10, Bratwell Road
Coleraine
Co. Londonderry
BT514LB
Tel 07917284918
August 27, 2021
The Right Honourable Boris Johnson,
Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street
London
Dear Prime Minister:
SUBJECT: Leading Scientific researchers concur that fluoridated tap water has the potential to damage the fetal and infant brain
We are writing to you because we believe that neither you nor your chief advisers are aware of the recent serious findings that fluoride, at the doses people experience living in fluoridated communities, has the potential to damage the brains of children. We are concerned that this compelling new evidence has not triggered any warnings from any health department in the UK, especially warnings to pregnant women.
The following key scientific research forms the basis for our concerns:
- Well-designed prospective cohort studies funded by both the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [NIEHS] in the USA as well as Health Canada, have shown a loss of IQ and increased symptoms of ADHD in offspring when pregnant women are exposed to fluoride at doses commonly experienced in fluoridated communities in Canada (Bashash 2017, 2018 and Green, 2019). The consequences are very serious. According to Dr. Philippe Grandjean, from Harvard University, “Fluoride is causing a greater overall loss of IQ points today than lead, arsenic or mercury”, as detailed in this risk analysis.
- In addition, Till et al., 2020 have shown a large reduction in IQ when children were bottle-fed as babies in communities which were fluoridated, compared with babies who were bottle-fed in non-fluoridated communities.
- According to Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., former Director of the U.S. NIEHS (2009-2019) and two leading public health researchers (Bruce Lanphear, MD, MPH, and Christine Till, PhD) who authored two key fluoride-IQ studies (Green, 2019 and Till, 2020), ingestion of fluoride during pregnancy confers no dental benefit to the fetus, so this is a situation where risks are being taken for no proven benefit (see their editorial published in Environmental Health News, Oct 7 2020).
- In addition, an important well-conducted study from Sweden has shown an increased prevalence of hip fracture in post-menopausal women associated with long-term exposure to natural fluoride at levels in water in the same range as the UK fluoridates its water [Helte et. al. 2021]. This is very serious because, as you probably know, hip fractures in the elderly are debilitating, costly to treat, lead to a loss of independence and often shortens the life of those impacted. This finding also underlines the fact that fluoride, which accumulates in the bone and other calcifying tissues, can impact our health over a whole lifetime of exposure.
Given the extensive evidence that ingesting fluoride does little to reduce tooth decay and that fluoride is harmful to both the young and the old, please cancel plans to expand the water fluoridation programme and seek an end to existing fluoridation schemes. Until that end is achieved please make sure that a) pregnant women be warned to avoid ingesting fluoride and b) parents be warned not to use fluoridated water to make up infant formula.
While we recognize that right now the UK, along with many other countries, is being forced to deal with the health risks imposed upon us by the pandemic, we should not be imposing unnecessary risks on our population via the water supply.
In summary, Prime Minister, we sincerely hope that your health advisers will acknowledge the strong scientific evidence of fluoride’s neurotoxicity (and other ill health effects) and put the health of our people above promoting what appears to be a well-intended but clearly outdated practice of water fluoridation. This would not be the first time that a well-entrenched medical or dental practice has had to give way to advances in scientific understanding of unexpected side effects.
Your sincerely,
Emeritus Professor Vyvyan Howard MB. ChB. PhD. FRCPath.
Retired pathologist. Past President, International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE)
Professor Paul Connett, PhD,
Retired professor of chemistry,
Director of the Fluoride Action Network, www.FluorideALERT.org
Dr H.S. Micklem, D.Phil (Oxon)
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Note: both Connett and Micklem are co-authors of the book The Case Against Fluoride (Chelsea Green, 2010).
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