Pregnant women exposed to high fluoride levels double the odds of having a child with a neurobehavioural problem, a new study suggests.
It comes as ministers’ plans to controversially add fluoride into the drinking water supplies of another 1.6million Brits in a bit to improve the nation’s dental health.
American experts, who examined a group of just under 230 mother and child pairs, found those with higher fluoride levels in pregnancy had increased odds of having child with a neurobehavioral issue by the time their infant turned three.
These issues included symptoms of anxiety and emotional regulation.
Children born to women with higher levels of fluoride in their urine were also more likely to report suffering headaches and stomach pain, the authors noted.
It isn’t clear what caused some women in the study to have higher fluoride levels than others. Drinking tap water versus filtered, consumption of certain foods and use of some dental products are potential causes of increased fluoride exposure.
Lead investigator Ashley Malin, an assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Public Health, said their findings suggested a relationship between fluoride exposure and foetal brain development.
‘There is no known benefit of fluoride consumption to the developing foetus, but we do know that there is possibly a risk to their developing brain,’ she said.
‘We found that each 0.68 milligram per litre increase in fluoride levels in the pregnant women’s urine was associated with nearly double the odds of children scoring in the clinical or borderline clinical range for neurobehavioral problems at age 3, based on their mother’s reporting.’
-Daily mail.UK
