Opposing Digits

On Wednesday, a panel of the Washington, D.C.-based National Academy of Sciences released a report finding that fluoride is less safe than previously thought, and that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit on fluoride in water should be lowered. Specifically, it said that levels of the cavity-fighting substance currently allowed under federal water-safety rules cause a harmful variety of dental fluorosis, a mottling of the tooth that in its more severe form actually can cause cavities.

Moreover, it found persuasive evidence that fluoride in water increases bone fractures as well as stiffness in the joints of the elderly, and that it also may be related to Alzheimer’s disease, marginally reduce IQ in children and alter the endocrine and hormonal levels that control most of the functions of the human body — with unknown effects. The chemical may even cause bone cancer, said the NAS — although the evidence is “tentative and mixed.”

“It’s progress,” said Campbell, who heads a group called Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water. But she argued that the report, by failing to directly discuss whether water-fluoridation makes sense, does not go far enough. “We’ve got evidence of cancer, bone fractures and endocrine effects,” she said, adding, “How much longer do we have to wait?”

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:47 AM