In September of 2024, a federal court judge ruled that water fluoridation poses an “unreasonable risk” of lowered IQ in children. There are many studies that have found that fluoride impairs thyroid function, increases Alzheimer’s disease, increases bone cancer in boys, increased uptake of aluminum into our brains, and increase arthritic-like conditions besides decreasing IQ in children.
I think fluoride should be taken out of the water systems now. Proponents of water fluoridation say that it helps to prevent tooth decay. The website FluorideAlert.org has graphs that show communities with and without fluoridation have similar rates of decay. I have read that decay occurs in poverty stricken communities rather than unfluoridated communities. Most European countries do not add fluoride to their water systems.
In Maine, fluoride is voted in town by town. Some towns vote it in by the town’s selectmen. Other town’s have held referendums. I think it is important to let town’s people know about this new court ruling. I have gone to a couple of town councils, a school board, a water district office, a church and made several phone calls. Nobody knew that there were any studies showing negative health risks for adding fluoride to water systems. The judge was presented with over 70 studies. I think it is important to get this information out there. I have had very positive back and forth conversations with the town councils and others about this. I am hoping that Maine towns will start to take fluoride out. Many have in the past including Orono and Southwest Harbor. Fluoridealert.org has a listing that is a bit out of date but very informative. I think that it might take a grass roots effort in Maine to end fluoridation any time soon. I wish that Maine would listen to the judge’s ruling and recommend a statewide removal like Florida has done but I think Maine will be slow without a grassroots effort. Meanwhile our Maine children and adults are being negatively impacted. If fluoride is negatively impacting children enough to show up on IQ scores, what other negative impacts is it having? Please help to get the word out about this court ruling and influence our towns to stop fluoridation.
Suggested Talk:
Hello, my name is ______________. I reside in ______________. Recently I read a news report that a federal court judge made an important ruling in a fluoride court case. He ruled that water fluoridation poses an unreasonable safety risk to children due to the risk of lowered IQ’s. I did a double take when I read that news story. Fluoride in water systems is lowering children’s IQ’s? How could this be?
Here is the 80 page court ruling and here is the first six pages of the federal court ruling.
On the top line, you can see that it was filed on 9/24/24 so it is quite recent.
The whole ruling is interesting but for the sake of time, please turn to page 5.
On line one, NTP stands for the National Toxicology Program. The ruling states, “the pooled benchmark dose analysis concluded that a 1-point drop in IQ of a child is to be expected for each 0.28 milligrams per liter of fluoride in a pregnant mother’s urine. This is highly concerning, because maternal urinary fluoride levels for pregnant mothers in the United States range from 0.8 milligrams per liter at the median”.
On line 6, midway across, it states, “for many, the exposure levels exceed the hazard level of 0.28 milligrams per liter.”
This is very concerning.
Please turn to the next page, page 6.
Please look down to line 10, most of the way across. It says, “the ‘optimal’ water fluoridation level in the United States of 0.7 milligrams per liter is nearly double the safe level of 0.4 milligrams per liter for pregnant women and their offspring.”
Please look down to line 17. It states that’ “Studies have linked IQ decrements of even one or two points to reduced educational attainment, employment status, productivity, and earned wages.”
Please look down to half way across line 25. It states, “that the EPA is thus obliged to take regulatory action in response. The Court does not in this order prescribe what that response should be.”
This court case lasted for seven years and many studies were presented to the judge who said many of the studies were of very high quality.
My next handout is a statement made by professionals that there is a need to end water fluoridation.
I will summarize this first page. In 2006, the National Research Council reviewed studies in which fluoride has a statistically significant association with an increased risk of bone fractures, decreased thyroid function, lowered IQ, arthritic-like conditions, dental fluorosis and possibly osteosarcoma (bone cancer). One animal study showed that rats fed water containing one part per million of fluoride had an increased uptake of aluminum into the brain. This is a classic marker of Alzheimer’s disease.
On the back of the page, please look at number 3.
It states that the American Dental Association’s policy change, in November 2006, recommending that only the following types of water be used for preparing infant formula during the first twelve months of life : “purified, distilled, deionized, demineralized, or produced through reverse osmosis.” In other words, the American Dental Association is telling parents not to let their babies have fluoridated water up to their 12th month. How many parent know this? How many parents are buying expensive water to make baby formula and baby food? Maybe the water district should put out a warning to all the parents that the Dental Association says not to use the water district’s water for the first 12 months.
The next page is a list of Maine professionals that signed the statement recommending the end of water fluoridation.
The next page has information about fluoride’s neurotoxicity. Looking down to the section marked 2012, it states that “A Harvard-funded meta-analysis found that children ingesting higher levels of fluoride tested an average of 7 IQ points lower in 26 out of 27 studies.
I ask, if fluoride is lowering IQ’s enough to show up on IQ scores, what else is it doing to our brains?
Looking down to the second section from the bottom, it states, “2019: Another NIH-funded study in Canada found that babies fed formula mixed with fluoridated water averaged 6 IQ points less than those mixed with non-fluoridated water. Losses of non-verbal IQ were even more serious, an average of 13 points.”
13 points!
That is a devastating loss of intelligence!
The next handout is entitled Health Alert: Fluoride Warning for Infants.
The third bullet point down states that the Academy of General Dentistry has cautioned parents to avoid fluoridated water when making infant foods.
The next point stated that the American Academy of Pediatrics has advised that fluoride not be given to infants 6 months and younger.
Many towns started fluoridation before these studies were done. The federal judge concluded that the newer studies show there is a health risk due to lower IQ’s in children. I think we need to look into this more and consider taking fluoride out of our town’s water supply.
The last page I gave you has my contact information and a couple of websites with more information.
Please let’s work together to learn more and remove fluoride from our towns water supply quickly because children are being harmed.
Handouts
1. I print out the first 6 pages of the court ruling. I print these on one side and staple them together.
So here is the link to all 80 pages. I just print out the first 6 pages.
3. This is a list of Mainers who signed the above statement. This is a link to it but it is messy with other states. I made a cleaner copy and it is attached. The link is to show you where it comes from but use the cleaned up version.
6. My last page has my contact information, information that is specific to the town I am addressing the packets to and includes two informational websites.
You would have to make up your own individualized last contact information page.
Websites for more information
FlorideAlert.org
https://iaomt.org The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology
