THE NEW SCIENCE SHOWS FLUORIDE IS NOT SAFE
There are strong Canadian connections with all the following studies. Christine Till, who was the lead author of both the Green and Till studies, teaches at York University; Bruce Lanphear (co-author of the Green and Till studies), an American citizen who teaches at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver; and Howard Hu, the lead author of the Bashash studies, who did his research at the University of Toronto for many years.​
September, 2023 – A study by University of Calgary researchers found “poorer inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility” in preschool children whose mothers were pregnant during times when the water was fluoridated in Calgary, Canada. The authors said their tests measured “executive function deficits [that have been] consistently associated with behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability, and specific learning disorders”. Executive dysfunction disrupts the ability to manage thoughts, emotions, and actions, including the ability to pay attention, solve problems, listen, and multitask.
Till et al., February 2023 – Professor Christine Till and PhD student Meaghan Hall found an association between fluoride exposure from tap water and hypothyroidism in pregnancy. They say this latest study may explain an earlier study looking at maternal fluoride exposure in pregnancy and lower IQ in boys. “The findings are concerning because hypothyroidism is a known cause of brain-based disorders in children,” says Till. Hall and Till say they hope that policy makers will consider this new research when evaluating the safety of community water fluoridation.
Well-designed prospective cohort studies funded by both the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [NIEHS] in the USA as well as Health Canada, have shown a loss of IQ and increased symptoms of ADHD in offspring when pregnant women are exposed to fluoride at doses commonly experienced in fluoridated communities in Canada (Bashash, 2017, 2018 and Green, 2019). The consequences are shocking! According to Dr. Philippe Grandjean, from Harvard University, “Fluoride is causing a greater overall loss of IQ points today than lead, arsenic or mercury”, as detailed in this risk analysis.
Till et al., 2020 have shown a large reduction in IQ when children were bottle-fed as babies in communities which were fluoridated, compared with babies who were bottle-fed in non-fluoridated communities.
According to Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., former Director of the U.S. NIEHS (2009-2019) and two leading public health researchers (Bruce Lanphear, MD, MPH, and Christine Till, PhD) who authored two key fluoride-IQ studies (Green, 2019 and Till, 2020), ingestion of fluoride during pregnancy confers no dental benefit to the fetus, so this is a situation where risks are being taken for no proven benefit (see their editorial published in Environmental Health News, Oct 7 2020).
An important well-conducted study from Sweden has shown an increased prevalence of hip fracture in post-menopausal women associated with long term exposure to natural fluoride at levels in water in the same range as Canada fluoridates its water [Helte et. al., 2021]. This is very serious because, as you probably know, hip fractures in the elderly are debilitating, costly to treat, lead to a loss of independence and often shortens the life of those impacted. This finding also underlines the fact that fluoride can impact our health over a whole lifetime of exposure.
WHO IS CHRISTINE TILL?
Christine Till is one of Canada's leading scientists. She is a tenured Associate Professor in the Clinical Developmental Area in the Department of Psychology and Faculty of Health at York University, Toronto, Ontario. She is also appointed as an Adjunct Scientist of the Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Below she gives an in-depth look at the detail of her studies on fluoride (mentioned above), and concludes with:
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A lot has changed since the 1940s when water fluoridation was first introduced. We now have topical fluorides like toothpaste, and we know more about how fluoride works. There will always be questions that need answers, but now we have mounting scientific evidence showing a consistent pattern of lower IQ associated with early-life exposure to fluoride. The question becomes:
How much more information is needed before we raise concerns...?
Failure to act could amount to enormous costs at the population level.
"I have been able to view this excellent presentation of a review of the Fluoride-IQ literature from the author of some of the key studies. For any one with an open mind, a reasonable background in science or just plain common sense this should be the final word on this debate. No community should deliberately put this neurotoxic substance into the public drinking water." — Paul Connett, PhD co-author of The Case Against Fluoride (Chelsea Green , 2010) and science advisor to Fluoride Free Canada.