A study has been recently published showing a link between the consumption of fluoride during pregnancy and lower childhood IQs. The results of this study can destabilize decades of public health messaging, provoke the conspiracy theorists, and distress moms-to-be. The study was likely to be so divisive that an editor’s note was included by JAMA Pediatrics mentioning the judgment to publish it wasn’t simple and that it was liable to “additional examination.”

Around 512 pregnant females were enrolled from 6 Canadian cities and their exposure to fluoride was assessed by several means: assessing how much tea and tap water they drank; examining the fluoride content in their urine; and comparing the fluoride content in the community drinking water. Later, when the kids of these women were 3 or 4, IQ tests were presented by the researchers and made calculations to observe if they could stumble on any trends.

Rivky Green, the Study Author, said, “We observed a link between prenatal exposure to fluoride and lower IQ scores in kids.” Particularly, they discovered a 1 mg/l rise in fluoride concentration in urine to be linked to a 4.5 point drop in IQ among boys—not girls although.

On the other end, according to another study performed by researchers at Mount Sinai and published in the Environment International, the exposure to fluoride might result in a reduction in liver and kidney function among teenagers. The results of this study, together with earlier studies of exposure to high levels of fluoride during childhood, demonstrate there is a dose-dependent association between indicators of liver & kidney function and fluoride. The results, if substantiated in other studies, propose it might be significant to consider kid’s liver and kidney function in outlining public health recommendations and guidelines. Likely health side-effects comprise liver damage, renal system damage, bone & tooth disease, thyroid dysfunction, and impaired protein metabolism.