A recent letter (“Pregnancy, fluoride,” Peninsula Daily News, Oct. 30) brought to our attention a newly published study on maternal fluoride exposure and IQ in offspring.
Unfortunately, the letter misleads us as to the study’s conclusions by stating it “shows brain damage occurs when pregnant mothers drink waters fluoridated at the so-called optimum levels’ (.7 mg/L).”
The study, done in Mexico in an area of varying degrees of naturally occurring fluoride, as well as fluoridated salt, in actuality reaches a different conclusion, noting “associations with IQ may have been limited to exposures about .8 mg/L.”
Closely studying their data bears this out.
As is typical for all research studies, they also conclude that further studies are needed.
The conclusion that I draw is this: 70 years of community water fluoridation research demonstrates the safety of the levels we would receive in Port Angeles.
When I care for a pregnant woman, I would much rather she enters pregnancy with the benefits of fluoridated water in improved oral health, as this decreases her risk of various pregnancy complications, including preterm birth, according to the National Institutes of Health.
I will continue to encourage pregnant women to drink water with fluoride brought to healthy levels.
Another conclusion I draw from the research is this: Let’s turn the energy toward making sure governmental agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control are not gutted so they can continue to do their job, which includes identifying risks that exist from very high levels of naturally occurring fluoride and acting to mitigate those risks.
Vote “yes” to resume water fluoridation for the well-being of our entire community.
Deborah Bopp,
Port Angeles
Bopp is a certified nurse-midwife at Olympic Medical Physicians Women’s Health.