Due to what he described as the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo declared on Friday that communities in the state should refrain from adding fluoride to drinking water.
Ladapo recognized in the guidelines that fluoride has long been shown to reduce tooth decay by strengthening teeth.
However, he also mentioned that systemic fluoride exposure may also raise safety issues, such as IQ declines. Even though some studies have pointed to possible connections, the findings are still preliminary and far from conclusive.
Fluoridated water is one of the top ten public health accomplishments of the last century, according to the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It decreases tooth decay by 25%, according to research cited by all.
Fluoride was also added to toothpaste and several mouthwashes when its advantages were demonstrated. Dentists started treating children with fluoride. After noticing an increase in children’s cavities, some cities are adding fluoride back into their water systems.
In recent years, the campaign against fluoride has been stronger.Due to potential health dangers, communities are increasingly choosing not to add it to their water.
Safe fluoride exposure levels are the subject of active, ongoing research.
According to Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada, tooth decay rates are a serious problem. However, science is changing. An increasing body of research indicates that fluoride may not be as safe as originally believed.
According to a 2019 study by Lanphear and published in JAMA Pediatrics, pregnant women who drank fluoridated water had a higher chance of giving birth to children with lower IQs.
Although he and his associates came to the conclusion that pregnant women would wish to stay away from fluoride, they refrained from calling for its elimination from water systems.
According to the surgeon general’s announcement, fluoridated water is supplied to about 70% of Florida’s community water systems.
Ladapo stated in the release that it is evident that additional study is required to address safety and efficacy concerns surrounding community water fluoridation.
Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, who maintains a website called Your Local Epidemiologist, responded to Ladapo’s announcement on Friday. It’s a slippery slope to substitute individualism for community welfare, she remarked.
Ladapo has already come under fire for violating fundamental public health protocols.When Ladapo left it up to parents to decide whether to isolate children during a widespread measles outbreak in February, for instance, pediatricians were incensed. Until a federal judge imposed a temporary restraining order against him, he had questioned the efficacy of COVID vaccinations and threatened to prosecute Florida TV stations that broadcast an advertisement endorsing the state’s abortion rights ballot item.
According to rumors, he is on a list of individuals who could have a significant impact on health in the upcoming administration. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has stated that he would oppose the addition of fluoride to American water systems.
Calls for reintroducing fluoride
Some municipalities are making a concerted effort to restore fluoride to their water supply, despite those who are skeptical of the mineral.
When a local investigative reporter revealed in January 2023 that fluoride had been absent from Buffalo, New York’s water supply since 2015, the city’s citizens quickly demanded that the cavity-fighting mineral be added back to their drinking water.
Despite frequently brushing and drinking what they believed to be fluoridated water for years, parents reported that their children’s teeth were full with cavities.
Robert Corp, a lawyer who filed a class-action complaint on behalf of Buffalo parents, told NBC station WGRZ that there are numerous stories of small children who have ended up in (the) hospital requiring emergency dental surgery.
City officials took action. The flow of fluoride from Buffalo taps resumed in late September, less than two years later.
The American Dental Association claims that other communities have followed suit, including McVille, North Dakota, and Abilene, Kansas.
Helping the most vulnerable
Children from lower-income homes are almost three times more likely than those from higher-income families to have untreated cavities, according to the CDC.
There are a number of causes. In the United States, just one out of three dentists accept Medicaid patients. Additionally, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health, reports that about half of American children do not receive routine dental treatment.
According to epidemiologist Jetelina, the impact of inequalities in access to dental care is lessened when fluoride is added to water systems. One of the best things about public health is that it helps the most vulnerable people through a mostly unseen population intervention.
The scrutiny is still ongoing, though.
A federal judge in California decided in September that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should tighten water fluoridation laws, despite his inability to draw a firm conclusion that fluoridated water posed a health risk.
Early next year, another research examining children’s IQ levels explicitly is anticipated as a result of that decision.
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