Fluoride Action Network

Abstract

Using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, we conducted a study to determine the intellectual ability of 147 four- to seven-year-old preschool children in a high fluoride zone [of a rural area of Shehezi in Xinjiang Province, China] and 83 similarly-aged children from a low fluoride zone in the same region. The results show that a high fluoride intake has a clear influence on the IQ of preschool children, manifesting itself primarily as damage to performance intelligence. The study also indicates that the proportion of preschool children living in the high fluoride area that have retarded head development (based on measurement of the circumference) is significantly greater than in the low fluoride control group, and that children with this developmental deficiency demonstrate a lower IQ than children with normal head development.

Translated by Julian Brooke for Fluoride Action Network and published with the permission of the Endemic Diseases Bulletin (China) 1996;11(1):60-2 and published in the journal Fluoride.