Research on fluoridation of drinking water goes back more than a century. Around 1901 dentist Frederick McKay began investigating a strange phenomenon in Colorado Springs, Colorado where young kids developed brown stains on their teeth that resisted cavities. It would take another 30 years to discover so called Colorado Brown Stain was caused by high concentrations of naturally occurring fluoride.
Today about two-thirds of public water supplies have fluoride injected into the water supply. Not everyone is happy about it, however. Many health-conscious people believe fluoride to be a neurotoxin, while others believe fluoride to be an important public health tool. Groups in the state of California have sued to force the EPA to investigate and reduce recommended fluoride levels in water. Florida is considering banning fluoride as well. Indeed, Health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to remove fluoride from drinking water:
HHS will convene a board of experts to review the federal government’s recommendation that communities fluoridate their water, the agency announced on Monday. The Environmental Protection Agency is simultaneously launching a review of the science on fluoride’s health effects.
The end result of those inquiries seems to be a foregone conclusion: Kennedy told the Associated Press that he wanted the government to stop recommending fluoridation. He has called fluoride “industrial waste” and blamed it for an array of health conditions, from neurological damage in children to bone cancer.
Banning fluoride is an integral part of Kennedy’s campaign to Make America Healthy Again. The news of the reviews came on the same day he appeared in Salt Lake City to praise Utah for being the first state to officially ban water fluoridation.
Is banning fluoride from public water supplies a good idea? Maybe, maybe not, but that is the million-dollar question. Most toothpaste contains fluoride. Once a year my dentist performs a fluoride treatment on my teeth. A new study in JAMA Health Forum claims removing fluoride from water could cause up to 25 million cavities over a 5-year period. The following is from CBS News:
Researchers found removing fluoride was associated with an increase in tooth decay of 7.5 percentage points, or 25.4 million cases, and cost one approximately $9.8 billion over 5 years.
The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water was long considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
Like any medical intervention there are risks and benefits. The issue is contentious because, although the risks are heavily disputed, the benefits are well known. The benefits also vary from one child to the next; and vary from one community to the next.
These effects would disproportionately affect publicly insured and uninsured children, who are already at the highest risk of unmet dental needs, the authors added.
In neighborhoods where children have access to dental care and whose parents diligently monitor their kids’ teeth brushing the presence (or removal) of fluoride may not make much difference. In poor neighborhoods where dental care is less of a priority the removal of fluoridation could result in greater incidence of tooth decay. Toothpaste contains fluoride in most cases. However, researchers argue that most fluoride comes from drinking water. Indeed, toothpaste sold in developing countries often contains far higher levels of fluoride than in the United States. The decision is bound to be controversial regardless of whether you’re pro fluoride or opposed to it.
Read more at JAMA: Projected Outcomes of Removing Fluoride From US Public Water Systems