Gov’t Never Studied Brain Effects Before Assuring Fluoridation Safety

Because of smart informed activists, no Long Island water supplier adds unnecessary fluoride chemicals into the public drinking water attempting to prevent tooth decay in tap water drinkers. But New York City does. And legislators might start tapping into NYC’s fluoridated water soon to remedy LI’s contaminated water supply. This will put some Long Islanders at risk of fluoride-caused neurological problems. For example:

Water fluoridation is linked to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to a study in Environment International (December 2019), which adds to the growing pile of scientific literature linking fluoride to neurological disorders e.g. lower IQ, Autism, poor memory, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease.

Governments failed to determine fluoride’s toxic brain effects before declaring fluoridation safe in the early 1900’s. So one is left to wonder if fluoridation promoters are protecting their own political viabiilitly rather than the health of Americans. Sometimes we don’t have to wonder.

When the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) draft 2019 report concluded that “fluoride is presumed to be a cognitive neurodevelopmental hazard to humans,” Seun Ajiboye, director of science policy and government affairs at the American Association for Dental Research, told the National Academies panel that the report’s conclusions, “will likely influence the decision of local governments to fluoridate their water supplies, public support for fluoridation, and how safe people feel drinking tap water,” according to a Bloomberg News article.

According to the NTP report, “This conclusion is based on a consistent pattern of findings in human studies across several different populations showing that higher fluoride exposure is associated with decreased IQ or other cognitive impairments in children.”

Additionally, a study in the Janurary 2020 concludes: “low-moderate fluoride exposure is associated with alterations in thyroid function that may modify the association between fluoride and intelligence.” (Environment International).

This was predicted in a July 2019 University of Calgary public health fluoride report which stated that thyroid disturbances may underlie fluoride effects on the developing brain.

Also this Canadian report concludes: “There is some new emerging evidence that fluoride exposure during pregnancy may be harmful to the brain development of children.”

Six Mother-Child studies link fluoride to offspring’s lower IQ. Sixty-one studies found elevated fluoride exposure associated with reduced IQ in humans. Over 400 more fluoride/neurotoxic studies support its biological plausibility.

EPA admits that fluoride is a chemical with “Substantial Evidence of Developmental Neurotoxicity.”

At EPA’s request, the National Research Council (NRC) reviewed fluoride toxicology research to conclude in 2006, “fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain.” EPA was advised to reduce the safe fluoride levels allowed in public water supplies based on NRC guidance. But since NRC’s review, hundreds of fluoride/brain studies were published; yet EPA failed to act.

Fluoride poses a greater risk than NTP’s draft report suggests, Chris Neurath, research director for the Fluoride Action Network, told the committee, according to the Bloomberg article referenced above. NTP’s report consistently paid less attention to studies that found low concentrations of fluoride could be harmful, he said.

The scientific evidence showing fluoride can harm children’s developing brains is as strong or stronger than was the data that emerged in the 1990s—and faced fierce criticism—showing low levels of lead were neurotoxic, Neurath said.

It took two decades for public health officials to accept that at a low level lead was indeed neurotoxic. “Millions of children suffered loss of IQ and behavioral problems during those two decades of critical indecision,” he said.

The academies should pay heed, he said

Based on this evidence and more, consumer groups are suing the EPA to recognize fluoride’s brain effects when setting safe water fluoride levels now based solely on fluoride’s adverse bone and teeth effects. The Trial date is currently set for February 2020.

Government agencies and organized dentistry were irresponsible to instigate fluoridation without brain-safety evidence. Instead, they continue to protect fluoridation and their own carelessness by demanding more research that should have been done 75 years ago.

The precautionary principle dictates that, at least, pregnant women should be advised to avoid ingesting fluoride. The fetus derives no benefit from fluoride, anyway. Brains don’t need fluoride. At best, put fluoride on your teeth not in your brain or the water.

Fluoride is NOT a nutrient or essential for healthy teeth as it was mistakingly assumed to be when fluoridation was introduced in 1945, meaning that consuming a fluoride-free diet will NOT cause tooth decay. Just knowing fluoride gets into the brain, where it was never known to collect and no matter how much, should be enough to end fluoridation schemes nation-wide

But politics and money, not science, protects fluoridation.

*Original article online at https://patch.com/new-york/levittown-ny/long-islanders-wisely-rejected-fluoridation