Fluoride: The New Lead!
I have reproduced this report sent to me by the volunteers at Fluoride Free NZ.
Fluoride the New Lead Confirmed by Top US Govt Scientific Body
A Must-Read The following press release from US-based Fluoride Action Network's science advisor spells out the details of the National Toxicology Program's Draft Monograph and Meta-analysis.
Lead Industry’s Denial Tactics Now Used by Dental Interests By: Chris Neurath, FAN Science Director
Highlights: • Similar loss of IQ from fluoride as from lead • IQ loss seen at doses from fluoridated water • Same industry denials, personal attacks on scientists • Industry tactic: blaming the victim • Fluoride is the new lead, but worse
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) report on the neurotoxicity of fluoride confirms what experts have long been suggesting: that fluoride is the new lead in its ability to lower IQ in children. Over the past five years, experts in toxicology and epidemiology have equated the harm to developing brains from fluoride to that from lead. NTP Final Report Confirms Similar Loss Of IQ From Fluoride As From Lead The NTP’s final report on fluoride neurotoxicity supports these experts’ conclusions. NTP found an average loss of 7 IQ points in 55 studies that compared child IQ of a higher fluoride group to that of a lower fluoride group. NTP also conducted a so-called dose-response meta-analysis to look at the relationship between fluoride dose and IQ loss by combining results from many studies at different exposure levels. They found that as water fluoride concentrations rose from 0.0 to 1.5 mg/L (milligrams per liter, equivalent to parts per million or ppm), the average IQ dropped about 6 IQ points. Artificial fluoridation is generally at a concentration of 0.7 mg/L water fluoride, squarely in this range. The loss of IQ at 0.7 mg/L is predicted to be about 3 IQ points. NTP Finds Loss Of IQ At Doses From Fluoridated Water The dose-response curve calculated by NTP, which shows how IQ drops as fluoride exposure increases, is shown in their eFigure 17, reproduced here:
The graph shows no safe threshold and the slope of the solid line representing the relationship between exposure and loss of IQ is actually steepest in the low exposure range directly applicable to artificially fluoridated water. In the NTP’s own words: “there was no obvious threshold as illustrated by [eFigure 17]”. The relationship between fluoride and IQ loss can be compared directly to that between lead and IQ as shown in the right-hand graph from a 2005 paper that pooled data from the 7 strongest studies [Lanphear 2005]:
