Severe Dental And Cognitive Deficits

Fluoride in drinking water has been a hot topic in the past decade. Some communities are all for it and some are completely against it. With such a range of opinions on the matter some organizations have took it upon themselves to present the pros and cons of the fluoride to the public so they can make informed decisions. Often times these surveys are bias to one side or the other, so I shall be giving information on both sides of the issue, the future outlook, and my personal opinion in order to help inform you to decide on your own.

According to World Health Organization data obtained from a study on 12 year old’s levels of tooth decay, fluoride has had very little effect, if any at all, on tooth decay. Countries such as Japan, Italy, and Iceland, who are non-fluoridated countries, actually have about the same level of tooth decay decrease as countries that have fluoridated water. Fluoride is considered a drug, according to the FDA, which means that it is a medical treatment. Medical treatments are not to be given unless the patient agrees to the treatment, therefore, placing fluoride into the public water supply violates informed consent seeing as how citizens are not given the opportunity to vote on the matter. Even if people could vote on the situation, not all people are going to agree with and since it is considered a drug, it

This article limitation is it built on prior knowledge, local advertisement, and past articles written in the Oregonian. Portlanders were inundated with misleading information during the campaign against community water fluorination supported by local media and the Oregonian. Many locals used lawn signs to iterate there are risk to fluoride Opponents believed fluorine was an industrial byproduct4, a chemical and focused on trace amounts of contaminants that would be forcing toxins into the body. Some opponents were the Portland medical professionals, as documented in KPTV 12-Fox News.2 Medical professional stated it harms the bones, brain, thyroid gland, the immune system and the effects on children developing brains are unknown.2 More importantly, Portlanders should not knowingly add fluoride to our clean water supply.2

If you have well water, you can have it tested for fluoride content, and if you only give your child bottled water, then you should know that there is no fluoride in it.

Are you aware that fluoride that is used to help keep teeth healthy is actually a harmful compound. The number of products that contain fluoride is actually quite high. Many people may not know it is also in our drinking water. The scary thing is fluoride is now classified as a neurotoxin.

2. In 2012 a team of Harvard scientists warned that the developing brain is another target. A large studies of china found reduced IQ scores to children expose to fluoride.

One of the main disagreement is fluoridation takes away the public’s choice. “Rodriguez reportedly said it is a violation of his individual rights by the government because the process forces people to consume a substance they may not know is present or that they would rather avoid” (Advocate, V. 2015). There is also a controversial debate if it would be cheaper for the cities and communities to discontinue the fluoridation program. Then, Teek Miller, a retired science and math teacher wrote a letter to her city council and stated that she thinks brushing teeth with fluoride is beneficial, but swallowing the chemical is not. Miller goes on to explain how fluoride is damaging to the bones and brain, when swallowing (Advocate, V. 2015). Public health officials have been looking into the health considerations when digesting fluoride, because in large amounts, fluoride is considered poison, but those levels cannot be reached by drinking just fluoridated

Studies done by the National Research Council concluded “It is apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain.” The Environmental Protection Agency upon review of the studies listed fluoride among approximately 100 other chemicals showing substantial evidence of promoting developmental neurotoxicity. There have been over 100 experiments done on animals providing proof that shows fluoride impacting cognitive thinking. Animals who were ingesting fluoride at the same consumption rate as a average household user were found to have brain damage that impacted learning and

In reading the article by Johnson, there were many surprising topics presented. One part of the article that surprised me was when Johnson was discussing the initial fluoridation of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The city was used as the ‘guinea pig’ city of fluoridation, however, as Johnson notes, they were largely supportive of the fluoridation and the test worked, as the results showed a decrease in tooth decay. What surprised me was that the public was extremely cooperative until the anti-fluoridation started to employ intense campaign techniques. The fact that the tide of support was able to switch so easily was startling, as the health effects were proven effective, as well as there being widespread cooperation with fluoridation. Additionally, the only argument that Johnson stated was that they were being used as guinea pigs, even though that stage was over and the area was aware of this fact.

Some of the arguments have proven to hold more weight than others. One reasonable point that is traditionally argued is determining how individuals receive the optimal dosage of fluoride. Noting less affluent communities tend to use tap water for often it would seem reasonable that they would receive an increased body burden. Not only is the amount of public drinking water ingested in each person uncontrollable, the number of fluoridated products a person uses is completely variable. Individuals not only receive fluoride from water, but also toothpastes, mouthwash, certain foods, and beverages, and so is it possible to control the fluoride level for each individual? In a review of water fluoridation, “the EU (European Union) Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks highlight that young children are likely to exceed the upper tolerable limits for fluoride consumption in areas with water fluoridation greater than 0.8 ppm and using fluoride toothpaste” (Peckham and Awofeso). The delivery process of fluoride leaves much to be

Twelve studies conducted gathered data linking fluoride to neurobehavioral defects. Forty five studies have reported that rodents dosed with fluoride have impaired learning capacity, not surprisingly studies with human subjects gathered data that agrees with experiments ran on animals, experiments conducted on human subjects found that high fluoride exposure reduces human intelligence. While individually each these experiments do not have conclusive data on the dangers of water fluoridation, as an accumulative body of research there is enough evidence to draw the conclusion that water fluoridation does much more harm than good to all persons exposed to fluoride (Fluoride Action Network,

Another 34 studies also investigated the relationship between fluoride and an animal’s ability to learn and remember. Of these studies, a whopping 43 of the 50 human based investigations found elevated fluoride exposure to be associated with a reduced IQ while 32 of the 34 animal based investigations discovered fluoride exposure impaired the learning and memory ability of the animals. The human studies consisted of IQ examinations on more than 11,000 children and resulting in some rather compelling evidence to show that fluoride exposure during a child’s early years could damage a child’s brain as it developed. A brief summary of just some of the results from the 43 studies that found an association between fluoride and lowered IQ can be found below:

While the use of fluoride is beneficial, we cannot ignore the harmful effects of using fluoride. Uncontrolled fluoride intake can be very counter reproductive and sometimes lead to chronic conditions that change your lifestyle.

As explained, “Hyperactivity and cognitive deficits are generally linked with hippocampal damage, and in fact, the hippocampus is considered to be the central processor which integrates inputs from the environment, memory, and motivational stimuli to produce behavioral decisions and modify memory… Overall, the behavioral changes from fluoride exposure are consistent with interrupted hippocampal development. Whether the hippocampus is indeed the brain region most susceptible to fluoride is a possibility deserving consideration in future studies”

While the side that is for fluoridation use the argument of it improving tooth care and reducing dental cost the opposite side claim that this method is unhealthy for the human body and can cause various illnesses and aliments.