A student today asked about the fluoridation of water and if it is healthy to drink fluoridated water. I was curious myself so I looked up some information during my lunch break. The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended levels for Fluoride in drinking water. They set the maximum amount as 4mg/L or 4 parts per million (ppm) and in other places where fluoride salts occur more naturally it's even lower 2mg/L (2ppm). After that I searched for some articles that talked about how fluoride hurts the brain. I searched on Google Scholar and found an article entitled, Neuorotoxicity of sodium fluoride in rats. One of the claims from my student was that fluoride affected brain function. This article supports that idea. However, the concentration the rats were exposed to is 75-200 ppm. The difference in concentration is rather drastic.
I will offer extra credit to anyone who can find the concentration of fluoride salts in local drinking water.
Mattys Physical Science and IB Biology at CHS
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It's all about physics and chemistry!
- MrMattys
- Science is an expression of the human spirit, which reaches every sphere of human culture. It gives an aim and meaning to existence as well as a knowledge, understanding, love and admiration for the world.
Nice to see you are having the discussion with your students. I trust that having a science background you understand the complexities associated with research and the value of utilitzing good research methods. You can't consider a Google search a valid way of reviewing the research. Can you believe everything that you find on the internet? The fact is that more than 3,000 studies or research papers have been produced about fluoridation and fluoride. After all of these studies, if there were any truth to the so-called “harms,” we would know about it. Experts have studied fluoride for over 65 years and continue to do so. The American Academy of Pediatrics supports water fluoridation. We can trust what they say.
ReplyDeleteI agree. One of the major difficulties in teaching high school students is getting them to understand the difference between a reliable source and one that is not. Reliable sources are not as immediately accessible to students because of reading level or language barriers. A student does a general google search on water fluoridation and they are likely to get simple, easy but wrong or incomplete information. Google Scholar provides much more reliable information from peer reviewed publications, but the language load is a high cost of entry for this information. Another barrier to this information is that many of the articles themselves cost money. (The Abstracts are generally available for review.) The article I found (of the twenty or so I looked at during my lunch) indicated that very high fluoride concentrations during developmental stages may be harmful in rats. I do consider this to be a reliable source because it came from researchers at Harvard Medical School, Forsyth Research Institute and the Dept of Pediatric Dentistry at Eastman Medical Center in Rochester NY. What I want students to see is that there is a MAJOR difference in concentration between what causes harm in rats and what the EPA considers safe. Don't get me wrong, I trust the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association and the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Academy of Pediatrics in their support of water fluoridation. I want students to be able to discern claims for themselves. A good scientist is skeptical and at least aims to be objective. By providing the concentration levels of what is acceptable and helpful in preventing tooth decay in children versus the concentrations of what may be harmful in rats I'm modeling for students how to make a well-informed argument. I'm sorry if all that didn't come through in my original post; I was rushing before class started.
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