While the nation focuses on the catastrophic health effects caused by Flint Michigan’s lead-poisoned drinking water, fluoride chemicals are still purposely added to public water supplies even though studies show they leach lead from water pipes and increase lead levels in children, according to a report from the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).

Fluorosilicic acid (FSA), a corrosive fluoride byproduct of the phosphate industry, is added to public water supplies, including Flint’s, in a failed effort to prevent tooth decay.

“Studies show that FSA-spiked water is contributing to children’s unsafe lead exposures and making the lead crisis worse,” says attorney Michael Connett, FAN Executive Director.

“The nation is rightfully shocked by the lead crisis in Flint and the systematic failure of health authorities to prevent it, but the problem with lead poisoning is not a Flint problem, it’s a national problem,” Connett adds.

Lead service pipes were banned in 1986, but America’s water infrastructure is still laden with lead-containing pipes and fixtures. The FSA circulating through these aging pipes intensify their corrosion, according to laboratory experiments.

Studies have found that children living in areas with FSA-treated water have higher levels of lead in their blood. Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that children drinking water treated with FSA and other fluorosilicate chemicals are 20 percent more likely to have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

The CDC has yet to warn the public about the fluoridation/lead risk. Instead, as it did during the Washington D.C. lead crisis, the CDC has gone out of its way to downplay the hazard.

“The failure of public health authorities to warn the public about the hazards of lead in tap water has a long history that extends beyond fluoridation and Flint,” notes Connett.

A study by National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) scientists found that fluoride facilitates the uptake of lead into the blood of rats, and magnifies lead’s toxic effects on the body. The study was conducted in the 1970s, but the NIH and FDA failed to take any follow-up action.

Recent animal experiments confirm the NIH/FDA findings showing that
fluoride exposure “consistently increases the concentrations of lead in whole blood,” and intensifies lead’s poisonous effects on the brain.

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