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Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA's Standards (2006)
Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST)

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. "9 Effects on the Gastrointestinal, Renal, Hepatic, and Immune Systems." Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA's Standards. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2006.

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Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’S Standards

pairments in areas where there is fluoride at up to 4 mg/L in the drinking water.

  • The effect of low doses of fluoride on kidney and liver enzyme functions in humans needs to be carefully documented in communities exposed to different concentrations of fluoride in drinking water.

Immune Response

  • Epidemiologic studies should be carried out to determine whether there is a higher prevalence of hypersensitivity reactions in areas where there is elevated fluoride in the drinking water. If evidence is found, hypersensitive subjects could then be selected to test, by means of double-blinded randomized clinical trials, which fluoride chemicals can cause hypersensitivity. In addition, studies could be conducted to determine what percentage of immunocompromised subjects have adverse reactions when exposed to fluoride in the range of 1-4 mg/L in drinking water.

  • More research is needed on the immunotoxic effects of fluoride in animals and humans to determine if fluoride accumulation can influence immune function.

  • It is paramount that careful biochemical studies be conducted to determine what fluoride concentrations occur in the bone and surrounding interstitial fluids from exposure to fluoride in drinking water at up to 4 mg/L, because bone marrow is the source of the progenitors that produce the immune system cells.

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