SUBJECT:  Top Canadian scientists concur that the fetal and infant brain can be damaged by fluoridated tap water

 

We are 153 residents (and counting) from many walks of life across our broad nation.  We have long believed that the use of the public water supply to deliver fluoride indiscriminately to every man, woman and child in our communities, without control of dose, without consideration of the age or nutritional and health status of the recipients, and without allowing for the individual’s informed consent on the matter, is unacceptable from an ethical point of view.

 

We are writing to you today, because there has been a turn of events which has added great urgency to our concerns.  Recent government-funded peer-reviewed science indicates that fluoride has the potential to damage the brains of our children.  We are concerned that this alarming new evidence has not triggered any warnings from any health department in the country—especially warnings to pregnant women.

 

We are aware that you do not have jurisdiction over water fluoridation.  However, we believe that the issue has become so urgent for the well-being of all Canadian citizens, that your intervention is needed.

 

The following key scientific research forms the basis for our concerns:

 

• Well-designed prospective cohort studies funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [NIEHS] in the United States 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 et al., 2017 and 2018] and [Green et al., 2019] (also funded by Health Canada).  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.

 

• In addition, Till et al., 2020 have shown a pronounced 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 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 et al., 2019] and [Till et al., 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).
   

• In addition, 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 that are in the same range as Canadian water fluoridation rates [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 shorten the life of those impacted.  This finding also underlines the fact that fluoride can impact our health over a lifetime of exposure.
   

• More evidence of harm, along with supporting documentation for all the studies cited in this letter, can be accessed here.

 

Note:  There are strong Canadian connections with all the neurotoxicity studies we have cited: Christine Till teaches at York University; Bruce Lanphear (co-author of the Green and Till studies) teaches at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver; and Morteza Bashash did his research at the University of Toronto.

 

We would also like to make you aware that the U.S.-based group Food and Water Watch, is among several groups and individuals that have instigated a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking a ban on the deliberate addition of fluoride to the public drinking water on the grounds that it poses an unreasonable risk to the developing brains of America’s children.  The case was heard in June 2020 and the judge has delayed his ruling, until the review of fluoride’s neurotoxicity by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) and Grandjean’s Benchmark Dose (BMD) analysis have been published.  Grandjean, along with Bruce Lanphear and Howard Hu, acted as expert witnesses in this case.

 

With all these latest alarming scientific studies, we urge you to exercise bold leadership and work with all the Canadian Premiers to encourage their Ministers of Health to take the following steps:

 

1. Warn pregnant women to avoid ingesting fluoride and warn parents not to use fluoridated water to make up infant formula.
    

2. Pause any further promotion of water fluoridation.
    

3. Unless they can provide convincing counter-evidence of comparable quality to the findings discussed above, institute a total ban on this practice.  (We would note that fluoridation has been virtually ended in both Quebec and British Columbia, with no validated scientific reports of any deterioration in tooth care in either province.)
    

4. Focus resources on ways of fighting tooth decay without forcing the population to ingest fluoride via the water supply, without their informed consent.  Most countries (including 97% of Europe) have successfully fought tooth decay without fluoridating the water supply.

 

We recognize that there is a clear need to focus on dental care for children from low-income families, but we must do so without undermining their mental development.  Some living in inner cities are already burdened with excessive lead exposure.

 

Federal, provincial and local governments need to provide better access to preventive dental care and early education for better diet and dental hygiene for all our children.  The latter approach has proven very successful and cost-effective in low-income families in non-fluoridated Scotland (see the ChildSmile program).

 

In summary, Mr. Prime Minister, we sincerely hope that with your bold intervention on behalf of all our citizens, Canada’s Federal and Provincial Health Ministers will acknowledge the strong scientific evidence of fluoride’s neurotoxicity (and other ill health effects) and put the health of our people above defending what appears to be a well-intended but clearly outdated practice of water fluoridation.  This would not be the first time that an entrenched medical or dental practice has had to give way to advances in scientific understanding of unexpected side effects.

 

Sincerely,

 

Concerned Canadian Citizens