Harvard Study: Fluoride Lowers Children’s Intelligence By 7 IQ Points

Source: www.hsph.harvard.edu...

I'm not sure how much evidence people want to have before they stop adding a known neurotoxin to the food and water supply. People who don't have fluoride in their local water assume they are not exposed. However, fluoride-laced water can also be added to foods in processing plants and then be shipped to anywhere else. This is something I think many people do not consider.

fractal2
Source: www.hsph.harvard.edu...

I'm not sure how much evidence people want to have before they stop adding a known neurotoxin to the food and water supply. People who don't have fluoride in their local water assume they are not exposed. However, fluoride-laced water can also be added to foods in processing plants and then be shipped to anywhere else. This is something I think many people do not consider.

I reckon I could list the people who are about to invade this thread with their pro fluoride clap trap, but I expect its against T&C's so I'll just watch and amuse myself

Those who still think this poison is harmless really need to wake up fast!

From OP's source

“Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain,” Grandjean says. “The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us.”

Thats what its all about! Dumb down the kids before they have a chance to educate themselves.

fractal2
Source: www.hsph.harvard.edu...

I'm not sure how much evidence people want to have before they stop adding a known neurotoxin to the food and water supply. People who don't have fluoride in their local water assume they are not exposed. However, fluoride-laced water can also be added to foods in processing plants and then be shipped to anywhere else. This is something I think many people do not consider.

Hey OP

Prepare for a LOT of this . . .

Harvard scientists: Data on fluoride, IQ not applicable in U.S.
www.kansas.com...

While the studies the Harvard team reviewed did indicate that very high levels of fluoride could be linked to lower IQs among schoolchildren, the data is not particularly applicable here because it came from foreign sources where fluoride levels are multiple times higher than they are in American tap water.

. . .

Two of the scientists who compiled the Harvard study on fluoride said it really doesn’t address the safety of fluoridation levels typical of American drinking water.

“These results do not allow us to make any judgment regarding possible levels of risk at levels of exposure typical for water fluoridation in the U.S.,” the researchers said in an e-mail response to questions from The Eagle. “On the other hand, neither can it be concluded that no risk is present.”

The researchers noted that the fluoride levels they studied were much higher than what is found in fluoridated water in the United States

. . .

The e-mail was jointly signed by the study’s primary authors, research scientist Anna Choi and Associate Professor Philippe Grandjean, of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.


But the researchers’ acknowledgement that their study doesn’t draw conclusions about the safety of American fluoridated water won’t necessarily put the controversy to rest.

You have been warned.

-FBB

VoidHawk

fractal2
Source: www.hsph.harvard.edu...

I'm not sure how much evidence people want to have before they stop adding a known neurotoxin to the food and water supply. People who don't have fluoride in their local water assume they are not exposed. However, fluoride-laced water can also be added to foods in processing plants and then be shipped to anywhere else. This is something I think many people do not consider.

I reckon I could list the people who are about to invade this thread with their pro fluoride clap trap, but I expect its against T&C's so I'll just watch and amuse myself

Those who still think this poison is harmless really need to wake up fast!

my flatmate is a doctor and he believes it is good for the teeth ,i have tried to explain to him it is harmful but he believes that it is a conspiracy theory and made up by crazy people...i believe he has drunk way to much fluoridated water....what i find disturbing is his medical background and he still is pro-fluoride and his argument is the fact that fluoride is on the periodic table so there for it cannot be harmful....sometimes he makes me want to bang my head against the wall

It's not exactly a Harvard study. It's a review (a metastudy) of some studies done in China. Studies which used populations exposed to natural levels of fluouride which exceed those allowed by US regulation.

The metastudy does not say that Fluoride lowers childrens' intelligence.

Even though many of the studies on children in China differed in many ways or were incomplete, the authors consider the data compilation and joint analysis an important first step in evaluating the potential risk. “For the first time we have been able to do a comprehensive meta-analysis that has the potential for helping us plan better studies.

www.hsph.harvard.edu...

hopenotfeariswhatweneed

VoidHawk

fractal2
Source: www.hsph.harvard.edu...

I'm not sure how much evidence people want to have before they stop adding a known neurotoxin to the food and water supply. People who don't have fluoride in their local water assume they are not exposed. However, fluoride-laced water can also be added to foods in processing plants and then be shipped to anywhere else. This is something I think many people do not consider.

I reckon I could list the people who are about to invade this thread with their pro fluoride clap trap, but I expect its against T&C's so I'll just watch and amuse myself

Those who still think this poison is harmless really need to wake up fast!

my flatmate is a doctor and he believes it is good for the teeth ,i have tried to explain to him it is harmful but he believes that it is a conspiracy theory and made up by crazy people...i believe he has drunk way to much fluoridated water....what i find disturbing is his medical background and he still is pro-fluoride and his argument is the fact that fluoride is on the periodic table so there for it cannot be harmful....sometimes he makes me want to bang my head against the wall

I'm perfectly willing to believe that he thinks its not harmfull because thats what they teach them at med school, but I'm more inclined to think he's too frightened to speak out about it. It would probably mean the end of his career if he did.

Phage
It's not exactly a Harvard study. It's a review of some studies done in China. Studies which used populations exposed to natural levels of fluouride which exceed those allowed by US regulation.

The review does not say that Fluoride lowers childrens's intelligence. It says this:

Even though many of the studies on children in China differed in many ways or were incomplete, the authors consider the data compilation and joint analysis an important first step in evaluating the potential risk. “For the first time we have been able to do a comprehensive meta-analysis that has the potential for helping us plan better studies.

www.hsph.harvard.edu...

It also says this.

“Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain,” Grandjean says. “The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us.”

And it said this.

The China National Knowledge Infrastructure database also was included to locate studies published in Chinese journals. They then analyzed possible associations with IQ measures in more than 8,000 children of school age; all but one study suggested that high fluoride content in water may negatively affect cognitive development.

Link

So, in low fluoride content water we can expect the same result but at a slower pace.
I think thats more than enough reason to stop its use until its been PROVEN one way or the other.

reply to post by hopenotfeariswhatweneed


Have you told him Mercury is also on the periodic table.....and that's PROVEN to be toxic?

If he is a doctor....I'd stay well away from his practice/place of business.

reply to post by VoidHawk

So, in low fluoride content water we can expect the same result but at a slower pace.

No we can't, that's pure speculation on your part.

AlphaHawk
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

So, in low fluoride content water we can expect the same result but at a slower pace.

No we can't, that's pure speculation on your part.

You got any proof? or is that just pure speculation on your part?

reply to post by VoidHawk

So, in low fluoride content water we can expect the same result but at a slower pace. I think thats more than enough reason to stop its use until its been PROVEN one way or the other.

No, we can't. The metastudy comes to no such conclusion. But I guess by your logic all natural fluoride should also be removed from all drinking water supplies.

It should also be noted that a conclusion based on a statistical analysis of IQ tests may not be particularly valid when it shows such a small difference.

Even if we ignore the weaknesses of the study (Choi et al. 2012), including a lack of individual-level information and the high probability of confounding because the authors did not adjust for covariates, a difference of 0.4 in mean IQ is clinically negligible (Jeckel et al. 2007; Rothman et al. 2008; Szklo and Nieto 2007) even though it was statistically significant. In general, clinical importance takes priority over statistical significance.

ehp.niehs.nih.gov...

In other words, drawing much a conclusion from a difference if 7 IQ points doesn't really show much. I bet if your brother had an IQ 7 points higher than yours people wouldn't be calling him the smarter one.

reply to post by VoidHawk


You're the one making the claim, where's your proof?

reply to post by Phage


While you raise a good point, The CDC recommends 0.7 to 1.2mg/L of fluoride in drinking water. The lowest level study reviewed was 0.88mg/L and found that IQ was also lower in that area.

ehp.niehs.nih.gov... p.3 fourth study down. While a single study is not really enough for a firm conclusion, the trend is clear enough for me to stay away from fluoride in any quantity. As others have pointed out the most likely scenario seems to be that at lower levels of fluoride you simply are are damaged less.

reply to post by fractal2


If you take all the figures supplied by the study and calculate the average, it works out to be around 9mg/L

So, the study basically implies it takes over 9mg/L of fluoride in your water to lose an average of 7 IQ points.

Hardly a fair indication of what's in "normal" drinking water.

reply to post by VoidHawk

So, in low fluoride content water we can expect the same result but at a slower pace.

I don't know.

However fluoride has been shown to accumulate in glands that sit outside the blood brain barrier postmortem. Not sure how I feel about evaluating IQ or determining they lost '7' points, but the idea of it hindering cognitive function to some degree doesn't seem far fetched to me.

Personally I am against fluoridated water on one simple basis. Adding fluoride to water for oral health is in essence a medical prescription. Precise measurements are important in medicine. That's completely absent in fluoridated water. The safety levels are averaged. I drink about 10 times the water of my mother. How is this being accounted for. I drink even more than that during the summer when I am training for sport events. How is this being accounted for.

That and fluoride has only shown to be effective against dental caries topically. That alone should raise an eyebrow.

My question: how is one's IQ impacted by spending time on ATS?

reply to post by Lucid Lunacy

That and fluoride has only shown to be effective against dental caries topically. That alone should raise an eyebrow.

Interesting. Does this indicate a lack of effectiveness to you?

The prevented fraction for water fluoridation was 27% (95%CI: 19%–34%). These findings suggest that fluoride prevents caries among adults of all ages.

jdr.sagepub.com...

Comparisons of communities where water is fluoridated and communities where water remains unfluoridated show a reduced prevalence of dental caries in the range of 18-40 % when fluoridation is used (4). A recent study established the rate of caries reduction at 25 % (23). It is postulated that this estimate is more conservative than those reported in the past because the general population now enjoys the benefits of fluoride from other sources, such as fluoride-enriched toothpaste and vitamin supplements.

www.inspq.qc.ca...

AlphaHawk
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

So, in low fluoride content water we can expect the same result but at a slower pace.

No we can't, that's pure speculation on your part.

Yes we can. Fluoride accumulates in the human body. Fairly tough thing to get rid of.