There are now 78 out of 87 IQ studies reporting lowered IQ from exposure to elevated levels of fluoride. Since 2017 we learned that the fluoride level of 0.7 mg/L, the "optimal" level used in U.S. and Canadian drinking water fluoridation projects, can create neurodevelopmental harm to the fetus, bottle-fed infant, and child. The fetus and bottle-fed infant were never considered in any risk assessment for water fluoridation by any regulatory agency in any fluoridating country.
Subpage :
The Fluoride IQ Studies
Fluoride’s ability to damage the brain is one of the most active areas of fluoride research today. Over 600 studies have found that fluoride can damage the brain.
• From 1989 to 2023, a total of 87 studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and human intelligence.
•78 studies have reported that elevated fluoride exposure is associated with reduced IQ in humans.
•Note: The IQ study #67 by Xu 2020 was retracted by the publisher on Nov 8, 2022. We have adjusted the number of each study to reflect that change. On Nov 9, 2022, another IQ study by Saeed et al. was published, for a total of 76 studies.
The Mother-Offspring fluoride studies provide compelling evidence that fluoride exposure during the prenatal and postnatal stages of life has the potential to cause neurodevelopmental harm. The level of fluoride exposure in three of these studies is the same level of exposure found in fluoridated communities.
Neurodevelopment is a term referring to the brain’s development of neurological pathways that influence performance or functioning (e.g., intellectual functioning, reading ability, social skills, memory, attention or focus skills).1
Quick Facts About the 78 Studies as of February 2023:
Location of Studies:
China (47), India (14), Iran (4), Mexico (4), Canada (4), Egypt (1), Kenya (1), Pakistan (1), Sudan (1), and Indonesia (1).
The 2006 National Research Council’s (NRC) chapter 7 on fluoride’s neurotoxicity.
This surprisingly thorough report presents a chapter on fluoride’s neurotoxicity. The report identified 4 Chinese fluoride IQ studies. Of interest is that all 4 studies were published in the journal Fluoride and that PubMed, the major search engine for scientific abstracts, has never indexed this publication. PubMed is comes under the National Institutes of Health.
Note: The Fluoride Action Network has translated the overwhelming majority of the IQ studies published in Chinese. The Fluoride journal has published many FAN translations, while it has also published many studies submitted directly to them, including the 4 studies cited above. See the studies FAN translated.
