Thread🧵on fluoridation chemicals.

Fluoridation chemicals are the major source of ingested fluoride in the U.S., contributing over 50% of total daily intake at all ages due to the widespread practice of water fluoridation. The fluoride added to municipal tap water systems most often comes in the form of hydrofluosilicic acid (HFSA), a hazardous waste byproduct of phosphate fertilizer production. HFSA is almost always used in large cities that fluoridate their water supplies. In smaller communities, sodium fluoride  or sodium fluorosilicate may be used as the fluoridating agent.

Unlike the fluoride compounds found in toothpaste or supplements, fluoridation chemicals are not pharmaceutical grade quality. They are, instead, unpurified industrial by-products that are collected in the air pollution control systems of certain industries.

Due to the lack of processing, these chemicals are known to contain elevated levels of certain contaminants, particularly arsenic. In addition, recent research — including both epidemiological and laboratory investigations — have detected associations between the fluoridation of water with fluorosilicic acid and elevated lead exposure, particularly those living in houses with old pipes.

Fluoridation chemicals can also greatly contribute to indirect exposures of fluoride, as processed foods and beverages made with fluoridated water in fluoridated communities often make their way into the supply chains of un-fluoridated communities. This mechanism of indirect exposure is called the halo effect.

BIG NEWS - Today, NTP authors published a new article in JAMA Pediatrics detailing their report released in Aug 2024 that concluded fluoride can lower the IQ of children. Today’s article goes further, showing fluoride lowers child IQ at exposures seen in fluoridated communities. FAN’s Executive Director Stuart Cooper said, “The authors combined information from multiple studies to get a more reliable view of the total evidence that isn’t skewed by just one or two outlier studies. This approach is called meta-analysis.

Out of 59 studies, 52 linked higher fluoride levels with lower IQ. The average loss was 7 points.

Reduced IQ was also found in meta-analyses that combined seven high-quality studies having exposures below 1.5 milligrams fluoride per liter of water (mg/L), the range directly relevant to fluoridated areas.

The authors emphasized the finding’s ‘consistency’ and ‘robustness.’

This report gives ammunition to the scores of cities around the country now considering stopping fluoridation.”

What happens when communities end fluoridation?

Here are just a handful of studies and reports to give us an idea.

1. A study of nearly 6,000 children in British Columbia, Canada found that cavity rates declined after ending fluoridation.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11153562/ 2. A study of two towns in Finland that ended fluoridation found that over the next 6 years, decay rates in children either declined or remained the same after discontinuing the practice.

karger.com/Article/Abstra…

Big moment from our #fluoridelawsuit. World-renowned environmental epidemiologist Dr. Philip Grandjean testified at trial that he was bullied by colleagues and higher ups at his university, Harvard, to retract his 2012 conclusions of #neurotoxicity from #fluoride exposure. 2 “Well if you want the whole story, I was asked to meet with a professor from Harvard’s Dental School. He came to my office and essentially threatened me. He said I was endangering public health, and he demanded that I issue a statement similar to what you’re talking about now.”

Here is just some of the published science linking fluoridation to harm:

(Malin, 2018) published in Environment International, researchers reported that exposure to fluoridated water coupled with iodine deficiency in women is linked to hypothyroidism: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30316182/ Peckham, 2015, published in Epidemiology and Community Health found similar results linking fluoridation to hypothyroidism in the UK: jech.bmj.com/content/69/7/6…