The UK Government’s plan to add a chemical to tap water poses a ‘an unreasonable risk to human health’, according to a US court ruling.
Earlier this year ministers announced the upcoming launch of a scheme to add fluoride into the drinking water supplies of another 1.6million Brits in a bid to improve the nation’s oral health.
But concluding a seven-year legal battle between environmental health chiefs and water safety campaigners, a Californian judge stated that higher levels of the chemical are ‘hazardous’, particularly to children.
The judge ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate the levels of flouride in American tap water.
A Californian judge has ruled that flouride in tap water should be monitored due to its ‘unreasonable’ risk to childrens’ health
The court heard ‘substantial and scientifically credible evidence’ about the health harms, including findings that suggest flouride exposure can lower IQs in children.
Judges in the US have set the safe level of flouride in water to 0.4 mg/L. The UK Government wants levels to be twice this.
While once thought of as a tin-foil hat theory, scientists are increasingly warning of the dangers of exposure to high doses of the naturally-occurring mineral over the course of a lifetime.
Stephen Peckham, professor of health policy at the University of Kent, told The Telegraph: ‘The ruling is important because it is forcing the regulatory authority in the US to take action, and it is pretty clear that beyond a particular level there is an unacceptable risk.
‘The view of the judge is that the evidence is overwhelming.
‘Fluoridation has brain implications and my personal view is that the weight of the evidence is very much against community fluoridation.’
This map shows areas in the England and Wales where fluoride is directly added to drinking water supplies. Some areas of the UK have naturally high levels of the mineral in the water and are not represented in this map
Several studies published over the last few years have raised concerns about high levels of flouride and links to health problems.
Earlier this year, American experts examined a group of 230 mother and child pairs, and 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.
Other studies have linked excessive quantities of the mineral to babies being born with Down’s syndrome, as well as kidney stones and some cancers.
Just 6.1million Britons — around 10 per cent of the population — currently receive water with fluoride levels sufficient to benefit oral health, according to the British Fluoridation Society. These areas include Hartlepool, Easington, parts of North Hampshire and South Berkshire
However, the NHS and experts like the Government’s chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty say these claims are not backed up by evidence.
Professor Whitty has previously described them as ‘exaggerated and unevidenced’.
Health bosses have estimated that adding fluoride to more water supplies in the UK could prevent two-thirds of hospital admissions for tooth decay, an issuing costing the NHS, and by extension the taxpayer, millions.
Some 5.8million Britons live in areas where fluoride — also added to toothpastes and mouthwashes — is placed in tap water, about a tenth of the population.
However, there are Government plans to expand this to another 1.6million people in the North East.
The 5.8 million figure doesn’t include areas in the UK where water supplies are naturally high in fluoride, about 300,000 people drink supplies naturally fluoridated by rocks in the ground.
Fluoridation is much more common in the US, with about 73 per cent of the population having the mineral added to their water supply at a concentration of about 0.7 mg per litre.
