Massachusett Senators & Representatives Regarding Water Fluoridation

On Aug 23, 2019, at 8:03 AM, Seabreezes1 <seabreezes1@iglide.net> wrote:

“I would advise them (pregnant women) to drink bottled water or filtered water.” - Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, editor of JAMA Pediatrics on “Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores in Offspring in Canada” (August 19, 2019)

Senators & Representatives, 

On August 19th, JAMA Pediatrics published a high quality NIH sponsored study that found the offspring of pregnant women living in ‘optimally’ fluoridated water in urban Canadian cities had a significantly lowered IQ based on both the fluoride measured in the pregnant women’s urine and also based on analysis of associated water concentrations as compared to women in non-fluoridated cities. These women were primarily white and college educated, but the findings of this MIREC study are consistent with findings from studies from Mexico and Asia as well as with animal studies. Prenatal exposure to fluoridated water lowers IQ in boys as measured by fluoride in maternal urine during pregnancy, but IQ is lowered in both boys and girls when examining fluoride concentration in water suggesting a postnatal impact. 

• I suggest that this scientific news should encourage the Public Health Committee to approve S2196 immediately -  to establish the Task Force to examine the cost of fluoridation policy. The public hearing for this Act was on May 28th and I believe you received dozens of testimonies in support of this Act.  

Click here for an interview with the senior research author, Dr. Christine Till, and see excerpts from media coverage below, which will undoubtedly encourage pregnant women and young families in fluoridated Massachusetts communities to buy bottled water, whether they can afford it or not:  

Reuters:  “Not all women have the means to pay for bottled water and that is a concern to me as a public health dentist,” Dr. Angeles Martinez-Mier, fluoridation expert and a professor at the Indiana University School of Dentistry in Indianapolis.  

NPR: "It's actually very similar to the effect size that's seen with childhood exposure to lead…" said David Bellinger, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital 

Washington Post: “This is an excellent study,” said Philippe Grandjean, a physician who studies brain development and environmental pollutants at the Harvard School of Public Health.

CNN: "At a population level [4.5 IQ points, SC], that's a big shift. That translates to millions of IQ levels lost," said study author Christine Till.  

You should also know that another study published this month finds that teens living in fluoridated American communities have altered liver and kidney markers which suggest they could be at increased risk of developing kidney and liver disease as adults. 

• Fluoride exposure and kidney and liver function among adolescents in the United States: NHANES, 2013–2016. Ashley J. Malin, Corin Lesseur, Stefanie A. Busgang, Paul Curtin, Robert O. Wright, Alison P. Sanders. Environment International. August 8, 2019 [online ahead of print]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019309274

Frankly, I think these studies should prompt an immediate  state wide ban of fluoridation because ‘waiting for more data’ amounts to human experimentation on pregnant women and their children and continuation in the face of the evolving evidence-based medical opinion against fluoridation policy is government sponsored medical assault and battery on constituents.