Canadian Fluoride Study

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On September 3, 2019June 17, 2022By In Uncategorized

Canadian Fluoride Study

There was recently a study that was carried out at York University and published in JAMA Pediatrics, “Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores in Offspring in Canada.” 

Study Results Claim: 

  1. That mother’s who drank fluoridated water during pregnancy had children with lower IQ levels at ages of 3-4 years old.  

Controversy: 

  1. Fluoridating community water has always been a debate
  2. Many years of research and thousands of studies have proven that the benefits of fluoridating water outweigh the risks ie: Rampant tooth decay in young children occurs more frequently than fluoride poisoning when fluoride is not added to the public water system. 
  3. This is the only study that tested the IQs of children.

Professional Opinion of study: 

  1. Some professionals argued that it is difficult to attribute IQ differences to just fluoridated water consumption as IQ can be affected by many different things. 
  2. Others say that small loss in IQ points at that age would not necessarily be an overall detriment to IQ.
  3. Others professionals say it is an important study and worth further investigation but this one study is not enough proof to stop fluoridating public water.

It is always difficult to address a research study that gets wide attention in the media. Professional research was carried out over many years by capable individuals. But it is only one study. The study is not discredited but more information and studies need to be carried out in order to prove this theory.  Both the American Dental Association and the Canadian Dental Hygiene Association are still supporting community water fluoridation. 

It will be interesting to see if any future research along these lines comes out and if the researchers continue to monitor these 600 mothers and their children for further IQ testing down the road and those outcomes. 

Sources: 

Canadian Public Health Association. Fighting the Good Fight: Fluoridation of Drinking Water. <https://www.cpha.ca/fighting-good-fight-fluoridation-drinking-water>

Green, R., Lanphear, B., Hornung, R., Flora, D., Martinez-Mier, A., Neufeld, R., Ayotte, O., Muckle, G., Till C.. “Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores in Offspring in Canada.” JAMA Pediatrics. August 19th, 2019. Accessed August 28th, 2019. <https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2748634>

Guarino, Ben. U.S. experts push back against Canadian study on effects of fluoride in water. August 20th, 2019. Accessed August 30th, 2019.

<https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/study-finds-association-between-fluoride-in-water-and-lower-iq-in-children>

Weeks, C., Experts challenge study suggesting children exposed to higher levels of fluoride in utero may have lower IQ scores. August 19th, 2019 Accessed August 19th, 2019.  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-experts-challenge-study-suggesting-children-exposed-to-higher-levels/