
study was very carefully done by a group of researchers who have
produced over 50 papers on the cognitive health of children in
relationship to environmental exposures. It was funded by the US
Government’s National Institute of Health and was a multi-million dollar
study. This was the group’s first study of fluoride – their other
studies mostly dealing with lead, mercury and other environmental
neurotoxicants.
The
study controlled for a wide range of potential factors that might have
skewed the results and produced a false effect. It was able to largely
rule out confounding effects by these other factors. The factors ruled
out included lead, mercury, socio-economic status, smoking, alcohol use,
and health problems during pregnancy.
This
study offers confirmation of previous studies in Mexico, China and
elsewhere. Some of those studies had higher fluoride exposures than are
commonly found in fluoridating countries, but many did not.
The
sole study in a country with artificial water fluoridation was by
Dunedin (NZ) dentist Jonathan Broadbent. That study found no association
between water fluoridation and IQ and was trumpeted by fluoridation
defenders. But that study was shown to have almost no difference in
TOTAL fluoride intake between the children with fluoridated water and
those with non-fluoridated water, since at least half of the children in
the non-fluoridated area were given fluoride supplements. This left
only a small proportion of the study children without substantial
fluoride exposure.
Nor did this study look at maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy, which could be the most vulnerable time of exposure.
The
study authors were cautious in their conclusions, but the implications
of this study are enormous. There have been 58 other human studies
looking at fluoride exposure and harm to the brain – 51 of them have
found an association.
