Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo of Florida declared on Friday that towns in the state should refrain from adding fluoride to drinking water due to the “neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure.”
Ladapo recognized in the guidelines that fluoride has long been shown to reduce tooth decay by strengthening teeth.
However, he also mentioned that there may be “safety concerns related to systemic fluoride exposure,” such as IQ declines. Even though some studies have pointed to possible connections, the findings are still early and far from conclusive.
Fluoridated water is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which rank it among the top ten public health accomplishments of the last century. 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, several cities are adding fluoride back into their water systems.
In recent years, the campaign against fluoride has been stronger. Citing potential health dangers, communities are increasingly choosing not to add it to their water.
Safe fluoride exposure levels are the subject of active, continuing research.
According to Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada, “the rates of tooth decay are definitely a concern.” However, science is developing. An increasing body of research indicates that fluoride may not be as safe as originally believed.
According to a 2019 research by Lanphear and her colleagues 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 around 70% of Florida’s community water systems.
In the announcement, Ladapo stated, “It is evident that additional research is required to address safety and efficacy concerns regarding 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 replace community good with individualism,” she remarked.
Ladapo has already come under fire for violating fundamental public health protocols. For instance, when Ladapo left it up to parents to decide whether to isolate children during a widespread measles outbreak in February, pediatricians were furious. Until a federal court 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 might have a significant impact on health in the upcoming government. 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.
Demands to bring back fluoride
Some municipalities are making a concerted effort to restore fluoride to their water supply, despite some who are skeptical of the mineral.
When a local investigative reporter discovered 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, an attorney who brought a class-action complaint on behalf of Buffalo parents, told NBC station WGRZ, “There are numerous stories of young children who have ended up in (the) hospital needing emergency dental surgery.”
City officials took action. The flow of fluoride from Buffalo taps resumed in late September, less than two years later.
According to the American Dental Association, several communities have followed suit, including McVille, North Dakota, and Abilene, Kansas.
“Aiding those who are most in need”
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 the epidemiologist Jetelina, adding fluoride to water systems “mitigates the impact of disparities in access to dental care.” “This is a largely invisible population intervention that helps the most vulnerable, which is one of the beauties of public health.”
The scrutiny is still ongoing, though.
A federal court in California decided in September that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should tighten water fluoridation restrictions, despite his inability to draw firm conclusions about the health risks of fluoridated water.
Early next year, another research examining children’s IQ levels explicitly is anticipated as a result of that decision.
