Bottle-Feeding Babies in Fluoridated Ireland and England
Statement of Concern for bottle-fed babies in fluoridated England & Ireland by National Pure Water Association & VOICE of Irish Concern for the Environment for International Baby-Feed Action Network Meeting, Florence, April 3rd-7th 2006.
*References in red located at bottom of document
While recognizing IBFAN’s primary concern is to promote the unique benefits of breast-feeding for the well-being of infants, there is in Europe a group of infants who are not breast-fed and whose health is put at risk by infant formula re-constituted with fluoridated water. These infants live in the only two countries in Europe that allow artificial water fluoridation, namely England and Ireland. Since both England and Ireland continue to officially recommend fluoridated tap-water be used in infant formula, parents of bottle-fed infants should be alerted to the health risks involved.
1. Breast milk contains from 0.005 to 0.01 mg/l fluoride1, whereas tap water that has been artificially fluoridated contains 1 mg/l. Thus infant formula made up with fluoridated tap water contains from one to two hundred times the amount of fluoride in breast milk.
2. Since biological processes have evolved to expose babies to very low levels of fluoride (in breast milk)2 babies may be poorly-equipped to deal with fluoride and in particular with new anthropogenic forms such as hydrofluorosilicic acid. This man-made chemical as used in fluoridation schemes, is contaminated with lead, arsenic, beryllium,chromium and mercury, increasing further its toxicity.
3. It is acknowledged that an infant’s organs are undeveloped and may be unable to deal with a fluoride concentration of 1 mg/l in drinking water. Nearly 90%% of fluoride ingested by a baby is retained3, due perhaps to poorly-developed renal function. Infants seem able to excrete much less than the 50% that adults typically achieve.
4. In England there is no officially published advice on the safe intake of fluoride in infants 4. Official UK government information offered no safety justification for the ‘appropriate’ level of intake 0.05mg/kg/day, nor for the 440% increase from 1991 to 1996 of this level to 0.22 mg/kg/day. It has not issued a ‘safe intake’ for children under 6 years of age. An Irish study has put the mean intake of babies under 4 months at 0.11 to 0.14mg/kg/day , over twice the 1991 UK ‘appropriate level’ 5.
5. The contaminated hydrofluorosilicic acid used in both England and Ireland has never been toxicologically tested in the EU or elsewhere and failed Formal Vote of Safety in the EU in 2001.6
6. The risk assessment for hydrofluorosilicic acid that was promised ‘in early 2004’by WHO Geneva at the 2003 EU Drinking Water Seminar, Brussels is still outstanding. The 10 year update of the 1994 WHO Fluoride Monograph is also still unpublished.
Number of infants at risk.
England and Ireland have some of the lowest rates of breast feeding in Europe. The proportion of children that are not exclusively breast-fed for 26 weeks in England is about 40% while in Ireland it is about 60%. Applying this factor to Ireland with 62,000 births (CSO 2003), we need to adjust for the proportion (73%) born in fluoridated areas; (62,000 x .73) x 60%
= 27,000 bottle-fed infants in Ireland.
If a lower birth rate is assumed and applied to the 6 million in fluoridated England, say 100,000 births/yr x 40% = 40,000 bottle-fed infants in England.
Total bottle-fed infants in fluoridated areas of England & Ireland per year of 67,000.
Official advice to parents
England:
See NHS Bottle Feeding Advice on a 16 page illustrated website here.
Key extracts of (often contradictory) advice on making up bottle feeds
• Recommends the use of “fresh tap water” that is boiled and cooled.
• Exclusive breast-feeding is recommended for the first 6 months (26 weeks)
of an infant’s life as it provides all the nutrients a baby needs.
• “If unable or you do not choose to follow these recommendations make sure you get advice from a health visitor or doctor.”
Ireland:
In Ireland the Health Service Executive(‘HSE’) answers the question “Should parents continue to use fluoridated water to reconstitute infant formula?” with a simple “Yes”.
http://erha.healthnet.ie/view_categories.php?nCatId=312
Various regional branches of the HSE elaborate (incoherently) as follows: “The Fluoridation Forum recommends that parents should continue to reconstitute infant formula with boiled tap water in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions. Alternatively ready-to-feed formula may be used (contain [sic] minimal amounts of fluoride). The use of bottled water is not recommended. Bottle waters contain salt and other solutes, which are not advised in the diet of young infants; also the fluoride content of bottled water is not displayed on labels. In the absence of labelling indicating its suitability for infants fluoridated tap water is preferable.”
Manufacturers of baby foods have been warned by the US Government not to use fluoridated water in the manufacture of infant formula. 7
Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies on a request from the (European) Commission related to the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Fluoride (Request No EFSA-Q-2003-018) “Fluoride has not been found to have an essential role in humans” “The Panel did not establish an UL for infants” “The Panel notes that the Scientific Committee on Food has recommended a maximum fluoride level of 0.6- 0.7 mg/L in infant formula and follow-on formula, equivalent to an intake of about 0.1 mg/kg body weight per day in infants during the first six months of life (body weight 5kg). For powdered formula, this maximum will be exceeded if water containing more than 0.7 mg/L is used for its preparation.”8
Professor Hardy Limeback, BSc., PhD (Biochemistry), D.D.S., Head of the Department of preventive Dentistry for the University of Toronto, Canada has said that dental researchers agree that fluoride used topically is effective in combating tooth decay but systemic fluoride has little effect. He has ceased his support for fluoridation, fearing it might be poisoning children. “Children under three should never use fluoridated toothpaste or drink fluoridated water. And baby formula must never be made up using (fluoridated) Toronto tap water. Never.” 9
Fluoride is known to adversely affect the gut mucosa, denature digestive and cellular enzymes and inhibit the activity of the thyroid gland.10 It has been shown to delay eruption of primary teeth by up to two years,11, an effect probably mediated by thyroid under-activity.
The NRC Report “Fluoride in Drinking Water: expressed concerns over fluoride’s effects on the central nervous system and the endocrine system, including the thyroid gland.12
Recommendation:
Parents of bottle-fed babies should be advised not to make up infant formula with fluoridated water because of the risks to the baby’s growth and development. Parents in fluoridated parts of England and Ireland should be helped by special breast-feeding programmes to avoid exposing their babies to fluoridated water.
References
1. http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/infant/index.html and
http://www.fluoridealert.org/f-sources.htm
2. Statement by Dr Vyvyan Howard
http://www.voice.buz.org/fluoridation/index.htm
3. Whitford, G.M.(1994) Intake and metabolism of fluoride. Advances in Dental Research 8:5-14.
4. UK Department of Health Health & Social Subjects Report 41 (1991) & 1996.
5. A Probabilistic Estimation of Fluoride Intake by Infants up to the Age of 4 Months from Infant Formula Reconstituted with Tap Water in the Fluoridated Regions of Ireland
W.A. Andersona, I. Pratta, M.R. Ryanb, A. Flynnc
aFood Safety Authority of Ireland and
bUniversity College Dublin, Dublin, and
cUniversity College Cork, Cork, Ireland in Caries Research Vol 38 No5 2004
6. http://www.fluoridealert.org/f-testing.htm
7. Whitford, Gary “Metabolism and Toxicity of Fluoride” 2nd revised edition Karger 1996.
8. Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies on a request from the European Commission related to the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of Fluoride (Request No EFSA-Q-2003-018)
9. Barry Forbes. Prominent researcher apologises for pushing fluoride The Tribune, Mesa, AZ, Canada, Sunday December 5, 1999 http://www.fluoridealert.org/limeback.htm
10. Susheela AK, et al. (1992). Fluoride ingestion and its correlation with gastrointestinal discomfort. Fluoride 25: 5-22.
11. Weaver, R. The inhibition of dental caries by fluorine.Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1948 41
12. The (US) National Research Council’s (NRC) Report “Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Standards” (22 March 2006) on http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/epa/nrc/index.html
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