A U.S. government report expected to stir debate concluded that fluoride in drinking water is linked with lower IQ in children.
The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has officially determined that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids.
The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Concerns of side effects were often dismissed.
“I think this (report) is crucial in our understanding” of this risk, said Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the affect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women on their children. She called it the most rigorously conducted report of its kind.
The report did not try to quantify exactly how many IQ points might be lost at different levels of fluoride exposure. But some of the studies reviewed in the report suggested IQ was 2 to 5 points lower in children who’d had higher exposures.
https://apnews.com/article/fluoride-water-brain-neurology-iq-0a671d2de3b386947e2bd5a661f437a5The report:
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/noncancer/completed/fluoride 