Every time they take a sip of tap water, around 6 million people in England also consume a little more, an added ingredient that most will be completely unaware of.
Called fluoride, it is colorless, odorless and tasteless and has been added to the domestic water supply in some parts of the country for the past 60 years or so to help prevent cavities.
Areas with fluoridated water include Birmingham (the first to introduce it, back in 1964), Cumbria, Cheshire, Coventry, Doncaster, Tyneside and parts of Oxford.
Fluoride is a mineral that is also found naturally in foods such as tea, coffee, seafood, potatoes and porridge and helps strengthen enamel (the hard outer layer of our teeth), making it more resistant to damage. cavities caused by sugary diets.
Some dental health experts describe its addition to the drinking water supply as one of the biggest public health initiatives the UK has ever seen.
And the Labor government is now expected to press ahead with plans drawn up by its Conservative predecessors (in the Health and Care Act 2022) to extend water fluoridation to millions more people in a bid to improve people’s dental health. country.
New US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Openly Criticizes Fluoride
For years, it has been left to local authorities to decide whether or not to supplement local water supplies with the mineral, based on caries levels and the cost of implementing the plans.
The Health and Care Act 2022 transfers this responsibility to the Department of Health and Social Care, allowing it to oversee the expansion of the fluoridation programme.
But is this kind of “mass medication” really necessary, and more to the point, is adding fluoride to everyone’s drinking water even safe?
The issue made headlines after Robert F. Kennedy Jr, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick as Secretary of Health, recently said on X (formerly Twitter) that when Trump takes office in January, he will recommend all water companies in the United States to immediately remove fluoride from their water. their supplies.
About two-thirds of the American population drinks water with added fluoride to combat tooth decay, and numerous studies show that it works and dental health improves as a result.
Studies show that, on average, adding fluoride to drinking water reduces the number of decayed teeth in young children by about two teeth per child.
But Kennedy, a well-known vaccine skeptic, wrote online last month: “Fluoride is…associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid diseases.
When sugar from food or drinks enters your mouth, bacteria hiding in your gums convert it into acid that breaks down tooth enamel and causes cavities, a process called demineralization.
Fluoride binds to enamel and reverses this decline, leading to remineralization, which strengthens teeth against acid attacks.
This is particularly important in young children, as their teeth tend to have thinner enamel, which puts them at greater risk for cavities.
Figures from NHS England, published in September, showed that cavities are the leading cause of hospital admissions among under tens, with more than 19,000 needing rotten teeth removed in 2023/24, costing the NHS about £50 million.
However, Kennedy’s social media post was prompted by a recent ruling by a district judge in California, which ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees water safety, to impose strict regulations on fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a health risk. intellectual development of children.
District Judge Edward Chen ruled on a case brought by anti-fluoride groups arguing that the policy is harmful to health.
Numerous studies over the years have suggested that excessive fluoride intake can harm children’s IQ, possibly damaging areas of the brain involved in memory and learning through oxidative stress, where harmful molecules called free radicals destroy brain cells.
One of the most recent, published in Environmental Research in 2023, found that children’s IQ dropped an average of 3 points (most children under ten score between 30 and 50 on IQ tests) when the Fluoride in drinking water measured about one milligram per liter. The Health Organization recommends a maximum level of 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.
The findings, by researchers at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, were based on analysis of data from 30 previous studies on fluoride and IQ.
In their report they warned: “Overall, most studies suggested an adverse effect of fluoride exposure on children’s IQ, starting at low levels of exposure.” (Low level was defined as 1 mg/liter).
Animal studies also hint that fluoride exposure can damage memory, and anecdotal evidence suggests that some adult humans who suffer from it are mentally sharper when they avoid it.
The Department of Health and Social Care, in a 2022 policy document, states that although fluoride in water may increase the risk of fluorosis (permanent mottling of teeth caused by disruption of the way calcium is stored and distributes through the enamel), this is not the case. Otherwise harmful to health.
A DHSC spokesperson told Good Health: ‘Water fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure that reduces cavities.
“Prevention is always better than cure, and this Government is committed to helping people stay healthy and keeping children out of hospital.”
The DHSC added that future decisions on water fluoridation across the country will be made on a “case-by-case basis.”
However, campaign group Freedom from Fluoride Alliance disagrees, saying there are more than 400 studies from around the world showing that adding the mineral to water supplies is harmful to the developing brain.
Dr. Ben Atkins says there is no risk to children when using fluoride toothpaste
It wants fluoride to be removed from both drinking water and toothpaste (most popular brands include it) and instead put greater emphasis on sugar-free diets to combat tooth decay in Britain. (The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have chosen not to add it, either because of the cost or because, in some areas, fluoride already occurs naturally in drinking water.)
“Studies show that there is a strong correlation between overexposure to fluoride in utero and in formula and reduced IQ in children,” Joy Warren, a spokesperson for the lobby group, told Good Health.
«And in the United Kingdom we add more to the water than in the United States: 1 mg per liter, compared to 0.7 mg there.
‘Therefore, any reduction in intelligence as a result of this exposure will be greatest in the UK.
“Even pregnant women should not drink fluoridated water because of the risk to their children.”
Warren, a retired environmental scientist, says children should also not be allowed to use toothpaste with fluoride, since anything they ingest could reach the brain through the bloodstream, potentially damaging their IQ.
But Dr Ben Atkins, former chairman of the Oral Health Foundation, one of the UK’s leading dental health charities, and a dentist in Manchester, insists that using fluoride toothpaste poses no risk to children. .
She told Good Health: “I’m not worried: I give it (fluoride toothpaste) to my children and if I thought it was harmful they wouldn’t let me near them.”
But is fluoridation the best approach anyway? Dr Atkins and other experts believe the UK would be better off focusing on improving dental health by eliminating sugar from the diet rather than adding minerals to water.
“It is a form of mass medication and there are other options: if we can significantly improve the diet and reduce sugar consumption, we can reduce the need for water fluoridation.”
An October report from the renowned Cochrane Center (a body that analyzes evidence on health policy) concluded that extending water fluoridation in the UK is likely to have a limited effect in terms of improving dental health.
It examined evidence from 157 studies on the impact of adding fluoride to water and concluded that expanding it could increase the number of cavity-free children by about three percent, but it is equally likely to have no benefit, largely because most now They get what they need from their toothpaste.
And a review published in Evidence-Based Dentistry in September 2024, by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, found that the financial gains (in terms of fewer NHS treatments with fluoridated water) were marginal.
It showed that almost £100 had to be spent adding the mineral to water just to avoid a single invasive dental treatment, such as drilling a rotten tooth.
Janet Clarkson, professor of clinical effectiveness at the University of Dundee and one of the authors of the recent Cochrane report, said: “Water fluoridation can lead to small improvements in oral health.
“But it doesn’t address underlying problems, such as high sugar consumption and poor oral health habits.”