Fluoride in our water: too much for too long?

Adding fluoride to the water supply has been hailed as one of the top ten most important public health measures of the twentieth century—but has the practice, introduced in the 1940s to prevent tooth decay in children, now passed its sell-by date?

Two new studies suggest it has, with one concluding there’s no such thing as a safe dose of fluoride to the growing body, and another underlining what fluoride’s opponents have claimed for years: the chemical is a neurotoxin that affects a child’s IQ and ability to learn—even when it’s the mother who drank fluoridated water while pregnant.

Advocates of fluoridation have argued that the poison is in the dose. At the recommended concentration of 1 part per million (equivalent to 1 milligram