water fluoridation Archives

January 30, 2025

Fluoride toothpastes, mouthwash marketed to kids in dangerous ways, lawsuits say

By Douglas Main

Companies making fluoride-containing toothpastes and mouthrinses are improperly marketing their products as harmless and pleasant-tasting to very young children despite scientific research showing ingestion of the products could be dangerous to their health, according to allegations in a group of proposed class action lawsuits filed earlier this month.

There is a scientific consensus that fluoride primarily acts topically and reduces tooth decay when used properly in toothpaste, but ingestion of concentrated fluoride products can be dangerous across the board — especially for young children.

Many fluoride products lack easy-to-read warning labels and are flavored to taste like fruit or candy, and bear bright colors, cartoon characters, and illustrations of misleadingly large quantities of toothpastes on toothbrushes, according to the lawsuits, which bear many similar claims.

“The qualities they imbue these products with very much entice children to use more and ingest more than they should,” said Michael Connett, a partner at New York-based firm Siri & Glimstad, which is bringing the suits.

“Kids are swallowing so much of this stuff. I’ve always been disturbed by how reckless and deceptive the marketing is.”

January 6, 2025

Landmark study affirms fluoride’s link to lowered IQ, adds to debate

By Douglas Main

Fluoride exposure is consistently linked with lowered IQ, according to a landmark analysis of more than 70 published studies on the subject.

The paper, published January 6 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics and authored by scientists with the National Institutes of Health, found a significant inverse relationship between measures of fluoride exposure and IQ in 64 of 74 studies.

The study, the largest meta-analysis of its kind, found that those exposed to high levels of fluoride have measurably lower IQs, equivalent to a difference of nearly 7 IQ points, compared to those in the low fluoride groups. This conclusion came from 59 studies that looked at levels higher than those used in water fluoridation.

The study found the link between fluoride and IQ loss persisted even at low levels of fluoride, as measured in human urine samples.

The meta-analysis is an offshoot of the National Toxicology Program’s investigation into fluoride’s likely impact on neurodevelopment and cognition, published in August 2024, and comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of, and debate over, the practice of fluoridation of public drinking water.

In a seven-year-long court case that wrapped up in September 2024, US District Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California, ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take regulatory action to eliminate the “unreasonable risk” that water fluoridation presents. The fluoridation of water at 0.7 ppm “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children,” Chen wrote in his decision.

Many researchers are sharply divided over the issue, however.