Region of Peel needs 90 days to hunt for fluoride/pregnancy studies

• a looming lawsuit,
• 4 years of committee investigation,
• a Regional Medical Officer’s literature review just a few years ago,
• years of controversy and questions from the public,
• Council repeatedly made aware of the recent studies that prompted the FOI request,
• Public Health Staff’s insistence that they carefully monitor the scientific literature, and
• the Region’s incessant claims that our drinking water is safe for everyone…

• Liesa Cianchino’s legal threat,
• 4 years of committee investigation,
• Dr. de Villa’s literature review a few years ago,
• years of controversy and questions from the public,
• Council made aware repeatedly of the recent studies that prompted my request,
• Public Health Staff’s insistence that they carefully monitor the situation and the scientific literature, and
• the Region’s incessant claims that our drinking water is safe for everyone.

Dear Clerk,

This is a Freedom of Information Request for Access to General Records, made under MFIPPA.  I will mail in or drop off my $5 application fee.

Background

Two important studies examining total exposure to fluoride during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental effects in offspring, by Bashash et al., were published in late 2017 and late 2018.  Both were funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and conducted by an international team that included researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and various other universities and institutions.Both studies used data collected from mother-child pairs followed in Mexico City, with measurements of total fluoride exposure at various time points obtained from urine samples starting in pregnancy.  Both studies found that higher total fluoride exposure in pregnancy is related to worse outcomes in children.  Specifically, the researchers found lower IQs and increased ADHD symptoms in the children whose mothers had the higher total fluoride exposures.A third study by Till et al. published in late 2018, also funded by the U.S. government, found that the total fluoride exposures of Canadian pregnant women in fluoridated cities are very similar to those of the mothers in the Bashash et al. studies.  It also found that pregnant women in Canadian fluoridated cities have double the fluoride exposure as compared those in unfluoridated cities and that drinking water is the major source of fluoride exposure for pregnant women in Canada.

Public Health Ontario’s review of the 2017 Bashash el al IQ study entitled Article Review on “Prenatal Fluoride Exposure and Cognitive Outcomes in Children at 4 and 6–12 Years of Age in Mexico” (https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/fluroide-iq-mexico.pdf?la=en) stated that:

• ” Previous research in the area of fluoride exposure and neurological outcomes during childhood has often been limited by small sample sizes and/or ecological study designs. The study by Bashash et al. is a considerable improvement over previous research given the large population size and the availability of individual level data to assess both exposure and outcome.”
• “…a 0.5mg/L increase in maternal urinary fluoride was associated with a decrease in GCI of 3.15 points (95% CI: -5.42,-0.87), and a decrease in IQ of 2.50 points (95%CI: -4.12, -0.59).”
• “The authors used linear regression, adjusting for a number of potential confounders…”
• “Another strength of the study design is that exposure was measured during what is perhaps the most vulnerable window of neurological development in children, the prenatal period….”

’“Our findings are consistent with a growing body of evidence suggesting that the growing fetal nervous system may be negatively affected by higher levels of fluoride exposure,” said Dr. Morteza Bashash, the study’s lead author and researcher at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health…

… The research team — including experts from the University of Toronto, York University, the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Harvard School of Public Health…

… This work builds off of previous research the team published on this population demonstrating that higher levels of urine fluoride during pregnancy are associated with lower scores on tests of IQ and cognition in the school-age children.’

“The research was conducted as part of a larger study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigating whether early life exposure to fluoride affects the developing brain.

    “We found that fluoride in drinking water was the major source of exposure for pregnant women living in Canada. Women living in fluoridated communities have two times the amount of fluoride in their urine as women living in non-fluoridated communities,” said Christine Till, an associate professor of Psychology in York’s Faculty of Health and lead author on the study…

… The levels of fluoride among pregnant women living in fluoridated communities in Canada were similar with levels reported in a prior study of pregnant women living in Mexico City where fluoride is added to table salt.

“This finding is concerning because prenatal exposure to fluoride in the Mexican sample has been associated with lower IQ in children. New evidence published today in Environment International also reported an association between higher levels of fluoride in pregnancy and inattentive behaviours among children in the same Mexican sample,” said Till.”

1. All of the primary, peer-reviewed scientific research papers on fluoride exposure from community water fluoridation during pregnancy published in scientific journals during the last 73 years showing that fluoride exposure from community water fluoridation during pregnancy is safe with respect to IQ and ADHD symptoms in human offspring, relied upon by Public Health Staff, the Health Commissioner and/or the Region when advising Council and the public that water fluoridation is safe for everyone.

2. All other primary, peer-reviewed scientific research papers on fluoride exposure during pregnancy published in scientific journals during the last 73 years showing that the fluoride exposure during pregnancy is safe with respect to IQ and ADHD symptoms in human offspring, relied upon by Public Health Staff, the Health Commissioner and/or the Region when advising Council and the public that water fluoridation is safe for everyone.

Format:

Pdf documents sent to me via email; I do not want anything shipped to me.