As Donald Trump’s Well being Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy might pursue a rigorous, high-quality examine concerning the efficacy of fluoride in consuming water and whether or not or not it’s hazardous to our well being.
As a substitute, he’s glommed onto a flawed examine on the matter and now we’re right here, with Kennedy confidently telling the president at a cupboard assembly Wednesday that “all of the science on fluoride” agrees that “the extra you get, the stupider you’re.”
Kennedy talked about the “discovering” as a part of his justification to aim to alter federal pointers on fluoridation of consuming water.
“[EPA Administrator] Lee Zeldin and I are working collectively to alter the federal fluoride laws, to alter the suggestions, and we’re wanting on the science now,” he instructed Trump. “In August, the nationwide toxicity program… did a meta overview of all of the science on fluoride and located that there’s a direct inverse correlation between fluoride publicity and low IQ in kids.”
“So the extra you get, the stupider you’re.”
Like a lot of Kennedy’s scientific utterances, he’s dabbling in half-truths.
Whereas meta-analyses of fluoride in consuming water have suggested there could also be an inverse affiliation between fluoride publicity and youngsters’s IQ scores, the information itself is riddled with issues.
Steven Novella, M.D., a scientific neurologist on the Yale College College of Medication, debunked the findings in a weblog for Science-Primarily based Medication in 2023.
Novella’s criticisms are primarily twofold:
- The research relied upon are predominantly from communities in China, the place the water is of course fluoridated with a lot greater concentrations of fluoride than is present in U.S. water. Whereas the CDC recommends 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, among the knowledge was as excessive as 16 milligrams per liter.
- Even the information with excessive ranges of fluoride publicity isn’t all that compelling with respect to cognitive perform. “The impact, in different phrases, whether it is actual, doesn’t look like clinically dramatic,” stated Novella.
“After all, all potential neurotoxicity to the creating mind needs to be taken very significantly. Each IQ level is a treasured human useful resource,” Novella wrote.
“What I believe all this implies is that present consuming water fluoridation ranges are secure, and supply a major profit for dental well being. But in addition, we have to conduct greater high quality research to indicate if there even is an actual neurotoxic impact, and to zoom in on the degrees in managed consuming water.”
The federal authorities already leaves fluoridation selections as much as state and native governments.
To the nice dismay of the American Dental Affiliation, Utah banned fluoride in its public consuming water in March, turning into the primary state to take action. Florida is poised to observe go well with.
The American Dental Affiliation strongly helps water fluoridation. Proof suggests the mineral is strongly correlated with decreased dental ailments.
