Hi all…following up from the just-published article “Community Water Fluoridation and Urinary Fluoride Concentrations in a National Sample of Pregnant Women in Canada,” I circulated earlier today; I have located the article that was referenced to support their conclusions pertaining to health risks. The authors of the article entitled ‘Prenatal Fluoride Exposure and Cognitive Outcomes in Children at 4 and 6–12 Years of Age in Mexico’ concluded that “higher levels of maternal urinary fluoride during pregnancy…were associated with lower scores on tests of cognitive function in the offspring at 4 and 6–12 years old.” While ‘associations’ do not always definitively attribute causality they should be followed up on, which is happening here with these articles.

This too is an open-access article.

Bill

Prenatal Fluoride Exposure and Cognitive Outcomes in Children at 4 and 6–12 Years of Age in Mexico

https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP655

Environmental Health Perspectives 125(9):097017, PMID: 28937959, https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP655

Morteza Bashash, Deena Thomas, Howard Hu, E. Angeles Martinez-Mier, Brisa N. Sanchez, Niladri Basu, Karen E. Peterson, Adrienne S. Ettinger, Robert Wright, Zhenzhen Zhang, Yun Liu, Lourdes Schnaas, Adriana Mercado-García, Martha MaríaTéllez-Rojo, and Mauricio Hernández-Avila

Conclusion

“Community water and salt fluoridation, and fluoride toothpaste use, substantially reduces the prevalence and incidence of dental caries (Jones et al. 2005) and is acknowledged as a public health success story (Easley 1995). Our findings must be confirmed in other study populations, and additional research is needed to determine how the urine fluoride concentrations measured in our study population are related to fluoride exposures resulting from both intentional supplementation and environmental contamination. However, our findings, combined with evidence from existing animal and human studies, reinforce the need for additional research on potential adverse effects of fluoride, particularly in pregnant women and children, and to ensure that the benefits of population-level fluoride supplementation outweigh any potential risks.” https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP655