Former senior EPA scientist confirms that fluoride lowers the IQ of children
by Tracey Watson, published on Natural News, on February 21, 2017
(Natural News) The United States started adding fluoride to its drinking water soon after the end of the Second World War, and for over 70 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confidently asserted that this practice is necessary to prevent tooth decay. Interestingly, the U.S. is one of very few countries that still maintains that adding fluoride in this way prevents tooth decay.
The CDC maintains that several studies have demonstrated that the fluoride which naturally occurs in groundwater is essentially the same as the sodium fluoride that is added to our drinking water. The CDC’s website claims: “The metabolism of fluoride does not differ depending on the chemical compound used or whether the fluoride is present naturally or added to the water supply.” (RELATED: What else is the CDC getting up to? Stay in the know at CDC.news)
Nonetheless, in 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) amended its Public Health Service recommendations to mandate that fluoride levels not exceed 0.7 milligrams per liter, rather than the 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams per liter that had been recommended for the previous 50 years. The reasons supplied for the change included an increase in instances of dental fluorosis – a yellow or brown staining of the teeth caused by fluoride – as well as the fact that Americans are being bombarded with fluoride from several different sources, which was not the case in the past.
The truth is, though, that fluoride should not be added to our water supply at all.
A new meta-analysis conducted by researchers from New Zealand, and led by William Hirzy, Ph.D., a former senior EPA scientist who assessed risk for the agency, has found that the fluoridation of water is directly linked to a reduction in the IQ of exposed children. The study was entitled Developmental neurotoxicity of fluoride: A quantitative risk analysis towards establishing a safe daily dose of fluoride for children. The study compared the fluoride exposure of groups of children with low IQs to those whose IQs are higher and found that the higher the exposure to fluoride, the lower the IQ.
“The significance of this peer reviewed risk analysis is that it indicates there may be no actual safe level of exposure to fluoride,” said Dr. Hirzy. “Fluoride may be similar to lead and mercury in having no threshold below which exposures may be considered safe.” [Emphasis added]
The study conclusion reads: “The information now available supports a reasonable conclusion that exposure of the developing brain to fluoride should be minimized, and that economic losses associated with lower IQ’s may be quite large.”
These findings are neither new nor surprising.
In 2012, scientists from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published a study entitled Impact of fluoride on neurological development in children. For the study, which was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers conducted a systematic meta-review of studies from China, where the risk of fluoridation has already been well-documented. A team that included lead researcher Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health, analyzed the IQ levels of 8,000 school-age children exposed to fluoride in their water supply. Their conclusion? “High fluoride content in water may negatively affect cognitive development. The average loss in IQ was reported as a standardized weighted mean difference of 0.45, which would be approximately equivalent to seven IQ points for commonly used IQ scores with a standard deviation of 15.”
And so, there you have it; the experts agree: The addition of fluoride to the drinking supply is dangerous for children and directly affects their IQ levels. Of course, it is more than likely that the CDC is fully aware of this fact, but for reasons of their own, continue to insist on this outdated and scientifically discredited process.
One can only hope that the growing body of evidence revealing the damage of fluoridating water will start to sway public favor to the point that more pressure is applied to the CDC and other relevant federal agencies so that there can be a change in official policy in this regard. Until then, it is more important than ever to ensure that you are filtering your family’s drinking water through a very high-quality water purification system.
Sources:
FluorideResearch.org[PDF]
