The American Dental association issued a statement supporting the FDA's approval of the claim, which allows fluoridated water bottlers to state on their labels that fluoride may reduce the risk of dental cavities or tooth decay.
"Whether you drink fluoridated water from the tap or but it in a bottle, you're doing the right thing for your oral health," said ADA executive director James B. Bramson. "Thanks to the FDA's decision, bottlers can now claim what dentists have long known -- that optimally fluoridated water helps prevent tooth decay."
The claim is approved for use only on fluoridated bottled waters that are not marketed to infants, contain between 0.6 and 1.0 mg/L total fluoride and meet all general health requirements.
However, the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF) says the FDA never tested the safety of ingested fluoride because the chemical was sold before FDA safety testing laws were enacted.
"Modern studies ... link fluoride to arthritis, allergies, kidney and thyroid dysfunction, bone damage and cancer even at the low levels dentists claim is optimal to reduce tooth decay," said NYSCOF president Paul Beeber. "Adding fluoride to bottled water implies to the American public that FDA studies give fluoride a clean bill of health and that's not true."
FDA critic Mike Adams, author of "Grocery Warning," says the FDA's decision to approve "toxic" fluoride dental claims will harm public health.
"Fluoride is effective as a topical treatment applied directly to teeth, but it is not something to be casually ingested in bottled water products," Adams said. "In fact, the ingestion of the fluoride chemicals used in these products is quite harmful to children and infants, and the risk of fluorosis is very high.
"By approving health claims for fluoridated bottled water, the FDA is essentially approving the mass medication of Americans with a drug that has no independent safety testing, no good science and has never even been approved by the FDA for internal use."
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