3 ms·

But socioeconomic status might not be the confounding variable. It could be something more like "civilization" or "the amount of pro-health resources in the com

But socioeconomic status might not be the confounding variable. It could be something more like "civilization" or "the amount of pro-health resources in the community". Fluoride and child doctors are both things that contribute to health, and different communities make different decisions about how much importance they want to place on childhood health. I also suspect that fluoridation does not track with socioeconomic status. I mean, look at how Portland Oregon's got rid of fluoridation. Nevertheless, reading the article, it does look like they have rat studies that show that fluoride in rats causes mental impariment.

warfangle 12y ago
I wonder if this is the rat study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427408000647 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427408... Things to note: they soaked cultures of rat hippocampus neurons in various concentrations of sodium fluoride. They didn't make the rats drink fluorinated water. It's difficult for fluoride to cross the blood brain barrier.
- civilian 12y ago
  From the article > Fluoride can readily cross the placenta, accumulate in the infant brain and easily exert neurotoxic effects, such as decreasing norepinephrine in the parietal and occipital lobes, decreasing serotonin in the parietal lobe and increasing serotonin in the frontal and occipital lobes [42-45]. So maybe it passes the blood-brain barrier more easily in infants or in utero? Also if you search for "rats' in the original article, http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/s12940-015-0003-1.pdf http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/s12940-015-0003-1.pdf then you'll see them referencing studies that has rats drink or be injected with fluoride. They weren't referencing the study you linked.
- DennisP 12y ago
  You don't have to wonder. You can follow the link right there in the Newsweek article, and find it's a different study. Here it is for your convenience: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7760776 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7760776 From the abstract: "For prenatal exposures, dams received injections (SC) of 0.13 mg/kg NaF or saline on gestational days 14-18 or 17-19. Weanlings received drinking water containing 0, 75, 100, or 125 ppm F for 6 or 20 weeks, and 3 month-old adults received water containing 100 ppm F for 6 weeks."
  - warfangle 12y ago
    And the EPA limits it to 4ppm. So...

warfangle 12y ago

I wonder if this is the rat study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427408000647 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378427408... Things to note: they soaked cultures of rat hippocampus neurons in various concentrations of sodium fluoride. They didn't make the rats drink fluorinated water. It's difficult for fluoride to cross the blood brain barrier.

civilian 12y ago
From the article > Fluoride can readily cross the placenta, accumulate in the infant brain and easily exert neurotoxic effects, such as decreasing norepinephrine in the parietal and occipital lobes, decreasing serotonin in the parietal lobe and increasing serotonin in the frontal and occipital lobes [42-45]. So maybe it passes the blood-brain barrier more easily in infants or in utero? Also if you search for "rats' in the original article, http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/s12940-015-0003-1.pdf http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/s12940-015-0003-1.pdf then you'll see them referencing studies that has rats drink or be injected with fluoride. They weren't referencing the study you linked.
DennisP 12y ago
You don't have to wonder. You can follow the link right there in the Newsweek article, and find it's a different study. Here it is for your convenience: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7760776 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7760776 From the abstract: "For prenatal exposures, dams received injections (SC) of 0.13 mg/kg NaF or saline on gestational days 14-18 or 17-19. Weanlings received drinking water containing 0, 75, 100, or 125 ppm F for 6 or 20 weeks, and 3 month-old adults received water containing 100 ppm F for 6 weeks."
- warfangle 12y ago
  And the EPA limits it to 4ppm. So...