Brains are being harmed by bad policy

Brains are being harmed by bad policy–EPA put on notice to follow rules and protect citizens

Fluoride Action Network

 

Source: Press Release: Moms Against Fluoridation | January 25th, 2017

Location: United States, National USA

 

Is the rampant increase of brain and behavioral issues such as cognitive deficits, autistic spectrum disorders and ADHD linked to drinking fluoride or exposure in utero? A coalition of national groups, including the nonprofit Moms Against Fluoridation (MAF), has served Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Petition demanding that the agency follow its own rules on neurotoxicity and ban artificial water fluoridation.

Providing deep scientific evidence of harm that fluoride now poses to the brain, including the fetal brain, this Petition includes over 2,500 pages of supporting scientific documentation. The effects range from IQ deficits, neurobehavioral effects, mitochondrial and chemical changes, to worrisome harm of the developing fetal brain.

“The science is in,” states MAF Leadership, “and people have got to stop assuming that drinking these chemicals is safe. It’s not, and the evidence is powerful, extensive, and redundant. We want action by this Agency and not Flint-like complacency about brains and health.”

The Petition was filed under TSCA, which gives the EPA the responsibility to prohibit the “particular use” of a chemical that presents an “unreasonable risk” to the general public. The Petition spotlights the scientific evidence that fluoride presents health risks in over 190 new scientific studies.

Even back in 2006, at the EPA’s request, the National Research Council reviewed fluoride toxicology and concluded that “fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain and the body by direct and indirect means.”

In fact, fluoride has now been added to the “bad-actor” short-list right alongside bedfellows lead, mercury and arsenic as one of the “developmental neurotoxicants,” according to a published piece in Lancet Neurology by esteemed researchers Grandjean M.D. and Landrigan M.D.

Furthermore, the ingestion of fluoride actually offers little benefit to teeth, as noted by the Petition’s author, attorney Michael Connett: “It is now understood that fluoride’s predominant effect on tooth decay comes from topical contact with the teeth, not ingestion.”

“The public has long seen drinking fluoride as harmless to reduce cavities,” states MAF Leadership. “Now we know in 2017 that it’s far from effective or benign, and its harmful effects on brain and health are well-documented. The fact that not a single long-term fluoridation safety trial has ever been conducted by our government on the fetus, the brain or the thyroid is an egregious violation of trust. Not one.”

Physicians are also deeply concerned. Angela Hind, M.D. notes:

“Right now we have 1 in 6 children in the U.S. with neurodevelopmental brain disease, including ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, low IQ and behavioral disorders, and 1 in 8 women who will develop thyroid disease. These two epidemics tell us that chemicals like fluoride and lead, both developmental neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors, have no place in our public water.”

“We believe this filing is so compelling that people will be stunned that the EPA has not acted. The EPA needs to act now and protect citizens, children and the next generation,” states MAF Leadership,  “Brains are just too much to risk, and for what? A vague, hypothesized and unproven half of a cavity saved over a lifetime? That is insanity, and it is high time that policy catches up with science and basic precautionary principles.”

EPA has 90 days to respond.