Pregnant women exposed to high levels of fluoride double their risk of having a child with a neurobehavioral problem, a new study suggests.
It comes as ministers plan to controversially add fluoride to the drinking water supplies of a further 1.6 million Britons to improve the country’s dental health.
US experts, who studied a group of just under 230 mother and child pairs, found that those with higher fluoride levels during pregnancy were more likely to have a child with a neurological behavioral problem by the time their child was three years old became.
These problems include symptoms of anxiety and emotional regulation.
Children of women with higher levels of fluoride in their urine also reported headaches and stomach pain more often, the authors noted.
According to the British Fluoridation Society, only 6.1 million Britons – around 10 percent of the population – currently received water with sufficient fluoride content to benefit oral health. These areas include Hartlepool, Easington, parts of North Hampshire and South Berkshire
It’s not clear why some women in the study had higher fluoride levels than others. Drinking tap water instead of filtered water, consuming certain foods and using certain dental products are possible causes of increased fluoride exposure.
Lead researcher Ashley Malin, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Public Health, said their findings suggested a link between fluoride exposure and fetal brain development.
“There is no known benefit of fluoride consumption to the developing fetus, but we do know there may be a risk to their developing brain,” she said.
‘We found that each 0.68 milligram per liter increase in urine fluoride levels in pregnant women was associated with almost double the odds of children scoring in the clinical or borderline-clinical range for neurobehavioral problems at age 3, based on their mother’s report.’
She added that the findings were concerning and hoped they would inspire policymakers to make specific recommendations for fluoride exposure during pregnancy.
“Conducting a nationwide U.S. study on this topic would be important, but I think the findings of the current study and recent studies from Canada and Mexico suggest there is a real concern here,” she said.
Millions of Britons will add fluoride to tap water in a government plan to improve their oral health (stock image)
Fluoride is added to tap water in the US, as in Britain, in an attempt to passively protect people’s teeth, a process called fluoridation.
The mineral helps strengthen the hard outer protective layer of teeth called enamel, which in turn protects the teeth from damage and wear, preventing tooth decay.
Fluoridation is a controversial topic and has become a focal issue in the US.
Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has even labeled it “neurotoxic” and pledged to remove it from drinking water supplies if elected, although major scientific reviews have found “no compelling evidence” that it is unsafe, according to the NHS .
In their study, researchers published their findings in the journal Jama network opened collected urine samples from women during their third trimester of pregnancy.
Experts said they were careful not to include lead exposure in their analysis, which is known to affect children’s development.
These results were then compared to a questionnaire that mothers were asked to complete when their child turned three years old, to assess their offspring’s behavior and emotions.
Fluoridation is a problem in the US, with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. labeled it “neurotoxic” earlier this week and vowed to remove it from drinking water supplies if elected.
Researchers found that women with higher fluoride exposure during pregnancy tended to rate their children higher on general neurobehavioral problems.
Researchers did not determine the level of fluoride in tap water that the women, who lived in Los Angeles, California, were exposed to, but said it was “typical” for those living in areas with fluoridation.
About 5.8 million Britons live in areas where fluoride – also added to toothpastes and mouthwashes – is put in tap water, about a tenth of the population.
However, there are government plans to expand this to a further 1.6 million people in the North East.
The figure of 5.8 million does not include areas in Britain where water supplies are naturally high in fluoride; approximately 300,000 people drink supplies naturally fluoridated by rocks in the ground.
Fluoridation is much more common in the US, with about 73 percent of the population adding the mineral to the water supply at a concentration of about 0.7 mg per liter.
This is roughly half the maximum 1.5mg of fluoride per liter allowed in Britain, a level that was not exceeded by any public water supplier in 2022, according to official data.
The study had a number of limitations, some of which the authors acknowledge.
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One factor is that the children’s behavior was self-reported by their mothers, which may have influenced the results.
Additionally, the study is observational, meaning researchers cannot directly prove that fluoride exposure was the cause of the observed behavior in children.
The authors also note that their research comes from a predominantly Hispanic group of women in one part of the US and therefore their findings may not be replicated in other populations.
The latest study is not the first time that alarm has been raised about adding fluoride to drinking water.
Some studies have linked excessive amounts of the mineral to babies born with Down syndrome, as well as kidney stones and some cancers.
However, the NHS and experts such as the government’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, say these claims are not supported by evidence.
Professor Whitty has previously described them as ‘exaggerated and unproven’.
Health bosses estimate that adding fluoride to Britain’s water supply could prevent two-thirds of hospital admissions for tooth decay, an issue costing the NHS, and by extension the taxpayer, millions.
Professor Whitty and colleagues said that if all five-year-olds with drinking water containing less than 0.2 milligrams per liter (mg/l) of fluoride started drinking water increased to 0.7 mg/l by 2021, the number of cavities would decrease . up to 28 percent among the poorest communities.
Plans to add fluoride to more water supplies come at a time when access to NHS dentistry is becoming increasingly difficult.
There are regular stories of parents of young children, who are entitled to free dental care from the NHS, who cannot get their children’s appointments or have them canceled at the last minute.
Fluoridation is considered a low-cost initiative with a high impact on public health because it is passive and does not rely on people actively changing their behavior rather than encouraging them to quit smoking, exercise more or eat healthier.
But some experts have argued that since fluoride is now added to a number of toothpastes and mouthwashes, adding it to tap water is not as beneficial as it once was.
Although the more serious dangers of fluoridation are a point of contention, fluorosis is a small risk that is known.
This means that a child has too much fluoride while his teeth are still developing, causing very white lines to appear in mild dental abnormalities and discoloration in severe tooth discoloration.
It is partly for this reason that the World Health Organization recommends that fluoride levels in drinking water supplies should not exceed 1.5 mg/l.
The risk of fluorosis in Britain is considered low because fluoride levels in drinking water in Britain are carefully controlled.
Bizarre conspiracy theories touting fluoride as a plot by the global elite to depopulate the world or that it is used for mind control purposes are often spread online.
However, experts have repeatedly told MailOnline that water supply levels in Britain are not a health concern.
About 25 countries around the world already add fluoride to tap water, including Ireland, most of the US and Australia.