Study shows rise in children's cavities if US removed fluoride from water
A new study published in Jama Health Forum estimates that if the US were to remove fluoride from public drinking water supplies – as Donald Trump's health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has advocated – American children would suffer an additional 25.4m cavities in five years.
The additional cases represent a 7.5% increase in cavities, an added cost of $9.8bn and the loss of 2.9m quality-adjusted life years. Those cases would disproportionately be borne by children most at-risk for tooth decay – those on public health insurance or who lack insurance entirely.
'We know fluoride is remarkably effective at preventing tooth decay – it's one of the great public health success stories of the 20th century,' said Dr Lisa Simon, assistant professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a dentist and an internist.
However, she added, the US did not 'have great numbers to say: 'What is the value of all of that? What would happen if we were to take it all away?''
The study comes as Kennedy has made the end of water fluoridation a major policy of his time as the president's health secretary. Fluoride was most recently featured in the 'Maha report', led by Kennedy and published amid fanfare by the White House last week. The report was later found to have invented citations and mischaracterized research.
Although the Maha report correctly characterized a recent metaanalysis on the dangers of high levels of fluoride, it downplayed fluoride's protective effects and did not comment further on cavities – a chronic condition that affects almost half of American kids.
The new study finds that if fluoride were eliminated from water supplies, there would be 'one newly decayed tooth for every third child in America', Simon said.
To conduct the new study, Simon and her coauthor, Harvard assistant professor of oral health and epidemiology Sung Choi, used nationally representative data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). They then used a statistical model to estimate the cost and prevalence of tooth decay in children aged 0-19-years-old after both five and 10 years. The data examined was from 2013-16 and the analysis was conducted between November and February this year.
Kennedy argues the US should stop fluoridating water on the basis that it can negatively impact IQ, which is true at very high levels. At a recent stop in Utah Kennedy said: 'The evidence against fluoride is overwhelming.'
Evidence that fluoride causes harm is not, in fact, overwhelming – though the science is nuanced. The best current evidence follows a medical adage: the dose makes the poison. Recent research shows that high levels of fluoride can have neurotoxic effects. However, those harms have not been found at levels below 1.5 parts per million – more than twice the level recommended by the CDC (0.7 parts per million).
Sign up to First Thing
Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
In his tenure, Kennedy has instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to review its guidance on fluoride, which still promotes its use in community water systems; eliminated the CDC's office of oral health, which made those recommendations; and acted as a cheerleader to states like Utah, which have banned fluoride.
'We're talking about quite low, very safe, very regulated levels of water fluoridation,' said Simon, adding that documented neurotoxic effects are at rates '10-15 times what people are exposed to in public water fluoridation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Dakota, 28, was fit, happy and had no reason to think anything was wrong with her health. Then she received heartbreaking news
Just three weeks before her 29th birthday, Dakota Middleby 's life changed in an instant. It was March 26 when she received the call that confirmed her worst fears. What began as seemingly innocuous swelling under her right arm turned out to be something far more serious: stage 3, grade 3 HER2-positive breast cancer - a rare and aggressive form of the disease most often associated with older women. 'I initially went to the doctors seven years ago for a lump I found in my breast, but I was told it was a fatty lump and not harmful,' Dakota told FEMAIL. 'The only thing I noticed this time was some swollen lymph nodes under my arm. My doctor initially thought it was viral, and that I'd start to get sick because of it. But weeks went by and they weren't going down.' Eventually, she was sent for an ultrasound. 'I put it off for a week because I couldn't get an appointment and I didn't think it was serious. I mean, I was 28 and extremely healthy - what could it actually have been? 'But then I saw the ultrasound technician's face change and I knew something was wrong,' she recalled. Dakota's doctor told her it was suspected breast cancer. 'I was in shock,' she recalled. 'There's no cancer in my family. I felt completely healthy. I didn't know people in their twenties could get breast cancer.' What followed was a blur of medical tests: two biopsies, a PET scan, a CT scan, and a flurry of bloodwork. Then came the official diagnosis - stage 3 HER2-positive breast cancer, known for how quickly it spreads. 'I literally thought I was going to die. My whole life flashed before my eyes,' she said. She had just moved from the Gold Coast to Melbourne for a new job, but within six months, she was forced to resign to focus on treatment. 'I resigned when I was diagnosed, just because mentally it was too much to try and manage both,' she said. Dakota quickly discovered how aggressive her treatment would need to be. HER2-positive cancers require a combination of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and often surgery. There wasn't time to do traditional egg freezing to preserve her fertility. Instead, she underwent emergency ovarian tissue freezing - a relatively uncommon procedure - and began monthly Zoladex injections to shut down her ovaries and protect them from the harsh effects of chemo. 'I had to go into early menopause almost overnight,' she said, suffering menopause-like symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings, and more changes and puts your body through a physical toll. Dakota's chemotherapy began shortly after. Every three weeks, she receives a round of powerful drugs designed to kill the cancer cells. 'I get mouth ulcers, nausea, heartburn, memory fog, and even temporary vision issues,' she said. 'It takes about a week to even feel semi-human again. By the second week, I start feeling slightly better. The third week is my only good week - then it all starts again.' Two weeks after her first treatment, her hair started to fall out. 'My skin changed overnight. I've gone from having clear skin to acne on my face, chest and back,' she said. 'It's not something I can hide, and that's been one of the hardest parts.' In September, Dakota is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the lymph nodes from her right side. If chemotherapy hasn't shrunk the tumour enough by then, doctors will perform a mastectomy. Determined to keep her mind active, she recently began an internship with a marketing agency. 'I just wanted to keep my brain moving and keep learning as much as I can,' she explained. Still, daily life looks dramatically different now. Even something as simple as leaving the house has become a challenge. 'It's whether you're brave enough to go to the grocery store with no hair and have everyone look,' she said. 'Otherwise it's, "Where's my wig? I've got to put my wig on". Those appearance-based things mean a lot more now. You're looked at differently.' Being 29 and living in Melbourne, she used to thrive on a busy social life. 'There was always something happening - going out for a wine during the week, seeing friends, just being out and about,' she said. 'Now it feels like everything's been put on hold.' Even the small things - those most people wouldn't think twice about - have shifted. 'I have to be so careful about what I eat, make sure all my vegetables are washed properly, make sure I'm walking, moving my body, keeping on top of everything. It's a lot. A lot of things have changed,' she said. The experience has made her re-evaluate everything - including how long the cancer may have been growing. 'I was told I had a fatty lump in my breast when I was 21. I didn't get it checked again until now,' she said. 'Looking back, I wonder if that was the start of it.' Despite everything, Dakota has found strength in unexpected places. She's continued doing Pilates and is completing her internship to stay mentally stimulated between treatments. 'There were a couple of weeks where I was in a 'poor me' headspace,' she said. 'But I've had to shift my mindset. I don't want cancer to take more from me than it already has.' She's also been buoyed by support from her loved ones. Her mum has flown to Melbourne twice to help care for her, and her partner has remained by her side. 'He's been incredible. His workplace has been so understanding, and not everyone is that lucky,' she said. But Dakota knows many other women don't have the same support - or access to early screenings. Since sharing her story, she's been contacted by other women in their twenties who are also battling breast cancer. 'I've heard from girls as young as 20 who have it. We're not anomalies - it's happening more and more,' she said. 'But there's still a massive age bias. We're told we're "too young" for breast cancer. We're not taught to check our breasts. Screenings aren't offered to us. And when we do speak up, we're often dismissed.' That's why she's launching a donation fund to help women under 40 access early breast cancer screenings - even if they don't have symptoms or family history. 'There's just no help for us,' she said. 'You shouldn't have to find a lump or wait until it's stage 3 to get answers.' Her goal is to have the fund up and running by the end of the year. 'I don't want to just survive this. I want to do something with it,' she said.
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador brought back to US to face charges
A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces charges related to what US President Donald Trump's government said was a large human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally. Advertisement His abrupt release from El Salvador is the latest twist in a saga that sparked a months-long standoff between Trump administration officials and the courts over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was done in error but then continued to stand behind in apparent defiance of orders by judges to facilitate his return to the US. The development occurred after US officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant for federal charges in Tennessee accusing Abrego Garcia of playing a key role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the US and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said. 'This is what American justice looks like,' US attorney general Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. The indictment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia that charges him with transporting people who were in the United States illegally (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) Abrego Garcia's lawyers called the case 'baseless'. Advertisement 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. Federal magistrate judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, determined that Abrego Garcia will be held in custody until at least next Friday, when there will be an arraignment and detention hearing. Abrego Garcia appeared in court wearing a short-sleeved, white, buttoned shirt. When asked if he understood the charges, he told the judge through an interpreter: 'Yes. I understand.' Democrats and immigrant rights groups had pressed for Abrego Garcia's release, with several politicians – including senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years – even travelling to El Salvador to visit him. A federal judge had ordered him to be returned in April and the US Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by directing the government to work to bring him back. Advertisement But the news that Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs, was being brought back for the purpose of prosecution was greeted with dismay by his lawyers. The case also prompted the resignation of a top supervisor in the US attorney's office in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Ben Schrader, who was chief of the office's criminal division, did not explain the reason for his resignation but posted to social media around the time the indictment was being handed down, saying: 'It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I've ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.' He declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Friday. Advertisement
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
‘I'm the world's youngest self-made female billionaire'
A 30-year-old US tech entrepreneur born to immigrant parents has unseated Taylor Swift as the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. Lucy Guo, who is worth an estimated $1.3bn (£1bn) according to Forbes, told The Telegraph that her new title 'doesn't really feel like much'. 'I think that maybe reality hasn't hit yet, right? Because most of my money is still on paper,' she said. Ms Guo's wealth stems from her 5pc stake in Scale AI, a company she co-founded in 2016. The artificial intelligence (AI) business is currently raising money in a deal likely to value it at $25bn. That valuation – and the billionaire status it has bestowed upon Ms Guo – underlines the current AI boom, which has reinvigorated Silicon Valley and is now reshaping the world. Everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Sir Keir Starmer have praised the potential of the technology, which is forecast to save billions but may also destroy scores of jobs. The AI craze has caused the founders and chief executives of companies in the space to climb the world's rich list as they cash in on soaring valuations and increasing demand for their companies' technologies. Ms Guo is also an exemplar of the American dream. Born to Chinese immigrant parents, she dropped out of Carnegie Mellon University to find her fortune. Like Mr Zuckerberg before her, the decision to ditch traditional education in favour of entrepreneurship has now paid off handsomely. Still, it was not a decision her parents approved of at the time. 'They stopped talking to me for a while – which is fine,' she said. 'I get it, because, you know, the immigrant mentality was like, 'we sacrificed everything, we came to a new country, left all our relatives behind, to try to give our kids a better future'. 'I think they viewed it as a sign of disrespect. They're like, 'wow, you don't appreciate all the sacrifices we did for you, and you don't love us'. So they were extremely hurt.' They have since reconciled. In her first year of college, Ms Guo took part in hackathons and coding competitions, helping her to realise that 'you can just create a startup out of like, nothing'. She was awarded a Thiel Fellowship, which provides recipients with $200,000 over two years to support them to drop out of university and pursue other work, such as launching a startup. The fellowship is funded by Peter Thiel, the former PayPal chief executive. Mr Thiel, who donated $1.25m to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has been an enthusiastic supporter of entrepreneurship, and also co-founded Palantir, the data analytics and AI software firm now worth billions. Ms Guo initially tried to found a company based around people selling their home cooking to others. While the business did well financially, it faced food safety problems and ultimately failed. After stints at Quora, the question-and-answer website, and Snapchat, Ms Guo launched Scale AI with co-founder Alexandr Wang in 2016. The company labels the data used to develop applications for AI. The timing was perfect: OpenAI had been founded a year earlier and uses Scale AI's technology to help train ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot. OpenAI is one of the leading lights of the new AI boom and has a valuation of $300bn. Like Ms Guo, its founder and boss Sam Altman is now a billionaire. Ms Guo left Scale AI only two years after helping to found it – 'ultimately there was a lot of friction between me and my co-founder' – but retained her stake, a decision that helped propel her into the ranks of the world's top 1pc. 'It's not like I'm flying PJs [private jets] everywhere. Just occasionally, just when other people pay for them. I'm kidding – sometimes I pay for them,' Ms Guo said, laughing. After leaving Scale AI, Ms Guo went on to set up her own venture capital fund, Backend Capital, which has so far invested in more than 100 startups. She has also run HF0, an AI business accelerator. Ms Guo is particularly passionate about supporting female entrepreneurs: 'If you take two people that are exactly the same, male and female, they come out of MIT as engineers, I think that subconsciously every investor thinks the male is going to do better, which sucks.' However, she is demanding of companies she backs. 'If you care about work-life balance, go work at Google, you'll get paid a high salary and you'll have that work-life balance,' she said. 'If you're someone that wants to build a startup, I think it's pretty unrealistic to build a venture-funded startup with work-life balance.' 'Number one party girl' Ms Guo's work-life balance has itself been the subject of tabloid attention. After leaving Scale AI she was dubbed 'Miami's number one party girl' by the New York Post for raucous celebrations held at her multimillion-dollar flat in the city's One Thousand Museum tower, which counts David Beckham among its residents. One 2022 party involved a lemur and snake rented from the Zoological Wildlife Foundation, and led to the building's homeowners' association sending a warning letter. While she still owns her residence in Miami, Ms Guo lives in Los Angeles. Alongside investing, Ms Guo has started a new business, Passes, which lets users sell access to themselves online through paid direct messages, livestreaming and subscriptions. Creators on the platform include TikTok influencer Emma Norton, actor Bella Thorne and the music producer Kygo. It is pitched as a competitor to Patreon, a platform that lets musicians and artists sell products and services directly to fans. However, the business also occupies the same space as OnlyFans, the platform known for hosting adult videos and images, and Passes has faced claims that it knowingly distributed sexually explicit material featuring minors. A legal complaint filed by OnlyFans model Alice Rosenblum claimed the platform produced, possessed and sold sexually explicit content featuring her when she was underage. The claims are strongly denied by the company. A spokesman for Passes said: 'This lawsuit is part of an orchestrated attempt to defame Passes and Ms Guo, and these claims have no basis in reality. As explained in the motion to dismiss filed on April 28, Ms Guo and Passes categorically reject the baseless allegations made against them in the lawsuit.' Scrutiny of Passes and Ms Guo herself is only likely to intensify following her crowning by Forbes. However, she is sceptical that she will hold on to the title of youngest self-made female billionaire for long. 'I have almost no doubt this title can be taken in three to six months,' she said, adding: 'Every single time it was taken, it's like, OK, there's more innovation happening – women are crushing it. 'I think I'm personally excited for someone else to take that title, because that's a sign entrepreneurship is growing.'
