Fluoride is the New Lead; Similar Loss of IQ From Fluoride as From Lead, Reports Environmental Group

NORTH SUTTON, N.H., May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) describes a new National Toxicology Program (NTP) report on fluoride neurotoxicity as confirming what experts have long suggested: that fluoride is the new lead in its ability to lower IQ in children. This Thursday the NTP holds a public hearing on the report, a year ago the report was blocked from public release by top officials at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Emails obtained through Freedom of Information reveal pressure from dental interests in and outside the government led to the report's suppression. Environmental groups required a court order to get the report released last month.

The NTP's report found an average loss of 7 IQ points in 55 studies that compared child IQ of a higher fluoride group to that of a lower fluoride group.

Editors from the Journal of the American Medical Association described an IQ drop of 4.5 IQ points in one study as:

"An effect size which is sizable – on par with lead."

David Bellinger, author of over 400 epidemiology papers on neurotoxic chemicals said:

"It's actually very similar to the effect size that's seen with childhood exposure to lead."

Christine Till, leader of a team that has published rigorous studies of fluoride neurotoxicity funded by the National Institutes of Health said:

"4.5 points is a dramatic loss of IQ, comparable to what you'd see with lead exposure."

And:

"A 2- to 4-point decrement in [Performance IQ] may seem like a small difference at the individual level. However, a small shift in the mean of IQ scores at the population level translates to millions of lost IQ points given the ubiquity of fluoride exposure." (emphasis added)

NTP finds loss of IQ at doses from fluoridated water

NTP also conducted a dose-response analysis. They found that as water fluoride concentrations rose from 0.0 to 1.5 mg/L (milligrams per liter), the average IQ dropped about 6 IQ points. Artificial fluoridation at 0.7 mg/L is squarely in this range. The NTP said "there was no obvious threshold" for safety.

More details on the NTP report's findings are available from FAN along with disturbing revelations that dental interests are adopting the same unsavory tactics to defend fluoridation that the lead industry used to defend lead.

SOURCE Fluoride Action Network