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WATER INDUSTRY NEWS
Study links drinking-water fluoride to low IQ scores in children
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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

NEW YORK — Results of a new study recently pre-published in Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that exposure to fluoride may lower children’s intelligence, according to a press release.

In this study, 512 children aged 8-13 years in two Chinese villages were studied and tested — Wamaio with an average of 2.47 mg/L water fluoride and Xinhuai averaging 0.36 mg/L.

About 28 percent of the children in the low-fluoride area scored as bright, normal or higher intelligence compared to only 8 percent in the high-fluoride area of Wamaio, the release stated.

In the high-fluoride city, 15 percent had scores indicating mental retardation and only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city.

“This is the 24th study that has found this association, but this study is stronger than the rest because the authors have controlled for key confounding variables and in addition to correlating lowered IQ with levels of fluoride in the water, the authors found a correlation between lowered IQ and fluoride levels in children’s blood,” said Paul Connett, Ph.D., director of the Fluoride Action Network. “This brings us closer to a cause and effect relationship between fluoride exposure and brain damage in children.”

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