Report Finds High Levels of Fluoride in Water Linked to Lower IQ in Kids

A U.S. government systemic review by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) has concluded “with moderate confidence” that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children.¹ Federal officials allegedly blocked the report from release to the public for two years until a federal judge forced the report’s release through a court order. The court order was part of a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Fluoride Action Network and other consumer advocate groups over the classification of fluoride as a neurotoxin. U.S. District Court Judge Edward M. Chen could make a ruling on the four year-long case any day.¹

Judge Chen put the lawsuit in abeyance in 2020 as they awaited the NTP’s report, expecting it to be published shortly after. However, the NTP then subjected the report to additional peer-reviews, beyond the already high level peer review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) causing a prolonged delay. Previous reports on other chemicals typically have just one peer-review.³ Documents collected through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by the Fluoride Action Network confirmed that the NTP considered the final report to be completed in May 2022.

The Fluoride Action Network, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about water fluoridation, alleges that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), blocked the initial release of the public report in 2022 due to pressure from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the dental lobby.²

Multiple Studies Conclude Fluoride Associated With Decreased IQ

The NTP report, entitled the Monograph of the State of the Science of Fluoride, reviewed 72 epidemiologic studies from several counties including the United States, Mexico, China, and Canda, on the effects of fluoride exposure on children’s IQ. The report concluded that fluoride exposure containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water is associated with lower IQ in children. This number is less than what is federally recommended in drinking water.⁴

Cities Fluoridate Above Recommended Limit

Many cities still fluoridate their water above the recommended amount. Even if using the recommended parts per million (ppm) of fluoride, water is an inexact delivery route. It is impossible to tailor the amount of fluoride in drinking water for each demographic group or to know how much fluoride individuals are consuming through other sources such as food, pharmaceuticals, and dental products.⁵

Even at the recommended dosage, the Environmental Working Group states that the lower fluoride concentrations in drinking water will still be too high for some groups such as babies who are fed baby formula mixed with water. “Because they are so small, bottle-fed babies drink approximately 10 times more water than adults every day”, the EWG states.⁵

Dental Associations Continue to Defend Fluoridation

The American Dental Association (ADA) continues to defend the practice of fluoridation and released a statement asserting that the NTP report does not necessitate any changes in practice. Executive director of the Fluoride Action Network stated that as many as 1,473 local communities have voluntarily ended water fluoridation programs since 2010 due to uncertainty of safety and concerns of its citizens.² Most countries outside of the United States have also discontinued the practice of water fluoridation for the same reasons.

Swedish pharmacologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology Dr. Arvid Carlsson said:

In modern pharmacology, it’s so clear that even if you have a fixed dose of a drug, the individuals respond very differently to one and the same dose. Now, in this case you have it in the water and people are drinking different amounts of water. So you have huge variations in the consumption of this drug… it’s against all modern principles of pharmacology.⁶

Fluoridation Linked to ADHD, Hypothyroid, Bone Cancer

Ashley Malin, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, who has been researching the impact of fluoride exposure for a decade, says that the NTP report is the most rigorously conducted and comprehensive report of its kind. Dr. Malin’s own research has linked higher levels of fluoride to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, with subsequent studies coming to the same conclusion.² Other studies have found fluoride linked to hypothyroidism, bone cancer, and more.⁷

Malin says the practice of community water fluoridation can involve unintended metal exposures including barium, arsenic, and high levels of aluminum. This is because the type of fluoride added is often a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer production.⁷

CDC Says Fluoride a Public Health Success Story

Fluoride is widely hailed as a public health success story, with the CDC naming it one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20^th century. From the beginning, the practice hasn’t come without controversy. But the controversy and concerns that once fell in the shadows of “conspiracy theorist” claims, are now being pulled to the mainstream spotlight as scientifically valid and concerning public health threats.

Water fluoridation’s violation of informed consent is masked by its title as a public health achievement. Most people are not made aware of the potential metal exposure, findings on the neurotoxic effects of fluoride, fluoride’s link to fluorosis, skeletal conditions, and other health conditions, or the fact that their exposure may be significantly higher than what is recommended.

Dentists and other experts say the evidence that fluoride is a neurotoxin is too weak to make any policy changes to water fluoridation practices. But other federal scientists, as well as experts in environmental health, say there is reason for concern.

Delay in NTP Report Release: Violation of Scientific Integrity

Others also express concern over an apparent violation of scientific integrity as a federal agency attempted to conceal the report’s findings when faced with uncomfortable data that went against the long-held practice.

Brian Berridge, DVM, PhD, a former pharmaceutical industry scientist and NTP official, said once the NTP was ready to publish the findings in April 2022, that is “when the wheels fell off.” Dental organizations obtained internal drafts of the report then began to lobby federal officials. Federal health agency officials, including from the CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), also registered concerns about the findings being released to the public. Dr. Berridge stated:

After 17 years in the industry, I’ve seen efforts to modify messages to fit commercial interests. I wasn’t party to that there, and I’m not game to do that here.²

NTP Official Resigns Over Modifying Science to Fit Commercial Interests

Berridge ultimately resigned over the report’s repeated delays and testified in court about the process. “That’s not the way I want to do science,” he stated.²

In theory, the release of the NTP report would be met with a monumental shift in the conversation and practices surrounding water fluoridation. But undoing decades of “settled” science and the associated industry entanglement is a complicated task.

Stuart Cooper, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network, stated:

The report just flies in the face of what we’ve been told for 75 years. They’ve staked their medical credibility on it. It’s the lie that’s too big to fail.²

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