Every now and then you hear some inkling that everything you thought you knew about fluoride in drinking water is wrong. And then some reassuring voice of authority reminds you of all of fluoride’s benefits. But I’m reading this account of how sample communities in rural China living with and without fluoride end up with differing IQ levels.
The study, published in the May 2003 journal Fluoride, found that as fluoride levels in drinking water increased, IQs fell and the incidence of mental retardation and borderline intelligence increased.
What’s more, according to the article, fluoride doesn’t even have the dental benefits it purports to have, especially not when ingested rather than applied topically to the teeth. In fact, it may have harmful non-dental, non-mental health effects as well.
So why is fluoride on track to be even more widely deployed in our water supplies over the next ten years? Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.
Aside: It occurs to me that writer Cory Doctorow and seminal punker Klaus Fluoride may have been separated at birth.
Thanks rinchen.
Update: Tons of great info at the Fluoride Action Network.
Yeah, except Cory hasn’t sold out as much as the Dead Kennedys have. You can’t replace Jello Biafra with a god-damned former child star and expect people to actually respect you.
Jello may or may not have been a dick, and may or may not have fucked them over financially. But you can’t start a cover band with some joker and give it the same name as one of the most influential bands of the punk era and expect to keep your respect.
Then you go ahead supporting Bush and supporting the war, and it’s like they are completely betraying their history.
It’s interesting that in this interview (at least Klaus) is speaking against bush, because a friend that went to one of their “reformed” shows said they spoke positively of Bush and the war…
Of course, perhaps they were just stirring up shit.
Back onto the subject of fluoride and “conspiracy theorists”:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/departments/feature/2001/121492.htm
That was a good read, Mark, thanks.
I’m now communicating with our city manager, trying to find out the history of anti-fluoride efforts around here.