by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:

Despite the overwhelming mass of scientific literature and studies showing the harmful effects of ingesting fluoride, those who question it or advocate for the cessation of fluoridated water are labeled as kooks, conspiracy theorists, and shouted down by the mainstream. And in spite of study after study showing the harmful effects of fluoridating water, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers water fluoridation to be one of the top 10 achievements in public health in the 20th century. Proving the utter insanity of such a claim by the CDC, a study was just published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, that links maternal fluoride expose during pregnancy and low IQ.

To be clear, this is not some fringe journal. The Journal of the American Medical Association is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association who has extremely strict guidelines for publishing studies.

In this most recent publication, scientists in Canada found that “fluoride exposure during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years.”

Accepting studies which show the harmful effects of fluoride consumption are so controversial that JAMA had to issue a statement noting that publishing this study was in the best interest of public health.

This decision to publish this article was not easy. Given the nature of the findings and their potential implications, we subjected it to additional scrutiny for its methods and the presentation of its findings. The mission of the journal is to ensure that child health is optimized by bringing the best available evidence to the fore. Publishing it serves as testament to the fact that JAMA Pediatrics is committed to disseminating the best science based entirely on the rigor of the methods and the soundness of the hypotheses tested, regardless of how contentious the results may be.

As FOX10 explains, after adjusting for covariates, researchers found that a 1 mg/L increase in maternal urinary fluoride levels was associated with a 4.49-point lower FSIQ score in boys as well as with a 4.63-point lower PIQ in boys, but there was no statistically significant association with girls’ FSIQ or PIQ scores.

An extra 1-mg of daily fluoride intake via water and beverages among pregnant women was associated with a 3.66 lower FSIQ score in both boys and girls.

“Testing whether boys are potentially more vulnerable to neurocognitive effects associated with fluoride exposure requires further investigation, especially considering that boys have a higher prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, learning disabilities, and intellectual disabilities,” the study authors said. “Adverse effects of early exposure to fluoride may manifest differently for girls and boys, as shown with other neurotoxicants.”

The scientists who conducted the study noted in their conclusion that the evidence is so strong they “indicate the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.”

Naturally, those who advocate for the mass involuntary medication of hundreds of millions of people are claiming the study is spurious and we should ignore it.

“The overwhelming body of evidence is still supporting water fluoridation,” said Matt Hopcraft, associate professor of dental public health at the University of Melbourne.

“Here’s a single study that points a little in the other direction. I think we just need to be cautious.”

But Hopcraft is wrong. There is more than one study showing the link between fluoride and low IQ.

Just two years ago, as TFTP reported, an eye-opening peer-reviewed study, published on September 19, 2017, in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives, found strong evidence of a link between fluoride and lower cognitive function in children.

Again, this was not some fringe journal. With an impact factor of 9.78, Environmental Health Perspectives is one of the most highly ranked journals in Toxicology, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health, and Environmental Sciences.

In that study, researchers found that “higher levels of maternal urinary fluoride during pregnancy (a proxy for prenatal fluoride exposure) that are in the range of levels of exposure in other general population samples of pregnant women as well as nonpregnant adults were associated with lower scores on tests of cognitive function in the offspring at 4 and 6–12 y old,” according to the study.

The study involved 1,576 samples taken from over 300 sets of mothers and children in Mexico by a research team from Toronto. The researchers tested the children’s cognitive development twice over the course of 12 years. In Mexico, Fluoride is not added to public water supply, but people are exposed through naturally occurring fluoride in water, toothpaste, fluoridated salt and other supplemental products.

This is especially worrisome given the fact that fluoridated water is marketed to nursing mothers and babies.

The list goes on, however. A whopping 53 studies have linked fluoride ingestion with a reduction in IQ. A study out of the Harvard School of public Health concluded, “children in high-fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low-fluoride areas.”

Even more independent studies have linked the associated health risks of fluoride to interfering with the endocrine system and increasing the risk of impaired brain function. Two studies in recent years, for example, have linked fluoridation to ADHD and underactive thyroid.

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