The study, published in PNAS, examined Wisconsin state testing records, archival information about when Wisconsin cities began to fluoridate their water, and data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which has followed a random sample of 10,317 high school seniors from 1957 through 2026. Key findings include:
- There is no evidence supporting a connection between community water fluoridation and children’s IQ.
- There is also no evidence supporting a connection between community water fluoridation and cognitive functioning at various points later in life.
- Findings confirm evidence published in previous research which also used a national sample, but considered school achievement test scores instead of actual IQ scores.
“We gave rats 6.66 times more than humans are exposed to and bad stuff happened.”
That’s really not a good methodology.
I mean, its fine - but it just isn’t overly meaningful for how we make decisions as individuals. But to design a scenario where we would absolutely see an effect is valuable to see if we should invest more money into larger studies.
Or as the saying goes in biotech: “everything works in mice”.