By Natasha Hobley | thevaccinereaction.org

More research has emerged linking higher fluoride levels to lower intelligence in children, and authors of a recent study have concluded that the consequences are significant.

The study, Fluoride Exposure and Children’s IQ Scores: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, was a rigorous nine-year systematic review conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) housed in the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and was published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics.¹

The study was part of a larger monograph that began in 2015 and was the basis of the federal court ruling ordering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoride community water.^2 3

The study concluded that for every one part per million increase in fluoride, there was an associated one-point drop in a child’s IQ score. The authors noted that a one-point reduction may seem small, but the consequences are significant, especially for vulnerable high-risk populations like those who live in poverty or have poor nutrition.

They stated that “a five-point decrease in a population’s IQ would nearly double the number of people classified as intellectually disabled.”

The NTP lengthy monograph was subject to an unprecedented number of reviews that some critics claim was designed to delay the process. For reference, prior reports on other chemicals typically just have one peer review. The report was finalized in May 2022 but not released until August 2024.⁴

Study Played Major Role in Judge’s Decision to Mandate EPA to Reduce Fluoride Risk

The review was a major contributor to U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen’s decision to require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce fluoride’s risks to children. “Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA,” Judge Chen wrote in the ruling.

The Fluoride Action Network, one of the groups responsible for suing the EPA, reported last week that the EPA has filed a notice of appeal of the court’s decision with no explanation or justification for the decision. The Fluoride Action Network states the appeal “is a continuation of the EPA’s reluctance to admit they have failed to protect the public adequately from this pollutant for over 50 years.”⁵

An initial study linking higher maternal fluoride levels to IQ loss in children was published in the same journal, JAMA Pediatrics, in 2019. In a podcast episode discussing why editor-in-chief Dimitri Christakis decided to publish the controversial study, he stated that he struggled with the decision to publish because “anti-fluoriders” were akin to “anti-vaxxers.”⁶

Christakis stated: “This was the only paper as long as I’ve been editor that I wrote an editor’s note on, and I basically said that we decided to publish the paper after a fairly tendentious discussion… because there was concern about what the public health impact would be.”

He went on to say that if mothers asked him, he would advise them to drink filtered water to potentially reduce the risk.

CDC and American Dental Association Reiterate Allegiance to Fluoride

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Dental Association (ADA) have reiterated their faith in the health benefits of fluoride as one of the “10 Greatest Public Health Achievements of the 21^st Century,” despite both the federal court ruling and the emerging science.

In November 2024, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who President Trump has nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), stated publicly that the Trump administration would recommend that all U.S. water systems remove fluoride from public water.⁷

1. jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2828425

2. ntp.niehs.nih.gov/sites/default/files/2024-08/fluoride_final_508.pdf

3. cnn.com/2025/01/06/health/children-higher-fluoride-levels-lower-iqs-government-study

4. thevaccinereaction.org/2024/10/epa-must-reduce-fluorides-risks-to-childrens-iq

5. fluoridealert.org/content/epa-files-notice-of-appeal

6. jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2748628

7. www.npr.org/2024/11/06/g-s1-33092/robert-f-kennedy-jr-trump-fluoride

Originally published at thevaccinereaction.org