OP-ED: Water fluoridation should be banned

Studies suggest exposure could harm pregnant women and children

Recently published studies found that fluoride exposure during pregnancy was associated with ADHD and lowered IQ in children and that the main source of exposure for pregnant Canadian women was water fluoridation.

Another study found that fluoride exposure increased the risk of an underactive thyroid in adults with iodine deficiencies. These studies add to a substantial body of scientific evidence pointing to fluoride’s potential to harm our health and our children’s developing brains. This should spell the immediate end of water fluoridation.

Researchers found that pregnant women living in fluoridated Canadian communities had urinary fluoride levels that were two times higher than those living in non-fluoridated Canadian communities.

“We found that fluoride in drinking water was the major source of exposure for pregnant women living in Canada,” said Christine Till, lead author of the study, York University, Toronto.

Why are these findings significant to women living in our fluoridated communities of Sydney, New Waterford, Glace Bay and the Northside?

According to a rigorous, 12-year, United States government-funded study published last year, higher levels of urinary fluoride in pregnant women were associated with reduced IQ in children. (See my letter in the Cape Breton Post on June 1, 2018). Now, another study published by the same team of researchers from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico found this fluoride exposure during pregnancy was also linked to ADHD in children.

“Our findings are consistent with a growing body of evidence suggesting that the growing fetal nervous system may be negatively affected by higher levels of fluoride exposure,” said Dr. Morteza Bashash, lead author of both studies and researcher at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

And a study of almost seven million Canadian adults found that higher urinary fluoride levels increased the risk of reduced thyroid function (hypothyroidism) among those who were moderately-to-severely iodine deficient. Over one million adults studied were iodine deficient to this degree. Not only is a normally functioning thyroid important for many aspects of our health, it is crucial during pregnancy for the child’s developing brain.

“I have grave concerns about the health effects of fluoride exposure,” said Ashley Malin, lead author of the Canada thyroid study and a researcher at the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Mount Sinai. “And not just from my study but the other studies that have come out in recent years.” (Environmental Health News, Oct. 10, 2018)

Despite this, Nova Scotia Public Health (NSPH) continues to insist that water fluoridation is safe and causes no harm. They say this even though our children have already been harmed by their uncontrolled and unmonitored exposures to fluoride.

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"Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillors should act immediately to protect all residents …"

— Marlene Kane

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According to the Canadian Dental Association, Canadian children have increasing rates of dental fluorosis, a permanent defect of the teeth caused by systemic fluoride damaging the tooth-forming cells as the teeth are developing in the gums. This appears as white spots/streaks in milder forms to staining and pitting of the teeth in more severe forms. (See Fluoride Action Network, dental fluorosis)

Health and dental officials, in their attempts to minimize the significance of this harm, refer to milder degrees of dental fluorosis as “merely” a cosmetic effect.

Dr. Hardy Limeback, Professor Emeritus, former Head of Preventive Dentistry, University of Toronto, who conducted years of government-funded research on fluoride, bones and teeth, said, “Dental fluorosis is a biomarker for systemic fluoride poisoning during early childhood.”

Clearly, it’s also a toxic effect, regardless of the degree of fluorosis. What other tissues and organs have been damaged at the same time by fluoride circulating in a child’s body, including the brain, bones, thyroid, kidneys, etc., and what health or dental official is investigating that?

NSPH also knows that infants living in fluoridated communities, who are bottle-fed formula mixed with tap water, are at increased risk of excessive fluoride intake, according to Health Canada. Babies should be getting NO fluoride, as it is not an essential nutrient and is not required for any aspect of their growth and development. Everyone in authority knows this, but no one does anything to stop it. How could this possibly be acceptable to anyone?

Nova Scotia’s Health Minister Randy Delorey and its Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Robert Strang, given their continued support of fluoridation, must provide the scientific evidence they are relying on to refute the findings of these latest studies. Primary studies must be provided which demonstrate that our total exposure to fluoride, particularly in fluoridated communities, is not lowering thyroid function and is not harming our children’s developing brains, or any other aspect of their health, both before and after birth.

In the meantime, Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillors should act immediately to protect all residents, most importantly pregnant women and children, from this deliberate but unnecessary exposure to fluoride by voting to end water fluoridation.

Marlene Kane is a longtime Sydney resident, and a teacher’s aide at a local elementary school. She has worked on the fluoridation issue for over 10 years. She can be reached at marlenekane7@gmail.com .