"A study released in February by the Collaborative on Health and the Environments Learning and Development Disabilities Initiative found excessive ingestion of fluoride can decrease thyroid hormone levels. It also cited a recent Chinese study that links lower IQ levels in children with fluoridated drinking water.
In 2006, the National Academy of Sciences found the Environmental Protection Agency's maximum standard for fluoride of 4 milligrams per liter could cause health problems such as dental fluorosis and weakened bones over a lifetime of consumption.
The EPA's Headquarters Professionals Union, made up of scientists, lawyers and other professionals, also now opposes community fluoridation.
In January, the New York State Dental Journal reported fluoride overexposure is resulting in children developing tooth disorders including white spots, brownish discoloration and pitting. It also warned children 6 months to 3 years should consume no more than ¼ of a gram of fluoride per day – the equivalent of one 8 ounce glass of water in a fluoridated community.
And, despite the CDC's conclusion that fluoridation is one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century, it recommends infant formulas should never be mixed with fluoridated water.
"The early studies that purported to show ingested fluoride reduced tooth decay were seriously flawed," says Dr. Paul Connett, emeritus professor of environmental chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and executive director of Fluoride Action Network. "There is no significant difference in tooth decay between fluoridated and non-fluoridated industrialized countries. The vast majority of countries are not fluoridated."
Indeed, opposition to the kind of widespread fluoridation American communities launched in the 1960s is becoming an international movement.
"The days of wholesale deliberate fluoridation … are numbered," said Warren Bell, former head of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment."
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