RFK Jr. On Fluoride: ‘The More You Get, The Stupider You Are’ | EUROtoday

As Donald Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy might pursue a rigorous, high-quality research relating to the efficacy of fluoride in ingesting water and whether or not or not it’s hazardous to our well being.

Instead, he’s glommed onto a flawed research on the matter and now we’re right here, with Kennedy confidently telling the president at a cupboard assembly Wednesday that “all the science on fluoride” agrees that “the more you get, the stupider you are.”

Kennedy talked about the “finding” as a part of his justification to aim to vary federal pointers on fluoridation of ingesting water.

“[EPA Administrator] Lee Zeldin and I are working together to change the federal fluoride regulations, to change the recommendations, and we’re looking at the science now,” he instructed Trump. “In August, the national toxicity program… did a meta review of all the science on fluoride and found that there’s a direct inverse correlation between fluoride exposure and low IQ in children.”

“So the more you get, the stupider you are.”

Like a lot of Kennedy’s scientific utterances, he’s dabbling in half-truths.

While meta-analyses of fluoride in ingesting water have prompt there could also be an inverse affiliation between fluoride publicity and kids’s IQ scores, the info itself is riddled with issues.

Steven Novella, M.D., a scientific neurologist on the Yale University School of Medicine, debunked the findings in a weblog for Science-Based Medicine in 2023.

Novella’s criticisms are primarily twofold:

1. The research relied upon are predominantly from communities in China, the place the water is of course fluoridated with a lot increased concentrations of fluoride than is present in U.S. water. While the CDC recommends 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water, among the information was as excessive as 16 milligrams per liter.
2. Even the info with excessive ranges of fluoride publicity isn’t all that compelling with respect to cognitive operate. “The effect, in other words, if it is real, does not appear to be clinically dramatic,” mentioned Novella.

“Of course, all potential neurotoxicity to the developing brain should be taken very seriously. Every IQ point is a precious human resource,” Novella wrote.

“What I think all this means is that current drinking water fluoridation levels are safe, and provide a significant benefit for dental health. But also, we need to conduct higher quality studies to show if there even is a real neurotoxic effect, and to zoom in on the levels in managed drinking water.”

The federal authorities already leaves fluoridation choices as much as state and native governments.

To the nice dismay of the American Dental Association, Utah banned fluoride in its public ingesting water in March, changing into the primary state to take action. Florida is poised to comply with go well with.

The American Dental Association strongly helps water fluoridation. Evidence suggests the mineral is strongly correlated with decreased dental illnesses.