It’s being added to the water drunk by 6 million Brits and could soon be rolled out to even more of us. But fears are growing that fluoride could be linked to a devastating disease

Every time they take a sip of tap water, around 6 million people in England are also consuming something extra, an added ingredient that most will be completely unaware of.

Called fluoride, it is colorless, odorless and tasteless and has been added to household water supplies in some parts of the country for about 60 years to help prevent tooth decay.

Areas with fluoridated water include Birmingham (the first to introduce it in 1964), Cumbria, Cheshire, Coventry, Doncaster, Tyneside and parts of Oxford.

Fluoride is a mineral that also occurs naturally in foods such as tea, coffee, shellfish, potatoes and porridge and it helps strengthen enamel – the hard outer layer on our teeth – making it more resistant to decay caused by sugary diets.

Some dental health experts describe its addition to the drinking water supply as one of the largest public health initiatives Britain has ever seen.

And now the Labor government is expected to follow through on its Conservative predecessors’ plans – in the Health and Care Act 2022 – to extend water fluoridation to millions more people in a bid to improve the country’s dental health. improve.

For years it was left to local authorities to decide whether or not to supplement the local water supply with the mineral – based on the level of tooth decay and the cost of implementing the plans.

The Health and Care Act 2022 transfers this responsibility to the Department of Health and Social Care, allowing it to oversee the expansion of the fluoridation programme.

But is this kind of ‘mass medication’ really necessary and, more importantly, is adding fluoride to everyone’s drinking water safe?

The issue hit the news after Robert F Kennedy Jr. – US President-elect Donald Trump as Secretary of Health – recently said on X (formerly Twitter) that when Trump takes office in January, he will advise all US water companies to immediately remove fluoride from their to remove drinking water. their supplies.

About two-thirds of the U.S. population drinks water with added fluoride to prevent tooth decay, and numerous studies show it works – improving dental health.

Research shows that adding fluoride to drinking water reduces the number of rotten teeth in young children on average by about two teeth per child.

But Kennedy, a noted vaccine skeptic, wrote online last month: “Fluoride is … associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease.”

When sugar from food or drink enters the mouth, the bacteria on our gums convert it into acid that breaks down the enamel on our teeth and causes decay – a process called demineralization.

Fluoride bonds to enamel and reverses this deterioration, leading to remineralization, which strengthens teeth against acid attacks.

This is especially important in young children because their teeth often have thinner enamel, which puts them at greater risk for cavities.

NHS England figures released in September showed tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions among people under the age of ten. More than 19,000 decaying teeth required extraction in 2023/2024, costing the NHS around £50 million.

However, Kennedy’s social media post was prompted by a recent ruling by a district judge in California, which ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – which oversees water safety – to impose strict regulations on fluoride in drinking water, saying high levels could pose a risk can contribute to the intellectual development of children.

District Judge Edward Chen ruled in a case brought by anti-fluoride groups, arguing the policy is harmful to health.

Numerous studies over the years have suggested that excessive fluoride intake can harm children’s IQ – possibly by damaging brain areas involved in memory and learning through oxidative stress, where harmful molecules called free radicals destroy brain cells.

One of the most recent studies, published in Environmental Research in 2023, found that children’s IQ dropped by an average of 3 points (most children under ten score between 30 and 50 on IQ tests) when fluoride levels in drinking water increased approximately was one milligram per liter. The Health Organization recommends a maximum level of 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.

The findings by researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, were based on analysis of data from 30 previous studies on fluoride and IQ.

In their report they warned: ‘Overall, most studies suggested a negative effect of fluoride exposure on children’s IQ, starting at low exposure levels.’ (Low was defined as 1 mg/liter).

Animal studies also show that fluoride exposure can damage memory, and anecdotal evidence suggests that some adult sufferers are mentally sharper when they avoid it.

The Department of Health and Social Care states in a 2022 policy document that while fluoride in water may increase the risk of fluorosis (permanent staining of the teeth caused by disruption of the way calcium is stored and distributed throughout the enamel), it does not is the case. otherwise harmful to health.

A spokesperson for the DHSC told Good Health: ‘Water fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure that reduces tooth decay.

“Prevention is always better than cure, and this government wants to help people stay healthy and keep children out of hospital.”

The DHSC added that future decisions on water fluoridation will be made on a case-by-case basis across the country.

However, campaign group Freedom from Fluoride Alliance disagrees, claiming there are more than 400 studies from around the world showing that adding the mineral to the water supply is harmful to the developing brain.

It wants to remove fluoride from both drinking water and toothpaste (most popular brands contain it) and a greater emphasis on sugar-free diets to tackle tooth decay in Britain instead. (The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have chosen not to add this, either because of cost or because fluoride already occurs naturally in drinking water in some areas.)

“Research shows that there is a strong correlation between excessive exposure to fluoride in the womb and from bottle feeding and lowered IQ in children,” Joy Warren, spokesperson for the lobby group, told Good Health.

‘And in Britain we add more of it to water than in the US: 1 mg per liter compared to 0.7 mg there.

‘So any reduction in intelligence due to this exposure will be greater in Britain.

‘Even pregnant women should not drink fluoridated water because of the risk to their child.’

Warren, a retired environmental scientist, says children should also not use fluoride toothpaste because the toothpaste they swallow can enter the brain through the bloodstream and potentially harm their IQ.

But Dr Ben Atkins, former chairman of the Oral Health Foundation, one of Britain’s largest dental health charities, and a dentist in Manchester, insists there are no risks to children from using fluoride toothpaste.

He told Good Health: ‘I don’t worry about it – I give it (fluoride toothpaste) to my children and if I thought it was at all harmful it wouldn’t be allowed around them.’

But is fluoridation even the best approach? Dr. Atkins and other experts think Britain would be better off focusing on improving dental health by removing sugar from the diet rather than adding minerals to our water.

‘It is a form of mass medication and there are other options: if we can significantly improve diet and reduce sugar consumption, we can reduce the need for water fluoridation.’

An October report from the renowned Cochrane Center – a body that analyzes health policy evidence – concluded that expanding water fluoridation in Britain is likely to have limited impact in terms of boosting dental health.

It reviewed evidence from 157 studies on the impact of adding fluoride to water and concluded that expanding it could increase the number of children without tooth decay by about three percent – ​​but would just as likely provide no benefit at all, largely because most get it now what they need from their toothpaste.

And a review published in Evidence-Based Dentistry in September 2024, by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, found that the financial benefits – in terms of fewer NHS treatments from fluoridated water – were marginal.

It found that almost £100 had to be spent adding the mineral to water just to avoid a single invasive dental procedure – such as drilling out a decayed tooth.

Janet Clarkson, professor of clinical effectiveness at Dundee University and one of the authors of the recent Cochrane report, said: ‘Water fluoridation can lead to small improvements in oral health.

‘But it doesn’t address the underlying problems, such as high sugar consumption and inadequate oral health behaviours.’