A U.S. government report expected to stir debate concluded that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children.
The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined — “with moderate confidence” — that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride.
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
“I think this (report) is crucial in our understanding” of this risk, said Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the affect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women on their children. She called it the most rigorously conducted report of its kind.
The amount of fluoride in water is significantly below the safe limits. To get fluoride poisoning like the article describes you’d have to drink so much water that you’ll die of drinking too much water first.
An accident can happen with everything. It’s very, very rare in most developed countries for something to go wrong with the water fluoridisation.
Again, what is your threshold for acceptable levels of accidents in overfluoridation?
One happening every X years is not too terrible. Prolonged exposure is the issue. And the severity of the accident is also important.
If an accident means accidentally doubling the amount of fluoride, that’s not too bad. Bit wasteful perhaps but not really harmful either. So it’s not really possible to attach a number to it. In my country at least the number has been zero for years now.
That, and as long as it’s made publicly and widely known that there is an issue, it’s not that big of a deal.
We have water boiling alerts for a reason, this is no different. Water distribution will always be a risk no matter what. Public health will always be a risk no matter what. But the benefits outweigh the risk.
So your threshold is … X