More research has emerged linking higher fluoride levels to lower intelligence in children and authors of a recent study have concluded that the consequences are significant. The study, Fluoride Exposure and Children’s IQ Scores: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, was a rigorous nine-year systematic review conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) housed in the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and was published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics.1
The study was part of a larger monograph that began in 2015 and was the basis of the federal court ruling ordering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoride community water.2 3
The study concluded that for every one part per million increase in fluoride, there was an associated one-point drop in a child’s IQ score. The authors noted that a one-point reduction may seem small but the consequences are significant, especially for vulnerable high-risk populations like those who live in poverty or have poor nutrition.
The stated that “a five-point decrease in a population’s IQ would nearly double the number of people classified as intellectually disabled.”3
The NTP lengthy monograph was subject to an unprecedented number of reviews that some critics claim was designed to delay the process.3 For reference, prior reports on other chemicals typically just have one peer-review. The report was finalized in May 2022 but not released until August 2024.4
Study Played Major Role in Judge’s Decision to Mandate EPA to Reduce Fluoride Risk
The review was a major contributor to U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen’s decision to require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce fluoride’s risks to children. “Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA,” Judge Chen wrote in the ruling.3
The Fluoride Action Network, one of the groups responsible for suing the EPA, reported last week that the EPA has filed a notice of appeal of the court’s decision with no explanation or justification for the decision. The Fluoride Action Network states the appeal “is a continuation of the EPA’s reluctance to admit they have failed to protect the public adequately from this pollutant for over 50 years.”5
An initial study linking higher maternal fluoride levels to IQ loss in children was published in the same journal, JAMA Pediatrics, in 2019. In a podcast episode discussing why editor-in-chief Dimitri Christakis decided to publish the controversial study, he stated that he struggled with the decision to publish because “anti-fluoriders” were akin to “anti-vaxxers.”6
Christakis stated:
This was the only paper as long as I’ve been editor that I wrote an editor’s note on, and I basically said that we decided to publish he paper after a fairly tendentious discussion… because there was concern about what the public health impact would be.6
He went onto to say that if mothers asked him, he would advise them to drink filtered water to potentially reduce the risk.6
CDC and American Dental Association Reiterate Allegiance to Fluoride
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Dental Association (ADA) have reiterated their faith in the health benefits of fluoride as one of the “10 Greatest Public Health Achievements of the 21st Century,” despite both the federal court ruling and the emerging science.3
In November 2024, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who President Trump has nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), stated publicly that the Trump administration would recommend that all U.S. water systems remove fluoride from public water.7
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Click here to view References:1 Taylor K. et al. Fluoride exposure and children’s IQ scores. JAMA Pediatrics Jan. 6, 2025.
2 National Toxicology Program. NTP Monograph on the state of the science concerning fluoride exposure and neurodevelopment and cognition: A systematic review. Aug. 2024.
3 Goodman B. Children exposed to higher fluoride levels have lower IQs, a government study finds. CNN Jan. 6, 2025.
4 Hobley N. EPA must reduce fluoride’s risks to children’s IQ. The Vaccine Reaction Oct. 15, 2024.
5 Sanders J. EPA files notice of appeal. Fluoride Action Network Jan. 18, 2025.
6 JAMA Pediatrics Editors’ Summary. Association between maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy and IQ scores in offspring in Canada. Aug. 19, 2019.
7 Khurana M. RFK Jr. says that Trump will recommend getting rid of fluoride in drinking water. NPR Nov. 6, 2024.
5 Responses
I signed a petition in the early 80’s to not fluoridate our water because it is a toxic non-water-soluble substance that accumulates in your body forever!
The CDC and ADA have been pushing the narrative that fluoride is healthy for a century. It will be embarrasing for them to admit that fluoride is nothing but a toxin, so they keep on keeping on. They both need to be dissolved for damaging all americans. Hitler knew it was a toxin and intentionally put it into the drinking water of prisoner camps to dumb down the prisoners so they would not desire to escape.
Thanks for updating us with this pithy article. Dr. Chris Exley has said that fluoride binds aluminium especially at low pH (acid). This leads to absorption of the fluoride-aluminum moiety through the stomach wall (rather than later through the gut wall where the pH is higher (less acidic). There is good reason to think that fluoride’s biggest contribution to toxicity is its ability to amplify aluminum’s neurotoxicity. It’s not surprising that IQ is affected since it is known contributor to autism and ADHD. AL is in a lot of foods like fast-acting baking powders and in easy-to-find non-prescription poisons like antacids that could be swallowed along with fluoride in the water. I have compiled a list of sources if anyone is interested. In Germany they add fluoride to some brands of table salt (we have a long way to go). It’s in some famous mineral waters so when I am buying bottled water here I make sure the level of fluoride is less than 0.2 mg/L (I would prefer zero).
Amazing insights thank-you. If you have any references to share I would love to read them.
Aluminum is very toxic to the pineal gland, reducing the brain’s night time high dose of melatonin, good sleep, and detoxification via glymphatic flow. This increases autism, alzheimers, parkinsons, MS, and ALS. Fluoiride has no beneficial biological effect, only toxicity. The “benefit” to dental health actually causes increased bone and tooth brittleness, increasing fractures. The benefit of reduces caries is modest or perhaps even nonesistant- no good large double blinded studies. Certainly not worth the great harms of ingested fluoride.