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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2853 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 12, 2025

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Does anyone have thoughts about the potential link between childhood fluoride exposure and lower IQ? Alternatively, links to reasonable discussion?

In particular, I'm narrowly interested in what the science says about (1) whether fluoride exposure at levels to which Americans were occasionally exposed causes IQ decreases and (2) if so, what kinds of threshold effects might exist.

For what it's worth, I (along with many of my friends) took daily 1 mg fluoride tablets (supplements) as a kid on the recommendation of our pediatrician, and I have mild dental fluorosis to show for it (although I've never had a cavity in my life). The idea that this may also have cost me a few IQ points is distressing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/health/fluoride-children-iq.html

We talked about about this a few weeks ago. It seems that the amount of fluoride in the water is pretty low generally so it's probably not something to worry about.

That said, flouride in the water is not great. The benefits of fluoride are limited. Supposedly, places that fluoridate their water see a 25% reduction in cavities. You can probably get all the benefits by just brushing with fluoridated toothpaste.

For what it's worth, I (along with many of my friends) took daily 1 mg fluoride tablets (supplements) as a kid on the recommendation of our pediatrician, and I have mild dental fluorosis to show for it (although I've never had a cavity in my life). The idea that this may also have cost me a few IQ points is distressing.

Unfortunately, if you had fluorosis as a child, it's definitely possible you were subjected to a high enough concentration to lower IQ.

Scott linked to a few studies a few years ago. Getting fluoride out of your water ranked at his 3rd tier of "obscure pregnancy interventions" to raise IQ, with very mixed evidence.

1mg/day is what you get from 1.5 liters of typical fluoridated water, so it was a significant exposure increase but not an order of magnitude or anything.

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