Water Fluoridation: A Debate for the Decades

Debates around water fluoridation have raged for decades, with opponents citing concerns of cancer, bone fractures, and kidney disease. More recently, issues about cognitive problems and lower IQ have also entered the debate.

The topic once again returned to the limelight, with Secretary for Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stating he intended to remove fluoride from American water supplies.

It centres around the addition of fluoride, a group of natural and artificial compounds containing the element fluorine, to water supplies.

Fluoride helps to prevent cavities by inhibiting bacteria that produce acid in the mouth and reverses tooth decay by enhancing natural tooth enamel reconstruction.

Kennedy, citing an August 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Health, said fluoride was negatively impacting children’s health.

The report said there is low confidence in the evidence linking high exposure to cognitive issues in adults, however, the link to lower IQ in children was strong.

“We shouldn’t be demanding that parents accept something for their children and in their homes that is essentially a medication,” Kennedy said on April 7.

Fluoridation in Australian Water

Fluoride was added to Australian water supplies in the 1950s after scientists discovered fewer cavities in people whose drinking water had fluoride levels of about one part per million or higher.

Most fluoride programs began in 1970, and people born after that year have about half as much tooth decay as the generation before

There are a few places in Australia with naturally occurring fluoride, such as Portland and Port Fairy in Victoria.

“We don’t add fluoride to water that is already at optimum levels (around one part per million) since there is no need,” public health expert Associate Professor Matt Hopcraft told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Water would be tested before adding fluoride, and is regularly tested as part of a safety monitoring and compliance program,” Hopcraft said.

Around 89 percent of Australians have access to fluoridated drinking water as of 2017.

In 2012, then Queensland Premier Campbell Newman handed the decision to add fluoride to drinking water to local councils, making Queenslanders the least exposed to the chemical overall.

For people without fluoridated water, Hopcraft said limiting sugar intake, using fluoridated toothpaste and floss, and regular dental check-ups can help reduce the risk of tooth decay.

Mounting Evidence Questions Fluoride Safety

Professor Christine Till from York University told The Epoch Times in an email that there is a compelling body of scientific evidence to suggest fluoride is associated with health risks.

Till said some studies conducted in adults have implicated fluoridation with increased susceptibility to bone fractures and thyroid and kidney dysfunction, but findings are inconsistent.

She also said that in many, but not all, studies, exposure to fluoride in childhood has been linked with behavioural problems, like hyperactivity and physical and psychological symptoms.

However, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in 2017 found no reliable evidence of adverse health conditions for fluoride levels between 0.6 and 1.0 parts per million.

Additionally, the National Toxicology Program found in 2016 that data was insufficient to determine if water fluoridation caused health harms at 0.7 parts per million.

The report noted with moderate confidence that at levels above 1.5 parts per million, there might be an increased risk of cognitive issues.

Decreased IQ

Till published a study in 2019 that found higher levels of fluoride in pregnant women were associated with a three to five-point lower IQ score in their three- to four-year-old kids.

Data from 512 mother-child pairs who lived across six cities in Canada was considered in the study, and 40 percent of the pairs lived in cities with community water fluoridation.

The study was met with criticism, including the varied administration of its IQ testing and the unreliability of self-reporting and spot urine samples, two methods used to measure fluoride.

In response, Till said that women were asked about beverage consumption in present time, so their answers were not limited by recall bias.

She also said urine fluoride concentration, including from spot samples, has been used for decades as a valid biomarker of individual-level fluoride exposure.

Spot samples are not as accurate as 24-hour urine samples, but random exposure measurement error reduces the detection of effects, rather than inflating them.

“The use of spot urine F does not invalidate a study. If anything, it means the size of the effect may likely be an underestimate, not an overestimate,” Till said.

IQ Measurements

Till argues that the criticism of IQ measurements is speculative and not based on any evidence.

Testers underwent three days of training to ensure competency in test administration and were regularly observed.

Additionally, the test protocols were scored twice to ensure accuracy and consistency in the interpretation of responses across sites.

“Of the 610 children who underwent IQ testing as part of the developmental phase of the MIREC study, valid and complete IQ data were available for 601 children (98.5 percent),” Till said.

“We did not analyse the data from the nine children for whom the IQ data were not deemed valid or did not complete the test in its entirety.”

Till said they made sure any differences in how the tests were given in each city didn’t affect the results.

However, Hopcraft said a recent study in Australia showed no differences in IQ for children who had lived their entire lives with or without water fluoridation.